HANOVER — Walking away from a group picture minutes after sticking a 31-meter jump, his last and longest leap of the night, Pierce Hamlin was greeted with a chorus of compliments.
“You got some serious air on that last one,” Hanover High assistant coach Cooper Dodds said.
“Has to be rookie of the year,” added Teddy Ruth, who finally convinced Hamlin to join the ski jumping team this year.
Hamlin’s performance Wednesday night was strong enough for him to earn bronze honors at a four-team meet at Oak Hill’s Roger Burt Memorial Ski Jump as the Marauders edged out Kennett, 385-378.
“This year, my senior year, I decided to just go for it,” Hamlin said. “I was kind of afraid to try out a new sport. You know, all the way in high school and everyone else has been doing it for so much longer.”
Hanover coach Tom Dodds was uncertain if he would even be able to field a team this winter. After graduating six jumpers from last year’s state championship squad, he was left with only two returning jumpers in Ruth and Cam Forbush.
Enter Hamlin, Greta Holland and Lilly Clapp.
The trio all have experience as Alpine skiers and wanted to try something new this winter. Hamlin’s been dogged by his friend, Ruth, for years, and the sophomore duo of Clapp and Holland made a deal to attempt the new sport together.
What’s resulted has been a quick learning curve and a newly formed, close-knit friend group.
“I didn’t think it was going to be as fun as it is,” said Holland, who is the daughter of two-time Olympic ski jumper and Norwich native Mike Holland. “And I didn’t think the team was going to be as close and supportive, too. Everybody’s friends. Although it’s a bummer that there’s not a lot of people out here, I think we get more one-on-one coaching time.”
One of the biggest factors in the newcomers’ quick improvement has been Ruth and Forbush, who finished first and third at last year’s state meet. The two have helped their new teammates adjust to the ins and outs of jumping quickly.
Normally, Tom Dodds said, his team’s participation is somewhere in the high teens.
“They have been so committed,” he said. “Oftentimes, when jumpers are first starting, particularly if they are progressing slowly, they sort of get disenchanted. They have been engaged all along, and that makes it fun to work with them.”
Dodds had the rookies practicing on dry land before the first snowfall came. Using a roller jump at the outdoor pavilion next to the Burt ski jump, they were able to replicate in-runs, the official term for ski jumping’s takeoff. Another machine trains athletes to use their lower body to jump, instead of the natural upper-body motion humans are used to.
From there, the jumpers transitioned to snow.
“My first few jumps of the season, I was barely landing,” Hamlin said with a laugh. “My skis were everywhere; my hands were everywhere. I was totally out of control. That’s been the biggest difference from then to now, control and comfort in the air.”
On Wednesday night, the group’s improvement was on display at Hanover’s lone home meet of the year. A few parents littered the knoll for measurement purposes, but the only other spectators on hand were athletes and coaches due to COVID-19 protocol restrictions.
Clapp and Holland are both still working their way up to the K-32 jump and opted to use a K-20 jump, which has been erected from snow to the left of the Burt ski jump.
Two judges give each a competitor a score from 3 to 20 points based on technique. Jumpers’ two best attempts counted for their final score.
Holland, who finished with a pair of 15-meter jumps for 78 points, was in the middle of the 24-person field. Clapp was less than 10 points behind her friend, landing hops of 11.5 and 12 meters.
“I think the hardest part of it is just getting over the fear and telling your brain it is OK,” Clapp said, trying to explain what sitting at the start feels like.
Recording the longest leap of the night (33 meters) on back-to-back tries was Ruth, who won the event with 127 total points. His closest competition was Forbush with a score of 121.5, good enough for second.
Hamlin stole the show, however, and his emergence as a high-caliber jumper gives the Marauders a real shot at going for a three-peat at next month’s state championship.
“One of the reasons my son (Cooper) and I like to coach ski jumping it’s kind of a great life lesson,” Dodds said. “To see kids who start on the 15- and 20-meter jump, and they’re kind of nervous about it and work their way through it. Then they work their way to the next jump. That’s how people learn how to deal with stress and anxiety; they approach it and work their way through it. That’s what these kids have basically been doing.”
Pete Nakos can be reached at pnakos@vnews.com.