John Mitchell answered his phone while standing on the back porch of Whaleback Mountain ski area, watching the snow guns coat the slopes.
“I love this part of the year more than any other part,” said the Hartford High art teacher, who also coaches the Hurricanes’ first-year snowboarding team and works with alpine coach Emma Woodruff on the slopes.
Mitchell, who attended Hanover High during the early 2000s, is now 33 and found upon his arrival at Hartford four years ago that there was no skiing or snowboarding club or team.
“There hadn’t been one since I was in school,” said Mitchell, who also coaches at Whaleback. “The elementary schools here were taking kids out skiing, but there was nothing for the middle school or high school kids. It was a dead and done program.”
Having once taught and coached alpine skiing in Colorado, Mitchell was in position to help start a skiing program and help it transition into a varsity team. Hartford has added snowboarding for 2019-20, attracting five freshmen and a senior to a program that’s competing four times this season.
“Our kids are all solid riders but they haven’t trained a lot,” Mitchell said, citing freshman Alexander Speckert-Ring for his practice dedication. “I’m mostly focusing on getting them to learn how their body and the board work on the hill and doing different freestyle features.”
Hartford has 11 alpine skiers and hopes its top four competitors will perform well enough at the regional championship to represent the Hurricanes at the state event. Juniors Ian O’Brian and Axel Huepler are a pair to watch, Mitchell said.
Skiing is often perceived as a sport for higher-income families, but Mitchell said he and his school are working to change that. A school bus takes alpine and snowboard team members to Whaleback three times a week and the Hurricanes have shared a bus with Thetford Academy to away meets in the past.
Fundraising and arrangements for low-cost equipment leasing help the program, Mitchell said. Hartford has also purchased several certified race helmets in various sizes and hopes to line up standardized uniforms in the future.
“Money is my least favorite part of this sport,” Mitchell said. “We’re the fastest-growing team at Hartford, but there are also so many kids who grow up looking at these hills all winter and don’t get to go up and ski them.
“We try to do everything possible so that if you want to ride or ski, you can.”
State of uncertainty: The New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association is still trying to figure out four basketball championship sites this winter.
Shannon Quinn, the association’s media coordinator, confirmed to the Valley News earlier this week that locations for the Division III boys basketball state tournament — along with D-I, D-II and D-III girls basketball — have yet to be determined.
Southern New Hampshire University usually hosts all four divisions’ semifinal and championship games, but its field house is unavailable because of low staff numbers during spring break. Another factor is making sure the court is available for SNHU’s teams.
Quinn said that the NHIAA did put in a request for the University of New Hampshire’s Lundholm Gymnasium, but an official decision won’t be made until February.
Playing at the next level: A sampling of former Upper Valley high school competitors now at the college level.
Junior guard K.J. Matte appeared in nine games for Bowdoin basketball, averaging 4.4 minutes and 1.1 points per games for the Polar Bears (5-10). … Colby-Sawyer women’s basketball won 10 of its first 15 games with senior guard Lexie Hamilton (Sunapee) and junior forward Joslin Wainwright (Plainfield/Lebanon). Hamilton was the Chargers’ second-leading scorer at 13.2 points per game and Wainwright was third at 12.1. Both had started every game. … Senior hockey forward Nicholas Godin (New London) skated in eight games and produced two goals and two assists for Stonehill (Mass.) College (5-8-2). … Enduring an 0-24-1 start to the women’s hockey season is Rensselaer senior forward Megan Hayes (Hartford), who has one assist. … Junior squash competitor Margaret Werner (Etna/Hanover) appeared twice for Amherst (Mass.) College in the new year, both times losing at the No. 7 position for the Mammoths (2-2). … Worcester (Mass.) Polytechnic junior Lauren Kaija (Woodstock) ran well in her first 2020 outing, finishing second in the 500 meters at Wheaton College’s invitational in 1:22.25. She was also part of a first-place 4×800 relay team that posted a time of 9:47.63.
Notes: Lebanon athletic director Mike Stone said a decision on the Raiders’ new baseball coach is expected next week. Longtime coach Doug Ashey passed away last October. … Because of weather cancellations and schedule quirks, Lebanon’s boys hockey team has played only one home game and its next isn’t scheduled until Jan. 29. … The Hanover girls basketball team features two daughters of Dartmouth College sports figures. Senior forward Maddie McCorkle’s father is football associate head coach Sammy McCorkle and sophomore swing player Melissa Whitmore’s dad is athletics facilities director Richard Whitmore, a former Brown University hoops competitor. Another connection between Dartmouth and the high school sports scene is men’s hockey athletic trainer Mike Derosier, the father of Hartford hockey player Matt Derosier. … Hartford’s girls hockey team has only four seniors and is 15-71-8 the past five seasons. The Hurricanes are 3-45-3 under third-year coach Bill Goldsworthy but feature one of the area’s better players in freshman forward Caitlin Slider, who competed on boys teams during her Hanover Wild youth hockey days. … Spotted on an insurance ad in regular rotation on Dartmouth streaming broadcasts of its athletic games: 1980s Hanover High hockey player Tom Scull. The South Strafford resident is the father of former Kimball Union Academy skater and current Trinity (Conn.) College player Olive Scull, who has appeared in 10 games thus far for the Bantams (5-7-2). … Lebanon’s football captains for next season will be Calvin Bates, C.J. Childs, Jacob Hibner and Jack Stone.
Pete Nakos contributed to this notebook. Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.