After almost two months of dry land practice, the Homestead varsity ski team will hit the slopes in their first meet against Arrowhead and Brookfield East on Wednesday, Jan. 6. Though their season started Nov. 2, the ski team didn’t even touch snow until late December.

There have been very few times that the team has been able to practice on snow; most of their practices have been workouts that help with their technique while racing. “The extra work will definitely come into play as we had a chance to do more specific practices than in previous years,” Mitch Lauenstein, senior, said.  

“We have only been able to have one on-snow practice and we still haven’t been able to set the gates and run a course so it will be challenge but I think that our team is anxious and ready to race,” Lizzy Tucker, Captain, senior, said.

With no snow on the ground, the team had to come up with a way to train and make them better. Though conditioning is regular for dry land practices, they also went to Skateland to practice their skating since many aspects of skiing are similar.

“Unfortunately, no teams have had a lot of practice due to snow conditions. For our younger, more inexperienced racers, it will be difficult. Typically we have seven or eight practices running gates before our first race. To combat the conditions, we added speed and agility, dryland, specific skiing skill work and roller blading to the team’s training,” Mr. Todd Reineking, head coach, said.

With Arrowhead being one of the best teams in the state and Brookfield East having a large number of skiers with a lot of potential, the Homestead team is in for some hard competition.

“Arrowhead is one of the best programs in the state. Their girls team has won the state championship the past two years. Brookfield East typically has large numbers with good quality. The Highlanders will have their work cut out for them,” Coach Reineking said.

“The good news is that we have a good surface now and can get quality work the rest of the season. We have added an assistant coach (Jamie Vogel) who brings a lot of race experience to the team. Hopefully, that will help us overcome our lack of time on snow.”