Without much opportunity to race gates before their first event this season, skiers on the Summit alpine team have found alternative ways to train as they look to defend their state title. “I know that all the kids are really enjoying every training session right now,” says Summit coach Dave McKae. “It’s pretty diverse between yoga, weight training and the drills that we’re doing on the mountain. They’re getting a lot of different types of training to get them prepared for racing and I think they’ve really enjoyed it.”

Because Mt. Bachelor ski area has been dealing with a barrage of snowfall and the addition of a new chairlift, Central Oregon alpine ski teams in the Oregon School Ski Association have not had much of a chance for gate training at Bachelor so far this season.

But even without having seen them racing gates, McKae believes the Storm have a good chance to defend their boys and girls team state titles from last season.

Senior Paget Rathbun will look to repeat as a state champion in both slalom and giant slalom, and sophomore Keely Buchanan will add depth to the Summit roster. Sophomore Ty Zuber and senior Copper Roslund will lead the Summit boys.

“We have over 40 members on our team and a lot of them come with deep backgrounds in ski racing, and then some of them are new and doing it for the first time,” McKae says. “It seems like with those kinds of numbers we should have some decent depth.”

Bend High and Mountain View also return strong teams, which McKae says should make for a “fun and competitive” season.

OSSA competition starts Jan. 7, with a race at Mt. Bachelor’s Cliffhanger Run. The schedule includes six races — all at Bachelor — before the OSSA state championships March 3-4, also at Bachelor.

“The kids may only get one or two days of gates before racing,” McKae says. “For some of them it will be their first time ever on a race course, so it’s a little unnerving for some of them. For others it’s like riding a bicycle. They’ll get out there and it’ll come right back to them.”

Bend High boasts 35 skiers this season, returning all of its boys from last year except one.

Senior Ian Levine and juniors Jasper Ladkin and Giovanni Ricci will lead the Lava Bears as they chase the Storm.

Juniors Dagny Donohue and Carman Park and freshman Ava Lilley will look to pace the Bend girls team.

“It’s always a great race,” says longtime Bend coach Greg Timm. “There’s always good competition between us (Bend and Summit). They were obviously the team to beat last year and because of that, to us, they’re the team to beat again this year. On the girls side, Mountain View is in the mix. They have some strong girls. We finished behind both of them last year. We were chasing Summit all last year. Lakeview also has a group of girls who are all experienced racers.”

Timm adds that OSSA is experiencing some growing pains as the number of skiers in the league continues to grow. He notes that this season includes nine teams and a total of 170 skiers, up from about 130 racers last season.

OSSA teams outside Central Oregon include Corvallis, Crescent Valley, Lakeview and West Albany.

The OSSA has a no-cut policy, but it is a challenge to allow every skier to race due to time constraints on the mountain, Timm explains.

“Our organization has grown greatly,” he says. “We’re not sure how we’re going to handle it and be able to race everybody. Most teams have grown. Not all are varsity-level skiers but we want them to participate. But there’s only so many we can race in a day, and that’s the challenge.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0318,

mmorical@bendbulletin.com