MMA 2024 Winter Newsletter

MT. MANSFIELD ACADEMY NEWSLETTER WINTER 2024

Top News

Fall 2023

MMA senior Beana Winchell represents the United States in the Winter Junior Olympics.

Thank you to everyone who made the MMA Winterfest Gala a grand success!

College acceptances for our seniors so far this year include Colby College, Colby Sawyer College, Dean College, Middlebury College, Montana

From Executive Director, Igor Vanovac

State University, Quinnipiac ?

University, St. Lawrence, St. Michael’s, UC Boulder, UNH, and UVM.

Happy New Year to all of our MMA families, student-athletes, and staff. I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays.

I would like to express my extreme gratitude to everyone who supported our gala. It was a magical “Wonka” golden ticket night that illustrated the spirit and fun of being a part of our MMA family.

Weather this season has been variable to put it mildly. I commend the staff and athletes for their flexibility. These experiences provide great life lessons for our athletes such as resilience and perseverance. The athletic, academic, and support staff have done a great job working together to create the best possible situation for our athletes.

We pride ourselves in maintaining high standards both athletically and academically. I am continually impressed with how our student-athletes respond. We are excited to see continued improvement from all over the next months.

As always, my staff and I are available to answer your questions and take your comments. I look forward to seeing you on the hill or in the club.

Student Reflection, Katie Quinn As someone who has been at Mount Mansfield Academy (MMA) for the past three and half years, It’s been an incredible experience seeing not just the school grow as a whole but each student individually.

Katie Quinn, MMA Class of 2026

2024-2025 Enrollment Dates Returning student contract renewal is due March 1.

Returning students financial aid applications are due no later than February 15.

New student applications are due April 1.

New applicants financial aid forms are due by March 15.

MMA TURNS 90!

With each age group increasing in size every year, we have been gaining great skiers, amazing students, and exceptional new peers. When the Winter Term kids join us for the November Colorado camp, it’s nice to see the new faces and all your old friends from the previous year.

It’s almost like a fresh breath of air due to the new positive energy from everybody.

I feel as if with the larger group of athletes everyone becomes more motivated and encouraged by their teamates. For only being half way through this year, I believe that everyone has accomplished so much; whether it's in skiing, or school, or gym, everyone has grown.

Even with some dreadful weather consistently throughout the beginning of this season, we have all made the best of every moment, and are excited to finish off another great season.

Did you know ... ?

Every year, MMA hosts the Stowe Derby. This legendary race starts at the top of Mt. Mansfield and finishes at the Village church, covering 20 kilometers. This year, the race will be Sunday, Feb. 25. You can register at www.mmsca.org.

02/05

Academic Update, Lori Furrer The middle of winter is obviously the most hectic time of the year for all. It is also the most productive, stimulating, and demanding time of the year. The teachers cover over 140 different courses in grades 6-12 throughout the week! Students are engaged, balancing classes with an ever-changing race schedule and remaining motivated. I thought it might be entertaining to see what is happening in some of our classrooms: In "Murder/Madness/Mayhem," students are exploring classic and contemporary mystery and suspense works, dating from Poe’s invention of the “detective story” in the early 1840’s to the present.

The importance and application of math skills is being applied in Algebra I having students design roads in an “imaginary city” using parallel and perpendicular lines.

Spanish Business is focused on the study of basic elements of the economies and business practices of Spanish-Speaking countries.

The AP Environmental Science class recently visited an historic cemetery in Stowe to gather data from gravestones regarding both the gender and age of death of individuals living in Stowe during the late 1700's and early 1800's. The purpose of the investigation was to build life tables and to analyze gender and age specific survivorship and life expectancies for this population. The class will next visit a much more modern, post WW II cemetery in Stowe to compare the data sets and study the demographic transition from pre industrial

Save the Date!

to post-industrial time periods.

Our students are able to drive their interests in the MMA setting while teachers are given the opportunity to shape the experience for them. A walk through the halls on any given day at any given time provides an inspiring production of education!

Granduation will be June 7th at 5:00 at Spruce Peak near the Whistle Pig Pavilion. This event will be outside. Be on the look out for more information...

03/05

Finance Request: Financial aid applications for returning students are due by February 15. Please email Jason at jmclean@mmsca.org for more information.

From the Hill, Mike Day I hope everyone had nice holidays and a happy New Year. The staff have been hard at work to produce quality training on and off of snow for our student athletes.

We have continued our coaches education and are very much speaking a similar language through the program.

I continue to be impressed with the effort I see on a daily basis from your kids. They bring great energy to the hill and are working hard to make and lock in improvements. We remain committed to not wasting a single turn.

Race season has begun and we are excited for the months to come. Mid-season evaluations should be completed in the next weeks. Please reach out to coaches or myself with any questions or concerns.

Training Update, Ben Blakely We are all happy being back on home snow after the work done over the course of 47 days on snow and countless hours in the gym.

**Fun Fact

With the addition of and Winter Term Despite the challenges presented by the weather, pushing snowmaking race student-athletes to the Dorm, we schedules back, making for a variety of conditions this early season, every group took have a total of 26 dormtostudents full advantage of training sessions on snow and in the gym.

Special thanks Stowe - 4 Mountain Resort for opening up a variety of terrain for our student-athletes to train on Full-Time and 22 Winter-Term.

With while snow making efforts were underway on our usual training venues. so many new students, and boarding students of all ages, our house is With the completion of Main Street surface preparation, we have all three venues at our very lively and fun!! disposal for the season. Our exclusive use of these three venues is an asset that can not be overstated.

We are looking forward to working and spend a memorable This is just a glimpse at what our skiers are doing on together the hill. The real magic is in the efforts put in by many day in and day out, in good weather and challenging conditions. winter together!

However the work has only begun, there is still much work to do in the pursuit of speed.

04/05

Notable Achievements Notables from the beginning of this season include (but are not limited to): Beana Winchell is in Korea representing the United States in the Youth Olympic Games this month.

John Kerbaugh is currently traveling with the US D Ski Team on the North American Cup circuit and will be headed to Europe this month.

Sofija Vanovac placed 3rd in Bromley VT Cup Slalom.

Katie Quinn placed 3rd in Stratton VT Cup Giant Slalom.

Mya Forkey placed 3rd in Cochrans Open Slalom.

11 U16s were selected for the Regional Performance Series in January.

U12s Madeline Creed placed 1st, Sharka Teplitz 3rd; and U14s Annabelle Samuelsen 1st and Hugo Vanovac 1st in Panel Slalom at Sugarbush.

Junior Program Update What a start to the season! The Junior Program has been working hard and having a ton of fun! We started the program revisiting all the main pillars of the program; how to be safe on the mountain, have fun, be kind, and learn and grow in the sport. Our fundamental focus for the month of December was on our athletic stance. That is the foundation. All our drills and talks have been reiterating these concepts.

With the addition of Winter Term

**Fun Fact

student-athletes to the we We also are talking a lot about not wasting a turn on the snow, maximizing ourDorm, time on have a been total of 26 dorm students - 4 snow, and having a focus as we get to the course. There has incredible

Full-Time and 22 Winter-Term.

With improvement and smiles in each athlete! The Cruise into the New Year race was a blast soimpressed many new and students, boarding getting to watch and highlight their hard work. We were proudand of each students of all ages, our house is

athlete!

very lively and fun!!

Over the holiday we had topic talks before each day that consisted of self care, a tech We preparations. are looking forward tothe working talk, mindset for ski racing, sportsmanship, and race day Despite

together and and spend memorable undulating weather the kids have remained positive and engaged weasee lots of winter together! smiles out there!

Questions? Email Andrew at akohn@mmsca.org

05/05