AUBURN – Jennifer Somma wonders what she and her snowboard could have accomplished this winter with a clear head and a clear schedule.

Not that the season was a total loss for the Central Maine Community College student. Far, far from it.

With three gold, two silver and two bronze medals tucked away after a fabulous local campaign, Somma spent the week of March 28 to April 5 in Copper Mountain, Colo., showcasing her skills in the United States of America Snowboarding Association national championships.

Somma, 19, finished seventh in halfpipe and fifth in slopestyle. When those results were factored together, Somma took third in combined.

“I didn’t find that out until I got home,” Somma said. “I didn’t care about winning a medal or anything. I was more excited that I got a goggle tan than anything else.”

A relative newcomer to serious competition, Somma simultaneously enjoyed her most productive winter and endured her most trying one in the space of three months.

When a crash sidelined Somma only a month before her trip to Colorado, it marked her third concussion since New Year’s Day. Strangely, neither of the previous head injuries had anything to do with willingly soaring 20 or more feet off the ground.

“I was in a car accident,” said Somma. “Then I was in a snowmobile accident where I got bumped and thrown off. I was wearing a helmet, but it still hurt.”

Through it all, Somma’s sensational January and February in the Maine Mountain Series provisionally qualified her for three events in Colorado.

Her mountain mishap took place in boardercross, the timed event that is the specialty of Olympic gold medalist Seth Wescott of Farmington. Somma exercised discretion at Copper, backed out of ‘BX’ and focused on the two performance disciplines.

“I just wanted to come back in one piece,” she said.

Injuries haven’t been the only obstacle for Somma. As a first-year student in the CMCC automotive technologies program, Somma, a graduate of Deering High School in Portland, carried a full slate of courses throughout the semester.

Somma made the five-minute journey to Lost Valley as frequently as possible. Fortunately, all in-state competitions were held on weekends.

“This being my first year in college, it got really hard. I would try to get in an hour or two after getting out of class,” Somma said. “I would go early and practice on competition days. The Gould Academy and CVA kids I was competing against get to practice several hours every day as part of their curriculum.”

Many of those fellow competitors also had the benefit of weekend ski excursions with their families from the time they were old enough to walk and ride a lift. Somma’s mom, older brother and older sister were the skiers in the family. Jennifer stoked her competitive fires with swimming, basketball, soccer and softball.

As her interests evolved, Somma heard about ski lessons at Shawnee Peak through her mother’s part-time job in a sporting goods store. That eight-week program seven years ago changed her after-school activities and weekends forever.

“Six days a week of swimming for six years got old quick,” Somma said.

Snowboarding has never become a chore for Somma, and that’s probably a credit to the ever-changing scenery. Somma worked at Mt. Abram and Sunday River throughout her high school years.

She acknowledged that Maine’s majestic mountains seem smaller than ever after her off-day journeys to Breckenridge and Keystone during the national competition. Somma said the trip was most special because she shared it with her mother, Donna, who continues to recover from a heart attack four years ago.

“Colorado was intense. At Breckinridge, I was with a neighbor and her two kids, and the ski patrol had to go with us because we were 13,500 feet above sea level,” Somma said. “You can’t even breathe, and all of a sudden you just drop down.”

Somma’s next challenge is to continue her climb into the figuratively rarified air of the national snowboarding rankings.

She is considering a one-year sabbatical from school to focus on practice and prepare for the 2009 U.S. Open in Vermont, where professionals and potential sponsors abound.

“This was one of my best seasons,” Somma said, “and I look at it and wonder how I would have done if I practiced as much as the other girls.”

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