The Eastside High Schools ski team has student racers from several schools in Portland, including Grant, Cleveland, and Franklin. This year, the team faced a power outage during a school trip, and other trips were canceled because of too little and too much snow. The already compact season might be even shorter this year because of weather conditions. We learn more about the team and the ups and downs of this season from Head Coach Randy Hewitt and student racers Nora Isles and Liam Palfreyman.
This transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. It has been a topsy-turvy year for skiers. First, there was too little snow. Then the snow finally came, lots of it. But it was quickly followed by ice and wind and downed trees and downed power lines. It all affected casual skiers and high school ski teams, which had to postpone the start of their season. About a week and a half ago, they could finally compete. I’m joined now by two of those athletes, Nora Isles and Liam Palfreyman are sophomores at Portland’s Grant High School. Randy Hewitt is the head coach of the East Side High Schools ski team - that includes students from Grant and Cleveland and Franklin and other schools in the area. It’s great to have all three of you on the show.
Randy Hewitt: Happy to be here.
Miller: So Randy first, how did this team come to be?
Hewitt: Oh, gosh. In 2005, my daughter and I decided to resurrect a ski team at Grant High School that hadn’t existed since 1978. And I had previous racing experience as a kid and in college. So I knew enough of the ropes to ask enough questions to get our seedlings planted and get the team going.
Miller: Why did you want to do that? And I’m curious how much it was connected to the enjoyment you got from racing yourself?
Hewitt: Yeah, that was easy. I loved ski racing as a kid, and it opened up a lot of doors for me as a kid growing up in a small mountain town in Colorado. My wife, my daughter, and my son, we all loved skiing and ski racing. And so it was an easy step to decide to start a program where there was none.
Miller: My understanding is that this team is a little different than a lot of other ones because it’s not just one high school. How does it work?
Hewitt: Oh, it’s great. We have an umbrella name for our team, East Side High School Ski Team. It evolved, is what happened. At first, it was just a few kids from Grant. But then the following year, we added a Cleveland student. And then the Cleveland program grew over the next few years. And we always had kind of an open door policy. If there’s a skier at a school that wants to race, then our answer is sure, you can come under our umbrella and race, no matter what school you go for.
Miller: Nora Isles, how did you decide to join this team?
Nora Isles: I think I’ve been skiing since I was 2 [years old] and I’ve always really loved it. So when I heard about this opportunity to get to ski with the team in a community, I was really excited at the chance to meet people from other schools and that type of thing.
Miller: So you’ve been skiing for almost all of your life. Had you raced before you joined this team?
Isles: I did one race here in fifth grade, but I didn’t really feel the type of community that I feel on the Eastside team. So I didn’t really continue it until I was able to do it with people that I knew, and get to meet people from other schools, which was a really good experience.
Miller: Liam, what about you? Why did you join the team?
Liam Palfreyman: Sort of a similar story. I didn’t grow up skiing, I started when I was maybe six or seven and I’d never raced before, but I thought it would be fun. I had some friends who were doing it so we all decided to do it together, and I’m very glad that I did.
Miller: Does this say something about skiers, that someone could say that they didn’t grow up skiing, they only started when they were six…Is that because you’re around a lot of people like Nora who’ve been skiing since basically since they could walk?
Palfreyman: Yeah, pretty much.
Miller: What’s it like, Liam, to train with students from other high schools, to take the bus with them, to have overnights, to sort of be on the same team and sort of competing against folks from other schools?
Palfreyman: It’s a lot of fun. It’s very different compared to other high school sports and other ski teams from other high schools. I’ve met lots of friends from Cleveland and Franklin that I would have never interacted with if not for Eastside ski team.
Miller: And you become friends with them?
Palfreyman: Yeah.
Miller: Randy, I mentioned in my intro that it’s been a really topsy-turvy winter so far, weather-wise. Can you give us a sense for the downs and the ups?
Hewitt: Oh, gosh. A lot of our skiers are fairly new to racing, and so they need some fundamental training in order to figure out the ins and outs of racing. And this year we didn’t get any of that fundamental training time. Every activity that we planned in the month of December was canceled. And then our first race was supposed to be Sunday January 7th, and that was canceled. And then our second race was canceled. There was enough snow that time, but that was canceled because of the blizzard. And so here we find ourselves in the third week of January, trying to have our very first race with no training. So it was a bit of a circus.
Miller: Nora, what has that meant for you skiing-wise? What’s it been like?
Isles: It’s definitely been a little crazy. I’m used to being able to go up on the mountain a lot earlier. I specifically remember we were at Mount Hood Meadows and one of the other lifts was completely stopped. And then the lift that I was on stopped because of the extreme weather. And we were kind of worried if we were going to be able to get off. It ended up going, but it’s just been kind of topsy-turvy. But I’m glad that it started now.
Miller: How did the first race go for you?
Isles: The first race went pretty well for me. I’m a lot better at one type of racing than the other. And that was the type that I was better at. And I think it was really fun to actually get into that, not competitive spirit, but more of like just the racing spirit. You also talk not only to people from other schools but from other teams when you get to do ski racing, which is something I really enjoy.
Miller: What are the two kinds of races that you take part in?
Isles: So we have GS races, Giant Slalom. And then we also have slalom. And GS has wider turns and it’s quicker pace. Slalom, it has tighter turns and you’re supposed to hit the gates with your poles.
Miller: Liam, what was it like for you to start racing? You’ve been skiing for a decade or so, but skiing seems really different, as your coach was saying, from the mentality and the reality of going as fast as you can against other people’s times.
Palfreyman: The way I think of it, the way I’ve been taught to think about it, is less about competing against other people and more about competing against yourself. You have two races a day on very similar courses. And it’s nice to be able to do better than what you think you can, set your own expectations.
Miller: It seems really common for skiers to have faster times for the second run. Is it just that you’re more used to what you’re doing? You have a better sense for how to attack the hill?
Palfreyman: Sort of. The course has changed slightly, but you might have a sense of the pitch of the hill, or you might just be more locked into the racing spirit. I don’t know.
Miller: Randy, the normal kickoff to the season is the Kelsey Hewitt Memorial Sportsmanship Race, named in honor of your daughter who died while skiing in 2015 at the age of 25. Can you tell us a little about her?
Hewitt: I sure can. She was a wonderful skier. She had energy, she just brightened up the whole ski hill, the whole race arena with her positive energy. She used to sing out loud when she skied. And I knew if she was singing that she was skiing well, or I knew if she was skiing well she was singing. So that’s why having a memorial race that’s really focused on being a celebration of skiing, to really brighten the day, the season, the whole youthful career for these young people, if we can have a race that celebrates all that and call it Kelsey’s race, then we really call that a win.
Miller: Does skiing, something that has brought you and your daughter so much joy in your lives, mean the same thing to you now as it did before you lost her?
Hewitt: Oh, boy, that’s a tough one. I do have a bit of, well, I call it scar tissue, where something has been lost. Because it used to be entirely a free-spirited activity. And now it’s not entirely free spirited, because we lost her skiing.
On the other hand, myself, my son and my wife, a lot of dear friends, we couldn’t imagine not skiing. Kelsey, if she had a vote, she would definitely wish for us to continue our family tradition of skiing. And so we do. And we make the best of it. And we smile, and we have a good time together. And we have stickers on our helmets and our skis that say “I ski for Kelsey.”
Miller: What do you see as the most important things you do as a coach?
Hewitt: My first role really is to serve as a mentor for these young people. I see them as all shining stars. My job is to help them shine, is to be a leader that they can respect and trust and that they can rely on.
My second role is to give them the opportunity. If I do my job as a coach, then I give them the opportunity to ski and to build friendships.
And then probably the third role is to help them work on their skills, to improve their skills so that they can become better racers and better skiers. I found that the better they get, the more they fall in love with the sport. And so if these young people are falling in love with the sport because of something I did, then boy, that’s another win.
Miller: What do you get out of coaching?
Hewitt: Oh, I get the reward. Shoot, I’ve been coaching for 19 years and I still have students that I coached 19 years ago, if they see me, they fling their arms around me and give me a hug. Or sometimes they text message me or send me pictures of their newborns. It’s really been a positive relationship that I’ve built with a lot of these young people, and their families. So I benefit more than they do, actually.
Miller: Nora, what has being on the ski team meant to you?
Isles: I think a lot of what it’s meant is the community. And I think I do feel a lot of the mentorship that Randy talked about. It’s just been a great experience overall for me. I do spring and fall sports, but none of them are really the same as going up on the ski bus and going on the overnights and just getting to be with those people who love the same things as you do.
Miller: Liam, what about you? What have you taken away from your season and a half with the ski team?
Palfreyman: I’ve made a lot more friends than I would have if I didn’t do ski team. My friends from the different schools too. And I’ve truly just become a better skier. Skiing with people who are so much better than you, it makes you improve faster. And our coaches are amazing.
Miller: Liam, Randy and Nora, thanks so much. And best of luck this season.
All: Thank you.
Miller: Liam Palfreyman and Nora Isles are both sophomores at Grant High School. Randy Hewitt is the head coach of the Eastside High Schools ski team.
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