During the Ski Museum of Maine open house in Kingfield the past weekend,  I learned that Joannie Dolan and Nikki Pilavakis-Davoren were now coaching juniors at Sugarloaf under CVA’s weekend program. Already knowing that Gail Blackburn was coaching in that program, I decided my first stop Saturday morning would be at the competition center to get a few more details.

I knew about Gail and Joannie, but the addition of Pilavakis-Davoren made something else jump out at me. These three women include the first female from Maine (Gail) to be named to the U.S. Alpine Ski Team, a five-time National Freestyle Champion (Joannie) and a World Champion (Nikki) in Snowboard Cross. Whether a junior is on race skis, freestyle skis or on a snowboard, they can have the benefit of learning from someone who has competed against the best in the world. It should also be noted that all three came out of Sugarloaf.

At 8 a.m., the comp center was a busy place with parents bringing in their kids to complete their paperwork and pick up bags with jackets, hats and other items for the program. I talked with CVA head of school Kate Webber Punderson and learned that there were 102 students at CVA and 165 kids in the weekend program. When I mentioned my interest in the three coaches, Kate said, “It’s tremendous having these coaches accomplished on the world stage as mentors and role models. Their energy and passion are contagious.”

That morning only Joannie Dolan was on hand to chat with while she was booting up and donning her outerwear to meet her charges at 8:30 a.m. A look at the record shows that eighth-grader Joannie McWilliams took fourth overall in the first ever U. S. freestyle Championships in 1975.

Through high school skiing out of Sugarloaf, she dominated the national freestyle scene winning five straight U.S. titles and would certainly have been a top skier when the sport received World Cup status when an injury ended here competitive career. After college, she returned to Sugarloaf and coaching freestyle for the mountain and CVA. She sums up her coaching easily and said: “You can talk to kids but to get real result you have to show them.”

Joannie can certainly do that.

I caught up with Gail only briefly as she was getting ready to go back out with her young racers around noon so we agreed to talk by phone later in the week. Gail Blackburn first caught the attention of the U.S. Ski Team at the 1971 World Cup where she was scheduled to be a forerunner in the downhill. When the U.S. coaches realized they had extra start positions as host team, they decided that rather than forerun, the 16-year-old Sugarloafer should have an actual start position. In her first ever World Cup downhill, she  finished in 23rd place against the best female racers in the world and was invited to a U.S. Team training camp. The next year she was on the team and skied World Cup for the next five years, retiring at age 22 to attend college.

Gail explained how a typical day with the kids goes. They get on the hill about 8:30, ski until 11 a.m., take a lunch break and go back out from noon until 2 p.m. The emphasis is on building skiing skills first. Having Sugarloaf allows the young racers to build endurance by skiing non stops and the variety of terrain trains them to adapt to different conditions.

As Gail pointed said, “You have to be a good skier first and a good racer second. The free skiing develops good basic technique, then we work on gate skills on Comp Hill and Gauge.”

Video is used to help see the right technique and right line when running gates. “I enjoy the kids passion for skiing and learning and I love giving back,” Gail said.

It took me a couple of days to catch up with Nikki whose accomplishments are not as well known. That’s because her World Championships came before Snowboardcross was an Olympic sport. Nikki started riding while working at Saddleback during a winter break from college. In 1990, she became a snowboard instructor at Sugarloaf and rapidly progressed, working with CVA to develop their weekend snowboard competition program. In 1999, she won the title of Women’s World Champion for the International Snowboard Federation, making her the best female SBX competitor in the World.

Nikki explained how she trains her 8 to 14 year olds: “We do lots of free riding, on the trails in the woods and terrain parks. The race is all timing and strategy so we ride in packs, going fast to get used to having to make those quick decisions.”

She also pointed out that they work out to build the muscles needed to pull out of the start, “because that’s where the race is won.”

These three women with World class experience represent a truly unique array of talent at CVA and Sugarloaf. As head ski coach at CVA, Mike Savage said: “To have this level of female professionals is just awesome”.

All three are members of the Maine Ski Hall of Fame.

A sad note

Maine and Auburn have lost a Hall of Fame member with the recent passing of Norm Cummings. This Edward Little stand out carried on the tradition of his community in turning out great skiing competitors by excelling in college and becoming a member of the U.S. jumping team in the late 1950s and early 1960s. After his competitive days ended, Norm assisted local coaches and served as an official at jumping meets. Norm Cummings represented the best in Maine skiing and he will be missed.

See you on the slopes.

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