Longtime alpine ski coach Tom Reynolds has died, the University of Maine at Farmington announced earlier this week.
Former University of Maine at Farmington ski coach Tom Reynolds. Submitted photo
Reynolds coached at the state, national and international levels.
He began coaching in 1957 at Sugarloaf with the Junior Racing Program. After his stint at Sugarloaf, he coached at Farmington High School from 1961-65. Reynolds coached the Maine junior team at the Eastern Alpine Championships in 1963 and 1964.
After a stint at the University of Maine in Orono, Reynolds arrived at the University of Maine at Farmington in 1966, where he coached for over 30 years.
UMF won five NESCAC North titles from 1967-72, while many athletes competed at the NCAA level. During that time, he led the Beavers to four collegiate alpine championships and three Canadian-American collegiate championships.
Reynolds created the women’s alpine team in 1971 and coached it until 1984, when the school dropped the program.
While a coach at UMF, Reynolds coached the U.S. Ski Team in 1979 and coached the team during the World Cup Circuit in Europe through 1980.
Reynolds also became the President of the USSCA in the 1980s.
The UMF Ski Industries Program, which focuses on the business side of skiing, was founded by Reynolds and Doc DesRoches.
In addition to coaching, Reynolds authored three books: “A Guide to Alpine Coaching” in 1974, “Effective Ski Coaching” in 2004, and “The Skiing Professionals: Coaching and Teaching” in 2019.
Reynolds is a member of the University of Maine at Farmington Athletic Hall of Fame, Maine Ski Hall of Fame and Maine Sports Hall of Fame. The United States Ski Association created the “Tom Reynolds Coaching Award for Lifetime Service,” given to a retiring coach, in 2004. the National Collegiate Athletic Ski Conference named its Eastern Division in 2005 after Reynolds, naming it the Reynolds Division. The Ski Instructors of America awarded Reynolds with the National Lifetime Award for Outstanding Contributions to Skiing Education in 2007.
The Reynolds family is planning a celebration of life to take place later this summer in Farmington and will develop a scholarship in Tom Reynolds’ honor.
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