By Jon Gulliver
Staff writer
CARIBOU — The Alpine ski team at Caribou High School is poised to make another step forward this year.
Eleven skiers are back from last year and eight new skiers comprise the squad.
Coach Marie Beckum said the girl’s team last year did quite well with two individual County champions, plus second-place finishes in both the slalom and giant slalom. The boy’s team was young last year, but Beckum said they learned a lot and will be ready to compete this year.
“On the boys side, Nolan McDuffie (junior), Sean Barbosa (junior), Dean Walker (junior) and Austin Caverhill (sophomore) will be my fastest skiers,” said Beckum. “They are all returning from a solid season last year. As third-year ski team members, Nolan and Sean bring experience and leadership to our team which will be a good influence on the newcomers. Dean and Austin bring their talent of athleticism and will be both be a great asset to this year’s team.”
Rounding out the boy’s team are: juniors Dylan Greenier and Alex Hodson; sophomores Devin Cyr, Matt Frost, Lucas Kinney, Tyler Strid and Connor Thibeault; and freshmen Nolan Powers and Kyle Tibbetts.
The girl’s team has the lone senior, Katie Plourde. Also on the squad are: juniors Regan Buck, Courtney Burby, Sara Huston and Ginger Kieffer; and freshman Danielle Greenier.
According to Beckum the Nordic skiing program at CHS has had bigger numbers and more notoriety than the Alpine team, but the Alpine team is a great bunch of kids and she foresees the program continuing to grow.
“The ultimate goal is to create a sense of union between the two groups to cultivate the notion of one Caribou ski team,” she said. “It’s a work in progress and will require continued effort on both sides.”
Now that there is some snow on the ground the team can move on from strength training indoors to hitting the mountain where training can be tailored to meet the individual needs of the skiers.
Helping to coach is volunteer Andrea Swanberg, who Beckum said is great resource for the team. She also had high praise for the CHS Athletic Boosters, whose support makes the program possible.
