After six meets, and two individual state qualifiers, the ski team season has come to an end. Dry land practice began in November, and the team was able to hit the slopes around mid December.

Every Sunday and Monday night the team would gather at Homestead to take the bus out to Heiliger Huegel in Richfield. Jamming out to music on these long rides out to the hill was a weekly ritual. “My favorite bus songs are the hype and loud songs that get us super excited to ski,” Will Doerr, sophomore, said.

Practices consisted of either slalom or giant slalom courses. This depended on the race they would be attending that week. Schools from the surrounding area would also train at the hill alongside the Highlanders.

As for the coaches, Henry Weiss and Ryan Potokar have been best friends since childhood and began coaching the team together this year. “Henry and Ryan are great coaches,” Amanda Ziegler, senior, said. “I learned a lot from them.”

The coaches would help each skier in practice by giving advice such as keeping your poles forward or getting up on their edges. With all different levels of skiers, the coaches catered to everyone’s abilities. And maybe, if the team got lucky, they might catch Henry going down the course backwards as a treat.

When it came to race day, everyone loaded onto the bus once again and played their music on the way to the hill. Once there the team would get dressed and hit the slopes before inspection began. Inspection took place a half hour before the race, giving each team the chance to check out the course.

Then the race would start. Girls varsity was always first to go followed by boys varsity, and then JV girls and boys. “It’s really cool because when you’re about to start you hear everyone screaming and barking, and it’s just really fun,” Eleanor Potter, sophomore said.

After the first race, the top four times are taken from each team and added together to calculate the total time. The racers would go in for a quick dinner before inspection on the second course began. After a second inspection, they would race again in the same order. Scores would be calculated, and whoever had the lowest combined time won.

Awards went to the top three individual racers for boys and girls. If you made the top three, you qualified for state. Sophomores Cate Hering and Will Doerr both qualified for state with Cate placing third at one race, and Will placing third at two meets and second at one.

Schools would also place based on collective times from each boys and girls team. The long race nights would end late in the evening, and everyone would head back to Homestead.

With the season coming to an end, the team said goodbye to three seniors, and coach Weiss who is going on a one-year trip. “Racing this year was a blast. We had a fun time on the hill this year and had some great leadership by the seniors,” Nate Williams, junior, said.