STAYING SHARP AT GMVS - FACT 24 of 50

Author: Nicole Dyhrman

STAYING SHARP AT GMVS – FACT 24 of 50

Tuning skis and maintaining equipment is an integral part of ski racing. Today’s student-athletes utilize state-of-the art equipment and technology located in the Racing Performance Center (RPC), but the current offerings haven’t always been available. Up until we moved tuning to the RPC, each dorm basement had student tuning areas which are now used for storage. 

The professional space, where ski mounting and boot work is done has moved many times. Between 1977 and 1980 the old Farmhouse garage housed a small room where ski and boot work was done. The “professional space” moved to the basement of the Farmhouse in 1980 and remained there for a number of years until it moved to the basement under the faculty apartment in Witch’s Hat. In 1996, the space returned to the basement of the newly built library until 2002 when it moved to the DPC basement, and eventually was moved to the old gym weight room (now the current art room). 

Since 2016, GMVS’s Service Center and expert technicians have been based out of the RPC and offer premier ski services to GMVS students and the community at large. Within the Service Center lives a state-of-the-art Wintersteiger Jupiter tuning machine which provides students with World Cup level ski preparation including the perfect base grind, sidewall prep, and setting edges to a high level of precision. Also located in the space is a custom boot fitting room where athletes can work hand in hand with a GMVS technician to fine tune their boots for ultimate performance.

Adjacent to the Ski Service Center is a highly functional student tuning room that provides athletes with space to tune their own skis, collaborate with one another, and get hands-on instruction from our expert team of technicians. Downdraft tables help filter vapors from waxing and also remove metal particulates out of the air from hand-held edge machines that are becoming more common. 

Conveniently located a few steps down the hall from the tuning room are two equipment storage rooms with ski racks and boot dryers for optimal organization and functionality, a significant improvement from storing skis and poles in the dorm basement and drying ski boots in individual dorm rooms.

 

KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS – FACT 23 OF 50

Are you an alum who remembers the good ol’ days of keeping in touch with family and friends from home by mailing letters and picking up the phone? The phone in Witch’s Hat was in the dorm entry, while Clark, Poundcake, and even New Dorm had a corded phone in a small closet available for incoming and outgoing calls. When the phone rang with a parent, friend from afar, or even a boarder from another dorm, on the other end, a student or two (or three or more) ran to answer. Others ran away or simply ignored the loud, repetitive ring. Frequently students were often found curled up in the small closet with the receiver to their ear, talking for what felt like hours to those who were patiently waiting in line.

The days of the corded phone were long before the evolution of cellular technology; now every student-athlete has a mobile device. Around 2003 corded phones became obsolete and they have since been removed from the small closets. But if you’re ever looking for a little throwback nostalgia, the phone in Witch’s Hat remains hanging on the wall.



A COUPLE OF GMVS COUPLES — FACT 22 of 50

What better way to celebrate the day of love, Valentine’s Day, than to highlight a couple of couples that got their start at GMVS? Have your own story to share? Email [email protected] for the chance to be featured on Instagram and among our 50 facts about GMVS. 

Photo to the left and above, Kelley and Doug Lewis from a 2004 Valentine’s Day race at Sugarbush.

Kelley ‘89 and Doug ‘82 Lewis met in Portillo, Chile at a GMVS Summer Camp in 1990. Doug was a last-minute fill in, coaching the U16 boys. Kelley was a PG training with Kirk Dwyer. They first met on the chairlift, then hung out tuning skis… and the rest is history. 2023 marks 31 years of marriage!

Another GMVS couple is Amy ’93 and Zac Comey ’94.

Photo of Amy and Zac from 1991.

 

Photo from the present day with children Ava ‘21 (19), Max, (15), and Owen (17). 

The two started as best friends, freshman year for Amy ‘93 and sophomore year for Zac ‘94. The rest is history. After GMVS, both attended UNH and then got married. They came back to GMVS when Ava, their daughter, was a student. The Comeys currently live in Darien, CT with their three children.

Another GMVS couple, Madaileine ‘00 and TJ ‘97, met while attending GMVS in the mid ’90’s. Madaileine (Mags) was in the 7th grade program and was close friends with TJ’s sister Jamie ‘00, also a GMVS alum. At the time, three years of age gap did not allow for much more than friendship. Madaileine frequented the Kingsbury household as Jamie’s friend and even embarked on a few family trips where she really got to know TJ and his family! Fast forward 9 years, TJ returned to Vermont after attending school in Montana and working across the country. Madaileine and Jamie had continued their friendship and were teammates on the UVM ski team. TJ and Madaileine had both “grown up” and began rekindling what might be considered a lifelong “ancillary” friendship.  Dating, co-living, a dog getting hit by a boat prop, some deep conversations, seizures and brain surgery led them both to a cold, snowy, blustering, snowshoe trodden engagement at the top of Camels hump in February of 2008 and a marriage in the Valley in 2009. They have built a beautiful family with three boys, another dog that has yet to be hit by a boat prop, and live in Waterbury, VT with their boys working their way into the ski racing scene. The two began their love story at GMVS and continue to share a life-long love of learning, sport, and adventure. 

Madaileine ‘00 and TJ ‘97 at the top of Stowe Mountain on a cold Vermont day.

22-23 GMVS ALPINE TEAM SELECTIONS

Congratulations to the five alumni and current students who were named to U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s Junior Eastern Team for the 2022-2023 season based on their performances during the 2022 season.

  • Sebastian Segre ’21, Middlebury College, ’26
  • Walker Henyon ’22
  • Sawyer Reed ‘23
  • Samantha Trudeau ’20, Dartmouth College ’26
  • Carly Elsinger ’21, Dartmouth College ’25

In addition to the Eastern Region Team selections, seven alumni and current athletes qualified for the FIS Junior World Alpine Championship. The nine-day event, held in Anton, Austria is an opportunity for the world’s top junior alpine athletes to compete in all disciplines.

  • Tomas Barata ’21 – Spanish World Junior Team
  • James Gatcliffe PG ’21 – Trinidad and Tobago World Junior Team
  • Mack Wood ’20 – Canadian World Junior Team
  • Oscar Preisler ’22, PG ’23- Danish World Junior Team
  • Cristian Marcus Riis ’20 – Danish World Junior Team

Two additional athletes also participated at the European Youth Olympic Festival, January 21-28, hosted by the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

  • Alvar Calvo Santos ’23 – Andorran Team, European Youth Olympic Festival
  • Albert Preisler ’24 – Danish Team, European Youth Olympic Festival

It’s an unbelievable honor and opportunity for these athletes – Congratulations!

AN ICE RINK FOR ALL – FACT 21 OF 50

As the temperatures drop in late October, GMVS athletes are busy prepping skis, gathering school assignments and packing for the month ahead of training in Colorado and beyond. The flurry of activity is an annual occurrence as our student-athletes shift their focus from daily workouts in the weight room, quickness and agility drills on the upper field, and bounding up Bragg Hill, to prepping for the race season ahead. 

Concurrent to this shift inside and away from campus, the sideboards to the hockey rink are dusted off, hauled out of storage, placed on the lower field and constructed into an ice rink over a matter of days. When the weather is just right the local Waitsfield Fire Department fills the rink and then everyone patiently waits for the pool of water to freeze with hopes that it’ll be ready for skating when everyone returns from November camp.

While there were early efforts to construct an ice rink with and without sideboards, like when Willi Cannell ‘05, Vince Scalia ‘06, Drew Bonner ‘06, Charlie Powell ‘05, and David Iverson made a Zamboni out of 2x4s and pvc tubes in 2005, it wasn’t until the annual Gala in 2018 when families, alumni, and friends of GMVS raised their paddles in support of donating to enhance the student experience on campus. This fundraising effort was just the catalyst needed to invest in ice rink boards and commit to putting up the rink for the winter months year after year. 

Lit up at night and accessorized with a smattering of hockey sticks, skates, and helmets, the rink is a place for kids to go during the day, at night, and on the weekend, alone or with friends fired up for a friendly competition. Thanks to the leadership of GMVS U14 coach and hockey fanatic Adam Julius, once the rink goes up the entire community chips in to maintain the ice and ensure everyone has fun; helmets required!

Frequently found on the ice is GMVS student Callum Smith ‘24. According to him, “The ice rink is a place to go when you want to release some steam and it’s even a lot of fun when you are shoveling off the snow. It brings together the Alpine and Nordic athletes and gives us another activity to do.”

GMVS alumni are known to share their memories of the rink too, even from the days before the new rink boards. In the Spring 2021 Alumni Newsletter, Charlie Powell ’05 shared, “The hockey rink has always been a great spot for kids and staff to gather together. Even though it’s under a big clock in the Doug Parker Center, the rink is a place where time seems to shift after hours, and there are hours of skating until exhaustion. The collaborative work to install and maintain it during the winter will forever make it one of the magical features of our campus.”

Today kids and staff come together to play organized hockey tournaments, competitive games of broomball, slapping around a puck or two, and evening playing around with staff kids who are just learning to skate. It brings kids together, during some of the darkest and coldest months for some of the greatest highlights of the year.

LEADING WITH GREEN AT GMVS — FACT 20 of 50

In 2009 when the addition to the Farmhouse Building was completed and renamed The Library, GMVS made a bold statement about its commitment to the environment. The roughly 6,000-square-foot structure boasts a number of features that lessens its impact on the environment, and as a result, was awarded LEED Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USCBC). At the time of completion, the GMVS Library was 1 of only 16 buildings certified in the state of Vermont, and GMVS had the only LEED certified educational building.

Choosing to build green was in part about making environmentally sound decisions, but also a construction project used as a curriculum component for our students. The LEED process helped GMVS create a hands-on application for environmental concepts like carbon footprints, recycling, water-use reduction and energy efficiency. The building mobilized teachers to find ways to incorporate environmental education into their particular disciplines.

The entire GMVS community was invested in the process: Students, parents and staff all contributed to researching and making decisions that impacted green building choices, and all of our contractors were committed to honoring those choices and thinking creatively about any challenges we faced. Two alumni parents were critical to our success: In addition to Mac Rood P’06 who designed the building for us, John Stetson P‘07, of Engleberth Construction, worked tirelessly as a consultant for us throughout the process.

The building was designed by Mac Rood of Bast and Rood Architects, Hinesburg, to achieve LEED certification for energy use, lighting, water and material use as well as incorporating a variety of other sustainable strategies. LEED verifies environmental performance, occupant health and financial return. LEED was established for market leaders to design and construct buildings that protect and save precious resources while also making good economic sense.

LEED certification of the GMVS library was based on a number of green design and construction features that positively impact the project itself and the broader community. These features included:

  • Commitment to maintaining vegetated open space equivalent to nearly half the project’s site area
  • Water use reduction through the inclusion of water-efficient bathroom fixtures
  • Commitment to using renewable energy
  • Reuse of 95 percent of the existing building structure within the renovation and new construction, made possible by careful demolition and exhaustive recycling efforts from contractors
  • Commitment to Indoor Environmental Quality

For GMVS, this meant a host of innovations.

  • Bathrooms boast toilets with two flush options to reduce water consumption, especially important for a school that depends on wells for its water supply.
  • Lights using high-efficiency bulbs operate on sensors and huge windows overlooking athletic fields take advantage of daylight, cutting down further on electricity consumption.
  • A wraparound porch features decking made of recycled material; a durable fiber cement siding is used on the exterior of the new building.
  • Maple harvested from property owned by former GMVS headmaster Dave Gavett was used in study carrels, window moldings, and other places.
  • The maple was milled on-site which reduced trucking and made use of wood that otherwise might not be considered viable for construction.
  • Low VOC paints and materials cut down on the noxious fumes visitors breathe.
  • A high-efficiency propane boiler provides heat and is controlled through a software program that allows careful monitoring of temperature throughout the building. Spray foam insulation reduces heat loss.
  • Carbon dioxide monitors and an air circulation system keep indoor air quality high.
  • Outside, native plants and stone walkways, were used for landscaping, instead of asphalt.

The building, which was officially dedicated by Governor Jim Douglas in May 2007 remains the cornerstone of the GMVs academic program with classrooms, offices and study areas.

THE ORIGINATION OF THE GMVS LOGO – FACT 19 of 50

Originally drafted on the back of a napkin in the early 80’s, the GMVS logo was developed by Dave Schneider, father of three GMVS alumni (Dave ’82, Drew ’85, and Todd ’86). In the early 80’s Dave coached in the Sugarbush/GMVS Ski Club and is responsible for some of the best talent to come through GMVS during that time, including U.S. Ski Team members Todd Schneider ’86, Anouk Patty ’86, Polly Reiss ’87 and Sally Knight ’87. Dave played an integral role in the early development of the school, was a long-time member of the Board of Trustees and former Chair of the Board. Since Dave’s original drawing, the GMVS logo has been minimally modernized and remains relatively unchanged.

WHY GUMBY? — FACT 18 OF 50

In the late 1980s, the GMVS girls’ soccer team was making a run at the state championship title. After one game, a reporter asked the team what their mascot was. They looked at one another – they didn’t have an official mascot – and in a moment of creativity, one girl spoke up. “Well, we’re flexible, we’re agile, we’re fun…” The description made her think of a certain green television character. “I guess we’re the Gumbies.” The name stuck.

 

STACKING UP AT THE OLYMPICS – FACT 17 of 50

Many athletes arrive at GMVS with dreams of standing atop the podium among the best in the world who represent their countries at the Olympics. Since our founding, 26 GMVS athletes have accomplished that feat. Representing 7 different countries including Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Hungary, Lebanon, and the United States, GMVS students and alumni have participated in 17 Olympic games. Beyond Alpine and Nordic skiing, they have represented their countries in six additional events including Biathlon, Bobsled, Alpine Deaflympics, Alpine Paralympics, Kayaking, and Ski-Cross demonstrating the true athleticism of a GMVS athlete.

JIM FREDERICKS AND MUFFY RITZ LAUNCH GMVS NORDIC TO SUCCESS THROUGH THE 1980s – FACT 16 OF 50

It was in 1981 when Jim Fredericks was hired to provide an elite-level program to cross-country ski athletes, just as GMVS did for Alpine athletes. “It was the year World Cup skiers were just starting to skate ski in classic races,” notes Jim. He goes on to tell a story about a turning point in his career while coaching at GMVS, which led to remarkable success: “I took the GMVS team to the Craftsbury Opener and I asked a UVM Norwegian skier and NCAA champion what he was using for kick wax. He told me he wasn’t using kick wax even…Pal ended up winning the race easily. On the way home I told my skiers we were only going to practice skate skiing until we nailed the technique. We did just that and began winning almost every race we entered that season. Back then there weren’t any specific skate races so the people who learned how to skate well would have a huge advantage.”

During his time at GMVS, Jim incorporated cross-country running and cycling into the regular training regime, and trained over twenty Junior Olympic Team athletes, including two National Champions, while also placing skiers on the U.S. Ski Team in 1984 and 1985. In the summer months many college, national, and Olympic team athletes trained under Jim on the GMVS campus. 

In the spring of 1985, Jim was injured in an auto accident and the following fall Muffy Ritz, a former member of the U.S. Ski Team from Minneapolis, MN, was named the new Nordic Program Director – a position she served from 1985 to 1989. When she took over the program, skating was still in its infancy and she had just won the Birkebeiner, the largest and one of the longest cross-country races in the country (54km from Cable to Hayward, WI). It was a first for her and the first time the race was won by a skater, not a classic skier. That fall at GMVS, the team trained with roller blades thinking they would be better than roller skis, which were at the time, classic. As it turned out, roller blades were much easier and less effective than roller skis. “I actually think we deconditioned with those rollerblades,” reflects Muffy, “but boy, were they fun and they had brakes!”

During her time coaching at GMVS, Muffy continued to compete at a high level. She was instrumental in developing Junior Olympic, Junior World Championship and Olympic athletes, and brought a spark to the school that extended beyond the cross-country program. In the late 80s, under the leadership of GMVS Alpine Director Werner Margreiter, GMVS Alpine athletes would train once a week with the cross-country skiers and Muffy would lead an 8-mile run through the Camel’s Hump forest. The addition of the Nordic program added a flavor of grit, endurance, and adventure to the GMVS campus that still stands today.