Su-Valley Ski Team Competes in Valdez

By:  Kaitlin Daly

Early Friday morning, Su-Valley’s ski team left for their Valdez race that took place on Saturday. This annual race is the ski team’s biggest competition of the year. Of the fifteen total skiers on the team, eight high schoolers and two middle schoolers competed. Before they left, coach Graham Knapp commented on the teams goals:

“We’re looking to just get some team dedication…This year, we don’t have an extremely competitive team, so we just want to make sure that the kids are supporting each other and displaying some of the foundational skills of skiing that we’ve taught them through the first part of the year, here.”

Senior and captain Reckia  Heuton says her favorite part of the race is the scenery around the trails location:

“I like the course.  It’s really beautiful.  It’s in the mountains, and it’s really cool.”

Freshman Mitchel Jurasek says the best part of the trip for him other than the race itself is getting to know everyone he is competing against:

“I really like collaborating with all the other schools.  There’s a lot of very interesting kids that come from Wasilla, Colony, Valdez, Cordova, all over the state, really, that come to this race.  It’s really interesting getting to know them and becoming friends with them.”

Although none of the Su-Valley skiers placed in the race, Mitchel Jurasek finished in the top ten, and the team showed great dedication.