After a long and hard-fought season, the Forest Hills Central ski team’s season has come to a close. FHC’s final meet at Caberfae saw many outstanding performances from the entire team and was a true testament to the hard work and dedication that the team has put in and shown this season. The team even had one of its members dominate all competition and qualify for states. 

Senior Ben Taylor debuted at states and took 47th overall in the men’s giant slalom and 54th overall in the men’s slalom race. The night before, he suffered an injury and managed to fight through the pain in his races the next day. On one run of the giant slalom, Taylor managed to snag 28th place despite his injury. His performance at states was a testament to the ski team’s hard work in the 2022 season. 

“I feel like the season went pretty well, despite some poor weather. It was a ton of fun, and the team really bonded and improved a lot since day one,” Ben said.

One of the unique aspects of the ski team is that the races are against other opponents and against oneself. This allows the players to push themselves as hard as they can because they are able to see direct results. This doesn’t mean it’s a teamless sport, though, as personal scores combine to give the team a ranking, and placing higher against other teams will boost an individual’s overall position. A prime example of this phenomenon was captain Lucy McLean. Lucy started her year on the women’s giant slalom with a minute and 3.78-second run. However, she was able to shave off over a second with a time of 1 minute and 2.37 seconds. This one-second difference may seem small, but in the world of skiing, it managed to shoot her up the leaderboards. Lucy credited her own improvement and the improvement of the team to the team’s unique chemistry.

“Overall, I think I saw our team change the most in terms of our team chemistry,” Lucy said. “I’ve always loved the ski team because of how kind and supportive of one another everybody is.”

Lucy’s situation is not unique, as many of the ski team members showed vast improvements. Many members of the ski team had never skied before the season began and were thrust into races after only one practice.

“We missed out on one week on the snow at the beginning of our season due to low snow at Cannonsburg,” head coach Sara Yockey-Sutton said. “With only six weeks on snow, missing one week can put you back. Despite this, the team kept progressing over the season, and our athletes kept improving!”

Overall, this season for FHC ski has been an impressive one. Between individual times and team rankings, each skier has progressed dramatically through the season. While this season will be hard to beat, both players and coaches have high hopes for next year.