Unlike other winter sports — such as basketball, wrestling and competitive cheer — soccer is limited to outdoor play. The nights are cold and wet, but they will play rain or shine. However, the high school sport that is affected most by Mother Nature — and actually needs the storms — is the alpine team.
The Blue Devil skiers and snowboarders are no strangers to unpredictable weather. This season has delivered a double shot of problems for the team. First, in November and early December, there was little snow, and temperatures were too warm to produce it.
Now, this week, the conditions are too treacherous to drive up to and race. Another cancellation was in order.
“We just cancelled a race for today (Monday),” alpine coach Tony Phillips said. “I have cancelled three practices so far this season and have only made it to the snow once. It's maddening, but we get through. I work with a team to decide whether to cancel.
“We train through the Auburn Ski Club at Boreal, and they are great at communicating mountain conditions and whether they can set a race course. We review the forecasts to decide whether to cancel.
“Each year is different ... Boreal opened for Halloween five years ago, and this year, they have yet to open the entire mountain.”
Training for the season when you can’t even get to the snow is frustrating for the athletes as well, according to junior Eloise Samuels.
“We won't get as much practice, which is inconvenient,” Samuels said. “The snow is always unpredictable; it comes with the sport, but we hope the weather will be better for the upcoming training days and races. We do drylands, which are morning workouts that prepare us for ski season.
“We haven't been able to train on race courses yet. The snow has not been hard enough to set gates, so we've done drills to improve our skiing instead. We've been preparing for the season for a while, so it's always disappointing when we can't train or race. Still, the season has just started, so we're hoping for better conditions in the following weeks.”
Despite the weather challenges each year, the alpine team has been highly successful. They have won six state titles in the past 10 years. They compete in the California-Nevada Interscholastic Ski and Snowboard Federation.
The Davis community is very supportive of the program, and the Blue Devils are among the few high schools in the state with an alpine team.
“It is very unique to have an alpine program,” Phillips said. “In our league, there are five divisions — we are in the Central 2 division. There are about seven high schools per division, so only about 35 high schools in the state participate in the alpine program.
“It focuses on slalom and giant slalom; we don't do halfpipe, freestyle or boardercross. The Davis High ski team has been around a lot longer than the snowboard team. Snowboarding was added around 2000, following its 1998 Olympic debut. Davis High has supported both teams over the years.”
The snowboard team will have six races, and the ski team, eight. Each team can have up to 10 girls and 10 boys race in varsity. Top riders can then advance to the states based on their results.
Each team is guaranteed three slots at states for girls, and three for boys in each discipline, but those in the... Click here to read full article
ARTICLE SOURCE:
