A FOUNDATION FOR A FUTURE OF SUCCESS AT THE PARALYMPICS – FACT 38 OF 50

Paralympians: Sarah Billmeier ‘95 & Thomas Walsh ‘13

Sarah Billmeier ‘95 and Thomas Walsh ‘13 represent all that makes GMVS the unique place that it is as they each have overcome adversity, pursuing goals and dreams along the way, and displaying the type of grit, perseverance, and athleticism that is at the core of the GMVS student-athlete.

At the age of five, Billmeier’s left leg was amputated above the knee as a result of bone cancer. With bone cancer defeated, she learned to ski, on one leg, at age eight; she was racing by ten. Now, somewhere in the bottom of her closet, there is a shoebox containing 13 Olympic medals (seven Gold, five Silver, one Bronze) earned in four Paralympic Games (she shares the record for most medals won in four games; Billmeier earned hers in France, Norway, Japan and Salt Lake City). No doubt there is other hardware in the box as well, from her six World Championship titles, the first of which she won at age fourteen.

After graduating from GMVS in 1995, Billmeier went on to Dartmouth College, continuing to compete (and win), and developing herself as a whole person – recognizing that ski racing was just one temporary aspect of her life. She started whitewater paddling and rock climbing; she took art and literature classes. She traveled. In 2001, Billmeier graduated cum laude from Dartmouth, and, in 2002, she retired from ski racing in order to pursue the medical career she had long been planning at Harvard Medical School.

Billmeier is now a surgeon out of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center specializing in minimally invasive surgery.

Sarah Billmeier not only pursued her own dreams, but she also paved the way for others in similar situations. Eighteen years after Billmeier graduated from GMVS, Thomas Walsh did the same.

Walsh’s journey was a bit different, as he was scheduled to enter GMVS in the fall of 2009 at the age of 14, but days before he began, he was diagnosed with stage IV Ewing Sarcoma, a rare cancer in which cells are found in the bone and soft tissue. For the next year, Walsh endured countless surgeries going under anesthesia at least 30 times which included lung resections where tumors were removed from both of his lungs, as well as a pelvic resection where his primary tumor was removed. His pelvic resection is ultimately what classified him as an adaptive athlete due to his limb impairment.

After surviving cancer, Walsh, who thought skiing was a thing of the past, realized that his dreams of ski racing and attending GMVS were still alive when Headmaster Dave Gavett welcomed him in. Despite his physical limitations – reduced lung capacity and an impaired right leg – Walsh did all the things other kids did. He acted in three GMVS theater productions and competed against able-bodied athletes.

Walsh graduated from GMVS in 2013 and headed off to Savannah College of Art and Design to study performing arts, but he soon realized he could ski as an adaptive athlete. After a year of school, Walsh went on to continue to follow his ski racing dreams. Lessons of perseverance, determination, and grit learned from his time at GMVS served him well as he went after his dreams of becoming a professional ski racer. During his first year on the Paralympic circuit, he earned a spot on the US Paralympic Alpine National Team and has since earned multiple World Cup wins, a SL Crystal Globe, two World Championship bronze medals, and competed at the 2018 and 2022 Paralympic Games, earning a Silver Medal in 2022.

While continuing to primarily focus on his racing career, Walsh holds a BFA in performing arts as well as an MBA with a focus in marketing. He looks towards the coming seasons and aims to compete in the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympic Games.

Together, Sarah Billmeier and Thomas Walsh are the epitome of what GMVS student-athletes can achieve with dedication, determination, and dreams. They each truly represent the very best of Green Mountain Valley School.

LACROSSE AT GMVS – FACT 37 OF 50

While GMVS is focused on ski racing as the primary student pursuit, the school has had a girls’ lacrosse program since 1992 and a boys’ lacrosse program since 1993. Both programs have managed to achieve impressive success on the field, but the real value of lacrosse at GMVS is found not in the wins and losses column, but in the opportunity to work towards a collective goal with other like minded, passionate people. The timing of the lacrosse season is another piece of the magic, coming on the heels of a long winter season focused on racing as an individual. Being able to close out the year competing in collaborative effort, both pushing and, even more importantly, supporting each other, always brings students together, and the athletes bring the best out in each other. The mix of ages, ability and experience also add to the unique quality of lacrosse at GMVS, as the game bridges the gaps that might exist at other points in the year.

In addition to the role that lacrosse plays in bringing students together, there have been notable successes. Both the boys and girls programs have won state championships at the Division II level, and a number of players have gone on to play collegiately, despite logging far fewer hours on a lacrosse field than their future college teammates.

Thanks to GMVS alumna Sarah Billmeier’s passion for team sports and her vision for the future, GMVS started a girls’ lacrosse team. A perfect spring sport that brings the girls together after the rigors of ski season and the individual focus it requires. Sarah played lacrosse in her hometown and wanted to continue at GMVS. She found a program that provided a whole team worth of girls’ sticks for a minimal fee and approached Dave Gavett, Head of School at the time. He agreed and eventually found a coach and, as they say, the rest is history!

With multiple coaches throughout the years who have kept the program going strong, Head Coaches Lauren Ayotte and Bowen Holden are the two most recent who have celebrated big by leading the program to State Championship wins in 2017 (Lauren) and 2021 (Bowen). The team also finished as runners-up in 2018. GMVS has also produced two All-American lacrosse players: Emma Austin ’20 and Erika Wiebe ’21. Emma has since gone on to play lacrosse at Bates College.

The boys’ lacrosse team has also experienced success in the Vermont state playoffs, making it to the Division II championship game in 2011, 2012 and 2014. The boys followed up a heartbreaking one goal loss to Rice (8-7) in the 2011 state championship game with a stunning last second goal in the 2012 state championship game against Colchester High School that pushed the game into overtime, where the Gumbies won with a beautiful transition goal. “What has stuck with me from that game is the way the GMVS players on that team simply refused to give up,” says long time coach Sam Jackson. The team fought hard in another one-goal loss in the championship game in 2014, and then, after divisional realignments in 2020, made it to the Division III championship game in 2021. Notable alumni who have gone on to play at the collegiate level include Dan Bell ‘11 (Bates College), Hans Halvorsen ‘12 (Williams College), Neil Gallagher ‘14 (St. Michael’s College), Justin Boes ‘17 (Connecticut College), Raymo Blancato ‘19 (Hope College), and Jonathan Davis ‘21 (Colby College).

A final key element of the GMVS lacrosse programs is the way that the sense of community and bonding experienced by the players also goes beyond the field. Lacrosse games have become one of those rituals of the spring; as other students, the staff, and friends and family assemble on the sidelines on a sunny spring day to watch the teams compete, the entire campus seems to revolve around the field. Like the unique light of an evening in late May, or the specific shade of the leaves on the trees, lacrosse is a harbinger of spring, and its power to renew, on Moulton Road.

A GRAND GRADUATION ENTRANCE – FACT 36 of 50

Pomp and Circumstance and caps and gowns are synonymous with graduation at a traditional high school, but anyone who has attended graduation at GMVS knows that the annual ceremony is uniquely different. Graduating seniors are given ownership to determine the way in which they enter graduation and their attire. While girls have traditionally worn white dresses and boys wear button down shirts and pants, classes continue to find new ways to enter. Below are some of the ways in which graduates have made their grand entrance:

• Vans on tow trucks
• Four Wheeled Vehicles
• Motocross motorcycles
• Construction equipment
• Walking
• RVs
• Tractors
• Fire Truck
• Repelling from the top of the climbing wall
• Helicopter
• Harley Davidson motorcycles–Harley Club of Vermont
• A school bus (GMVS’s old one) that had been modified by Tiger Baird and re-lettered to say “NO SCHOOL” on the side (this vehicle still resides at the Defreest farm on East Warren Road)
• Vintage sports cars/muscle cars

TRAILS TRAINED ON AT SUGARBUSH – FACT 35 OF 50

The famed Kelly Brush Race Arena (KBRA) is home to GMVS training and racing today, but did you know that before KBRA had two dedicated training trails (Inverness and Brambles), GMVS athletes trained on numerous trails at Sugarbush. 

At Mt. Ellen, athletes trained on Elbow, Rim Run, Cliffs, Exterminator, Upper FIS, Northstar, Cruiser, Which Way, Sugar Run, Riemergasse, Graduation, Looking Good and Tumbler. Some days, they would venture to Lincoln Peak and train on Spring Fling, Snowball, Racer’s Edge, Lexi’s Twist, Organgrinder, Waterfall, and Hot Shot. As safety standards evolved, so did our list of trails to train on and we’re lucky to have the world-class venue that we have today.

GOLIATH THE GOAT, GLORIA THE CHICKEN, AND OTHER ADVENTURES IN PHOTOGRAPHY – FACT 34 OF 50

When was the last time you photographed a goat or a chicken? How about a cow? GMVS students have been photographing live animals year after year. What started with a dark room in the basement of Clark is now a digital and outside operation. Housed in the DPC Art Center, you can see photographs of handsome Goliath the Goat and beautiful Gloria the Chicken opposite glamorous pictures of past human theater stars. The animals may lack the makeup and lighting of the actors, but they are still stars.

THE MAGIC BUS – FACT 33 of 50

In the early ‘80s Spring Term at GMVS was packed with experiential learning opportunities, famously highlighted by the legendary four to six week western outdoor “Senior Trip.” For younger students, the spring schedule offered academic classes Monday through Thursday,  followed by three day adventure-based outdoor educational trips every weekend. Some groups traveled in vans or staff cars, while others students embarked on their trip in the school’s traditional yellow school bus. One weekend Steve Utter and Ashley Cadwell were assigned the bus for their adventure trip. They developed a vague plan (those on this trip may consider this characterization generous) of where they were going to take the kids, through Central Vermont, near Ashley’s childhood home in the southern Champlain Valley, but didn’t share details–scant as they were (if they even existed!)–with the kids. Steve and Ash assembled the kids and teed up their adventure by playing the iconic 60’s rock song Magic Bus by “The Who”, then boarded the bus and left. From that moment, students and staff alike dubbed the school bus as ‘The Magic Bus’.

GMVS owned several ski buses in the first ten years of its existence, most known colloquially as the Magic Bus. The final Magic Bus met its end with Steve at the wheel, driving kids to Lincoln Peak for a morning of skiing. Ascending German Flats Road, with the motor billowing smoke, Steve pulled into the Common Man parking lot and unloaded the kids as the engine caught fire. Motor blown, the bus was towed away–and we’ve only used vans for transportation since that day. There is some GMVS bus lore that may or may not be true–doing donuts in the Spruce Peak parking lot, ripping the facade off the Waitsfield Village covered bridge, the senior class entering their graduation ceremony riding on a modified version of the bus that died earlier that year with Steve at the helm, and the City of NY towing the bus in Manhattan while on an all-school trip, stranding students and staff. There may have even been a bus named Hugo, named after Hurricane Hugo that hit the eastern United States in 1989, or was the Magic Bus actually Hugo?  We can haggle and reminisce over those details when we all gather next month for the 50th!

Three GMVS Athletes Nominated to the Stifel U.S. Ski Team

GMVS congratulates three athletes who have been nominated to the Stifel U.S. Ski Team: Sawyer Reed ‘23, Ben Ritchie ‘19, and Brian Bushey ‘21.

Sawyer Reed, a senior at GMVS, has been nominated to the Stifel U.S. Alpine D-Team. Sawyer comes off a season of incredible results, including winning the GS at the 2023 National Junior Championships in March at Mittersill.

“Sawyer has a strong work ethic and keen focus that has paved a path to success athletically and academically,” notes Head of School Tracy Keller. She continues, “We are proud to offer talented, hard working athletes like Sawyer the opportunity to train and compete at the highest level while also maintaining focus on academics.” Sawyer came to GMVS in 2019 as a 9th Grader, is currently finishing off his senior year, and has been accepted to Middlebury College.

GMVS alum Ben Ritchie is also on the list of nominations for the Stifel U.S. Alpine C-Team. Ben is a multi-year member of the U.S. Ski Team, and hails from Waitsfield, Vermont, just down the road from the GMVS campus. Ben’s top three athletic accomplishments so far have been winning the World Juniors Slalom in Bansko, Bulgaria, in 2021, a thirteenth-place finish at the 2021 World Championships in Cortina, Italy, and two 2nd place finishes at World Juniors 2019.

“I want to congratulate all nominees to the Stifel U.S. Ski Team. We couldn’t be more proud to have Ben and Sawyer among those nominated. Over the years, our coaches have helped them sharpen their technical and tactical approach on the hill, and refine their mental skills so that they can embrace the rigor it takes to be ranked among the top athletes in the world,” notes GMVS Alpine Program Director, Steve Utter.

Also representing GMVS on the Stifel U.S. Ski Team for the 2023-2024 season will be Cross-Country athlete Brian Bushey, who currently skis for the University of Utah. Based on his consistent top results throughout the season, including nine top-10 finishes, Bushey has been nominated to the Stifel U.S. Ski Team’s Cross Country D-Team. 

“Everyone from the GMVS Cross Country family is excited by Brian’s nomination to the D-Team, but we are in no way surprised. He has been knocking on this door now for several seasons and to see his hard work, dedication and patience pay off is so well deserved. Keep your eye out as this is just the beginning for Brian!,” states Nordic Program Director Colin Rodgers.  

Congratulations, Sawyer, Ben and Brian!