The culminating project for the civics portion of 8th grade Humanities was called “Walk in Someone Else’s Shoes.” The students arranged personal interviews with someone directly affected by a challenging issue and supplemented their primary research with secondary academic sources. They wrote a reflective essay and created a slide show presentation to share with their peers to help educate others and encourage empathy.

Some of the issues explored by students included being an amputee and Paralympian, having a learning disability, teaching students with ADHD, being LGBTQ, and parenting a child with autism.

They learned how to have a conversation about situations they have not personally experienced and have not impacted their lives. Doing so gave them a better understanding of each issue and how to talk about it.

The college landscape has changed a bit due to the pandemic, but our seniors won't miss a beat. They have been receiving college acceptance letters for the last few weeks.

Clarkson University, Colby-Sawyer College, Franklin Pierce University, Lehigh University, Plymouth State University, Sierra Nevada University, Simmons University, St. Lawrence University, University of Maine, University of New England, University of New Hampshire, University of Rhode Island, University of Vermont, Western Connecticut State University, and Westminster College.

Kirk was most recently the Executive Director and Alpine Program Director at Ski and Snowboard Club Vail (SSCV). In this role he oversaw Alpine, Snowboard, Freestyle and Nordic as well as all the areas needed to support those programs. Over his five-year tenure Kirk had an immediate and significant impact on SSCV. In partnership with the Vail community he built the Golden Peak Expansion and constructed their new clubhouse, while strengthening their coaching staff and increasing the quality of their athletic programs.

Prior to arriving at Vail, Kirk served as Headmaster at Burke Mountain Academy (BMA) for 16 years. During his time at BMA, in addition to ensuring the smooth operations of the Academy, he served as President of Burke Mountain Ski Area and coached alpine athletes. Notably, Kirk was Mikaela Shiffrin’s primary coach during her time at BMA. Kirk began his coaching and school administration career at Green Mountain Valley School (GMVS). In his 25 years at GMVS he coached men and women, was a classroom teacher and Assistant Headmaster. Kirk grew up in Maine and has a home in South Harpswell. He and his wife Robin are looking forward to moving to the area this spring and getting to know everyone in the community.

Punderson stated, “Kirk brings a nearly unmatched level of experience, professionalism and achievement to CVA programs already on the rise. His role here will be focused on advancing our strategic initiatives in the area of athletics. In the immediate future, and in partnership with Sugarloaf, he will lead the efforts to increase training volume on the mountain through the addition of a surface lift. He will also serve as Alpine Technical Director and on-hill coach. Sean Chatellard, our Alpine Program Director, will work in partnership with Kirk and our strong team of alpine coaches to set the bar even higher with a long-term and competitive vision.”

Chatellard added, "Kirk's addition to our team is very exciting news for the direction CVA Alpine is currently headed, Kirk's world class expertise and extended experience in the ski racing industry will not only solidify all the hard work the Alpine staff has put into our program these past few years, but will also help propel us forward into new horizons. Exciting things are happening in our community and I very much look forward to working closely with Kirk and taking things to the next level."

Kirk Dwyer shared, “I am so excited to have the opportunity to join the CVA community. I grew up in Maine and despite my years of working in Vermont I have always considered myself a Maine native. I have spent considerable time at Sugarloaf over the years and understand the strong history of snowsports based on a great mountain as the foundation. There are great opportunities at CVA and Sugarloaf. The highest goal for a program, athlete, or coach is to be the best we can be. I look forward to working with all of you with this aspiration.”

From Program Director Patrick Scanlan about last week’s trip to Mount Washington “We skied off the summit of Mount Washington the other day, which I believe is a first of the program. It is a big day and our athletes CRUSHED! We ascended in a cloud but just a few minutes after this photo was taken the summit clouds lifted revealing epic views of the Northern Presidentials and beyond. We even got to see a Mount Washington Observatory meteorologist taking measurements at the summit.

Even though we live so close we would normally be traveling abroad during this time of year. We obviously miss traveling and can't wait to get back to it, but staying local this year has allowed us to get creative with the terrain around us, and get to know our home mountain ranges just a little bit better.”

CVA’s U19 Men & Women’s Alpine teams enjoyed a solid season despite the competition and racing restrictions. The ten athletes doubled down and trained hard through the fall, with an especially impressive level of dedication while the status of the competition season was still unknown. Once the USSS & FIS racing opportunities began to open up in January between Maine and New Hampshire divisional circuits the U19 teams took full advantage and found several FIS races in Maine and in New Hampshire, including Waterville Valley, Cranmore, Pat’s Peak, Shawnee Peak, Sunday River, and Sugarloaf.

All athletes on both the mens and women teams saw positive results, lowering their point profiles and finding several top 20 finishes. Summer Saifee, Josie Alexander and senior Angelique Labelle achieved top 10 GS finishes. The men achieved some top 10 finishes in USSS races and also some solid top 20’s & top 30’s in the divisional FIS circuits as well. We look forward to continuing to grow and improve next year, this is a young team of mostly first-year FIS racers showing great promise for the future.

2021 Year-End Overall Maine Alpine Racing Association top 10 rankings: Academy and Weekend Program athletes raced in MARA events this season, held at Sugarloaf, Sunday River, Titcomb, and Shawnee Peak. Despite the strangeness of it, this winter was tremendously productive and went by quickly. Even though regional and national competitions were not offered, athletes worked hard and made tremendous improvements.

U16 Women: Althea Noyes (2nd), Charlie Koenig (3rd), Elli Andrus (4th), Macey Whipple (8th)

U16 Men: Kaden Theriault (2nd), Blake Norris (4th), Will Roy (5th), Jackson Knobloch (6th), Adam Hamblet (7th), Caleb Stefanakos (9th), Tyler Bland (10th)

U14 Girls: Lucia Littlefield (2nd), Mia Bruno (6th), Riley Davis (8th), Logan MacLeod (9th)

U14 Boys: Ian Christie (2nd), Gerard Beaule (3rd), William Scoll (7th)

U12 Girls: Luise Rueter (4th), Finley Giguere (6th), Vivienne Corriveau (7th), Maddy Cannan (8th)

U12 Boys: Nicholas Klemperer (2nd), Sawyer Adams (3rd), Finn Grimnes (4th), Henry Demetriou (6th)

CVA Freestyle Weekend Program athletes competed in a limited schedule of USSA Mogul events at Waterville Valley and Mount Sunapee in New Hampshire, and events at Sunday River and Sugarloaf during this 20-21 season.

We were able to adapt our Junior Bump League and our Junior Freestyle League (JFL) mogul and slopestyle competitions held at Sugarloaf according to Maine CDC guidelines, which families seemed to be very pleased with. The highlight of the JFL competitions was the first ever dual mogul competition, judged by the CVA Mogul Team and enjoyed by all.

Overall end of season rankings, regardless of age-group, in the Maine/NH series were extraordinary with 6 boys and 5 girls ranked in the top 10 for their categories:

BOYS: Zack Small (1st) Trase Boudreau (2nd), Patrick Lynch (3rd), Felix Trinward (4th), Reggie Hicks (5th), Alex Bateman (6th)

GIRLS: Lola Fleming (1st), Sienna Fleming (2nd), Isabella Dowling (4th), Celia Rose (5th), Brynn Royall (8th)

2021 U.S. Freestyle Mogul Championships - Coached by alum Jesse Lowell ’14, seven athletes represented CVA in the 2021 U.S. Freestyle Mogul Championships at Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort 'Wilbere' dent track, Utah March 24-26.

This was the first national competition for all of our Academy competitors. For the men’s and women’s single moguls competitions, notable performances were given by Dory Michaud ’23 who placed 30th, and Chase Littlefield ’24 who placed 28th. Chase even pulled off his first 720 in competition on the top air, something he’d been waiting to do for a couple years. Respectable finishes in the Singles competition were also achieved by Alex Dowling (WP), Jack Egan ’25, Myles McKenzie ’22 and Lance Dolan ’22. And for Duals, Dory Michaud placed (33rd), Alex Dowling (40th), and Arden Velenchik (54th).

 

The whole team faced challenges and successes in the midst of a high stress environment, competing among the top 60 male and female competitors in the nation, which included the entire U.S. Mogul Ski Team. Your hard work paid off, congratulations!

As reported by U.S. Ski and Snowboard - U.S. Ski Team athletes Nessa Dziemian and Nick Page each skied to career firsts as they were crowned National Champions on Thursday. For the first time in 25 years, the nation’s best mogul skiers descended on Snowbird for the 2021 Moguls Freestyle National Championships. Athletes were treated to two beautiful Utah-bluebird days of training ahead of the moguls competition, which had light snowfall throughout the day and kept the course interesting.

Dziemian sustained a season-ending injury in November 2019 that kept her off of the competition circuit - until now. In her first contest back in twenty-four months (her last being the 2019 National Championships in Waterville Valley), Dziemian stomped it out for the win. This is Dziemian’s second National Championship title, but first win in singles.

“I feel very emotional about the whole thing,” said Dziemian of her feat in the finish area. “There were definitely a lot of challenges along the way. I battled a knee injury, I battled depression and anxiety... I just did not think i was going to come back from it at all, it was the hardest thing. My knee was constantly hurting and I just felt like I was at the lowest of lows. At this moment, it just feels like all of that hard work has finally paid off.”

Results aside, Dziemian was at a loss for words in describing how proud she was of her performance. Her cork mute to cork grab finals run was the highest degree of difficulty for any woman in the field and was a goal she has had in mind for herself for a long time. “I wasn't even going to do it right before the comp run. But for some reason I just pushed out of the gate and said to myself ‘I’m doing it, I’m going to achieve my goal today.’ So even though with all of the practice runs I had where it was not working, having it just work out on the one run where I needed it to was an absolute gift, and I am very thankful for it.”

Dziemian also finished 2nd in the Duals competition the following day. We are so proud of you Nessa!

CVA was fortunate to have Myles Silverman as a guest coach again this spring after his racing season in Europe wrapped up. From Brunswick, Maine, Myles grew up with the CVA Weekend Program; starting out with skiing and then making the switch to snowboarding. He recently graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, majoring in History with a minor in Entrepreneurial Studies, and he plans on continuing his snowboarding career in hopes of making the 2022 and 2026 Winter Olympics. Myles has won 5 collegiate National Titles, is a 5x First-Team All-American, started in two FIS World Cups, and was featured in Sports Illustrated "Faces in the Crowd."

Myles writes “I moved out to Austria to live and train full time from late December to early March, but training was more of getting back into the feel of things as I had to take some time off for college. But now that I have graduated, I will be able to focus completely on achieving the Olympic dream. I feel confident moving forward in the seasons to come, and I believe that with more time on snow and proper training, I will be able to represent Sugarloaf at the Winter Olympics whether it be 2022 or 2026.”

In spite of 50 degree weather during the week leading up to it, the Sugarloaf Parks crew, the CVA coaches and USASA Maine Mountain Series staff were able to pull together Sugarloaf’s boarder/skier cross course and again this year host a world-class event on March 25-27.

Offering a course like this continues to help Sugarloaf shine as one of the premier ski resorts offering competitive opportunities in New England. This year, out-of-series athletes were limited to competing only in their home regions, so the race field was smaller than usual. Instead of holding time trials, the event used a round robin format to comply with Maine CDC guidelines, which racers enjoyed because it allowed for more races for each athlete.

Here are links to results of Day 1 and of Day 2 including competitor names, ages and final placements.

The 2020-21 season brought a record amount of participation in our Weekend Programs. Athletes ages 7-19 joined us for four different programs from December to April.

Thank you to our Weekend Program coaches! “As each week goes by, I hear from our families. They are so thankful for the time and effort you place in their children, and these programs. I know you don’t hear it often enough, but please know you are appreciated for all your scheduling, planning, coordination, training and hard work you are putting in for these families. These young athletes truly look forward to being on hill with you each weekend. Many of them dream of becoming Big Dogs. Thanks again for your investment in these programs & these young athletes! Where the dream begins…” - Venise Fournier CVA Coordinator of Auxiliary Programs

Details about 2021 summer camps will be available soon, possibilities include:

CVA's first virtual Scholarship Bash brought the community together in a tremendous show of support, contributing over $180,000 to assist CVA student-athletes with scholarship funds, and smashing our Bash record! We are so grateful for your support and for the opportunities we’ll be able to give to the next generation of skiers and riders. In case you missed it, you can watch a recording of the online event on CVA's YouTube channel. And if you'd like to support the CVA scholarship fund, please visit gocva.com/bash. Save the Date for next year's event on February 19, 2022!

Carrabassett Valley Academy is seeking motivated student-athletes who want to push their personal limits and achieve their full potential. CVA has rolling enrollment, which means there are no enrollment or decision deadlines and applications can be submitted throughout the year. However, opportunities for admissions and financial support improve the earlier you apply. Start the conversation today at gocva.com/inquire.

Items for sale in our online store include CVA soft-shell jackets, sweatshirts, sweatpants, shorts, hats and masks for adults and youth sizes as well. Orders will be shipped to your home and can be placed until April 15 at midnight. Order at cvaspring2021.itemorder.com/sale