By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer
Edward Little’s Tyler Dorris is focused on winning a state skiing title.

AUBURN – Tyler Dorris spoke softly, almost blushing. As politely as possible, Dorris never really did make eye contact, and he smiled with every sentence he spoke, almost embarrassed the he was garnering any attention at all. The words he spoke, though, were crisp, and their meaning without doubt.

“I want a state championship really bad,” said Dorris.

His teammates, also gathered close, nodded their heads, almost insinuating they wanted it for Dorris just as badly as they wanted the team title for themselves.

“Every kid looks up to him, just to ski like him,” said EL alpine coach Tara Eretzian. “The freshman look at him skiing and say, Oh my God, he’s so good,’ and I tell them you can get that good, don’t worry about it.”

But Eretzian knows her No. 1 skier on the boys’ team will likely be unequaled, at least this season. You just won’t ever hear him say so.

“Tyler is such an intrinsic person that I ask him how he’s doing and all he’ll say is, O.K.'” said Eretzian. “He’s so quiet.”

On Feb. 8, at the KVAC championships at Mt. Abram, Dorris won the giant slalom by more than two full seconds. In second? Sophomore Sam Armstrong, his teammate.

In the slalom, though, Dorris struggled in his first run.

“I straddled the gate,” said Dorris. “I had to climb back up the hill.”

Faced with a giant hole after his first run and back in 22nd place, Dorris rebounded with the best second run of the afternoon by more than a full second and climbed back into 14th place.

“It was one of those days where you watch a kid fall, there’s your day,” said Eretzian, throwing her arms up in the air. “Then you have Sam come in first.”

Armstrong lifted his teammate – and the rest of the team – up from the throes of disaster with a surprise No. 1 finish.

“For (Armstrong) to step up like that, it was just so awesome,” said Eretzian. “He’s just worked so hard this year.”

Dorris, fellow senior Tyler Snowe, Armstrong and Snowe’s freshman brother Mitch make up the feared foursome the Eddies can field on any given race day. The trick, according to Dorris and Eretzian both, is getting everyone to stand and finish in the same race.

“Some of them are young and they don’t know it yet, that if they all stand, they will win,” said Eretzian. “Some of them have been pushing and pushing and pushing all year, but if they just relax, get it done, they’re a shoo-in.”

In order for all four to finish then, it was suggested that they take a bit of speed off, maybe ski a bit more conservatively.

“Are you supposed to do something different?” Eretzian shouted across the room after faintly overhearing the question.

“Only if it makes you better,” said all three skiers (Mitch Snowe was absent this day) in unison.

The skiers then tried to calculate an exact percentage of effort it would take for everyone to finish.

“We have to go into the first run, not necessarily ski it 150 percent, but maybe 100 percent,” said Armstrong as he tried to keep a straight face, knowing his numbers made little sense. “Then ski the second run 150 percent.”

“He’s not a math major,” quipped Snowe as the rest of the skiers within earshot started laughing. “He’s just a sophomore.”

The three laughed. That chemistry, an ability to laugh at themselves and care little about what others think has helped the team, small as it is, achieve a measure of success this season.

“So much of the team aspect is lost because a large part of this is so individual,” said Eretzian, “but if they all stand and all pull as a team, it’s ours to take. They have to want it, and they have to understand what it’s going to take.”

Dorris was hurt for a couple of weeks in January, and missed a week of practice with a back injury.

“I wasn’t allowed to ski because I crashed,” said Dorris. “The doctor wouldn’t let me ski. Just before a race, I kind of flipped over. It was something with my back, I don’t really know the deal. It was some big S’ word.”

All Dorris did know was that he was off his skis for a while. That alone hurt enough.

That missed time has also helped drive the EL senior. Now, Dorris and his teammates are on the cusp of something EL hasn’t seen since 1999 – a Class A alpine title.

Like in any other endeavor, though, the team will need to learn to stand on its own two feet first.