News

Please join us in welcoming Jenny Piot, a recently retired World Cup speed skier from the French National Team (FFS), into our CVA family as she spends the rest of the winter with us.

 

Jenny grew up in the small mountain village of Bourg d’Oisans, in the high alps near Grenoble. She started skiing at the young age of 2. Her Mom was a ski instructor and Dad was a ski patroller. At 10 years old she joined the ski club in L’Alp d’Huez, one of the many local ski resorts in the area, famous as a regular stage of the Tour de France in summer. By 15, she had enough success to be selected to the Ski Academy (Ski Etude) Pôle France in Albertville, which only accepts the top 15yr. olds in France. At age 16, she was selected into the French C Team. Jenny skied in her first World Cup at the age of 17 in SG. The next year she was moved up to the B team after her first podium finishes in Europa Cup (one step down from the World Cup) events.

 

By the age of 20, Jenny made the French A team, and that year, in 2013, won the Downhill at the World Junior Championships at Le Massif, Quebec. At 22 she was selected to compete in the World Championships in Beaver Creek, CO, where she scored her first top 15 result in World Cup events. A few years later, at 25 she qualified for the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. She continued to ski at the World Cup level in DH, SG, GS, AC & Parallel events until January of this season, when she decided to retire from World Cup racing.

 

Upon retirement, Jenny expressed interest in traveling to the states to gain experience in the American ski racing scene and further develop her ability to speak English. One of her coaches, Alberto Senigagliesi, the Alpine Director for the French National Team Women’s Europa Cup and World Cup teams, sent her our way. Way to go Alberto!

 

Alberto followed a similar path back in 2000 when he retired from the World Cup. His father, a former World Cup coach of the Italian and Spanish National Teams, is a good friend of Ron Bonnevie’s and connected Alberto with Ron many years ago. As such, Alberto came to Sugarloaf where he coached at CVA for 3 years with the FIS Men’s group, mentoring many of the best in those years.

 

Jenny will be skiing with our Weekend Program groups at different times through the February vacation week and on various weekends when she is not racing at FIS events. She will also be providing a World Class example to our full-time academy athletes midweek until she returns to France April 15. Finally, a huge shout out to the Sevigny family for graciously hosting Jenny in their Reddington home. It certainly takes a village, and we have one of the best here at Carrabassett Valley Academy!

Aside from arching turns like no one else has, Ted Ligety’s vast experience, wealth of knowledge and willingness to mentor younger teammates cannot be overstated, according to U.S. Ski Team men’s technical coach Forest Carey.

“It’s invaluable, you can’t measure it – just the respect that he has from the guys is enormous,” Carey tells Ski Racing Media about Ligety.
Read the article online

Shelby Downing, High Performance Director, and Brenna Huckaby Clegg, Dorm Parent, have teamed up to facilitate a new program for CVA's female student-athletes. The Body Project, offered through the National Eating Disorders Association, is a group-based intervention that provides a forum for high school girls and college aged women to confront unrealistic appearance ideals and develop healthy body image and self-esteem. It has repeatedly been shown to effectively reduce body dissatisfaction, negative mood, unhealthy dieting and disordered eating.

 

Shelby and Brenna introduced the program to all students, both male and female, during advisory last week. Topics related to body positivity and self-esteem were discussed in an attempt to better understand the pressures and struggles that many of us face and become a stronger more supportive community together.

 

We are grateful to have Brenna as a member of our community this year. She's a humble Two-Time Paralympic Gold medalist, cancer survivor, and passionate disability inclusion advocate. Brenna is married to snowboard coach Tristan and lives with their two daughters in a faculty apartment in Murfey Hall.

“Student of the Month” is awarded to a student who has shown strong commitment to their academics, is intellectually curious, and pushes themselves to grow and learn.

 

“Athlete of the Month” is awarded to the student who has shown strong commitment to their athletic training and achieved new levels of success for themselves. 

“Community Member of the Month” is awarded to a student who has gone above and beyond to lift others up, encourage school spirit and teamwork and help to maintain a positive and family-like community.  

Thank you D’Ellies for your support of CVA and these awards.

One of CVA’s most treasured and long-standing traditions is volunteering at the Special Olympic Maine Winter Games held annually at Sugarloaf. Due to the pandemic the Games have been canceled this year but that doesn’t mean we aren’t thinking of the amazing Special Olympians we meet each year. 

CVA wishes the best to all the athletes training and competing virtually in the Special Olympics programming this year. We’ll miss our opportunity to cheer you on in person, but know we’ll be supporting you from afar, and we can’t wait to see you at Sugarloaf next year! Please enjoy this heartfelt video that CVA student-athletes contributed to, and CVA National Honor Society members put together for you.

Watch the video here

Approximately fifty former students and staff attended the annual CVA Alumni Reunion on January 14th. It was the first time we’ve held the event in an online video format. A special thank you to our former Head of School John Ritzo, and former art teacher Patty, for joining us and sharing the memories of funny stories with alums near and far.

 

Six countries were represented at the event: Canada, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United States.

Three Canadian provinces: British Columbia, New Brunswick and Quebec

Sixteen states: Alaska, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington DC, Wyoming

Alpine: We’re racing! U16 and U19 alpine Academy and Weekend Program athletes competed at Sunday River on January 11th in Maine Alpine Racing Association’s (MARA) “Turkey Chase”. Due to Covid-19 the flow of the day and the racing scene looked and felt a bit different but the athletes and coaches quickly adapted to the changes. No spectators were allowed to gather at the finish line but a new web cam facing the race trail, Monday Mourning, broadcasted the races online. The traditional in-person awards ceremony was replaced with results published online. 

 

The slalom course was a great venue for our athletes to rid themselves of their early season jitters. Several top finishes were earned; the U16 Men went 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th, the U16 Women had two top 10 finishes with 7th and 8th, and the U19 Women had 3 top 10 finishes with 7th, 8th and 10th.

Liam Moffatt '15 of Truro, NS is one of three recipients of the 2020/2021 Neil Daffern Award for Excellence. The Award, named in honor of the legacy of Neil Daffern, aims to recognize and provide financial assistance to Canadian riders who have the potential to be among the World’s best in their respective disciplines.

A pioneer in snowboarding, Neil Daffern co-designed the first twin-tip snowboard under the BARFOOT name, which paved the way for progression of freestyle snowboarding as we know it today. His legacy has lived on and through his charity has helped numerous Canadian athletes achieve their goals.
Moffatt is no stranger to the contest scene or podium on the Nor-Am Cup Tour. He’s one of Canada’s top snowboardcross riders and is looking to make his mark on the World Cup Tour.

“I am so honored to receive this award. There is a long list of athletes that have received this award that have gone on to do amazing things in the snowboard world and I’m really excited to not only have the help from this award for this tough season ahead but also be added to this list to go try and make my mark.” – Liam Moffatt '15

New role and staff member: Patrick D'Amboise LCPC has joined CVA as our new part-time school counselor. With a B.S. in education and a M.S. in counseling, Pat has over 37 years of experience in counseling, with a focus on youth. As a father of CVA alum Sean D’Amboise, Class of 2004, and through his additional passion as an outdoor educator (he worked for Outward Bound and founded Project Quest, an outdoor education program for teens), he is uniquely positioned to connect with, guide and support CVA students and staff.

Pat’s role will be to assess the impact of the students’ mental health needs on learning and school participation, provide on-call duties, and collaborate with the health care team to promote health and wellbeing of the student body. Pat’s role will be to assess the impact of the students’ mental health needs on learning and school participation, provide on-call duties, and collaborate with the health care team to promote health and wellbeing of the student body. Pat will provide confidential emotional support to our students including short-term, solution-focused therapy, crisis intervention, advocacy, and referral, when necessary. He will be providing support on campus in the form of pre-scheduled meetings and drop in office hours, as well as conduct group work and activities. His services will augment the Community Clinical Services Outpatient Counseling our students currently access through telemedicine.