Centerfold // 13
Picking Up Speed Written by Shelby Sih // Photos by Seb Herforth In the 1970s, the Northeastern ski team was one of the best in the country. Fast-forward to 2012, and the team had been disbanded. Now, nearly 45 years after its glory days, the team is back and captains Victoria Hone and Dan Wigmore are looking to that 1970s team for inspiration to once again call the title theirs. On one of their weekends in Killington, V.T., this year, women’s captain Hone met a Northeastern skier from the 1970s team. “He was very excited to hear the team was getting back in the league and getting more competitive,” she remembered. His excitement is understandable, given the rocky history the team has had. After its success in the 1970s, the team lost funding and was disbanded for a number of years during the 80s. After returning to competition, the team hit another setback in the 2012-2013 season when it was left unable to compete due to a disciplinary suspension. Sophomore Emily Visnic was disappointed when she found out the ski team would be disbanded for her freshman year. After going to a ski academy for high school, one of the reasons she picked Northeastern was because it had both a ski team and a strong nursing program. “I wanted to ski but I didn’t want to major in something I wasn’t interested in just so I could ski,” Visnic said. What she didn’t expect was that she wouldn’t be able to ski at all. Unable to accept this fate, Wigmore and Hone worked tirelessly to bring the program back, going from more than 40 members to 18—and from varsity to a club team—to ensure that every skier was fully committed and shared the same focus. Only about five members are returning from the old team; the rest is mostly made up of sophomores like Visnic who couldn’t race last year. And despite the roadblock of last season, Wigmore said it was actually a blessing in disguise. “The year off did a lot of good for us because we could make all these changes that needed to be made and get the team back to where it was in the 70s,” he noted. Hone agreed. “It was a real fresh start and clean slate for the ski team, which is what we needed,” she said. Despite her previous disappointment, Visnic agreed that taking a year off was probably what was best for the team. “It’s always a wide
awakening when you get kicked off and can’t ski. You realize [breaking the rules] wasn’t worth it,” she said. Now that they’re back, the reformation seems to be working. As of press time, the men’s team is ranked seventh in the country, including varsity division three teams, and first in the country for club teams; the women’s team ranking has not been released. Both teams have won six of eight races. Perhaps more impressively, the team has achieved this success while raising $10,000 completely independently, taking care of all their race day responsibilities and having very few practices – challenges varsity teams don’t have to deal with. “One of the biggest challenges is we have to coordinate everything since it’s a club team. We have to find hotels, pay dues, drive ourselves to the races, fill out paperwork and make sure everyone’s on the same page,” Wigmore noted, adding that, “we’ve had a lot of support from the ski community.” Although they’re doing well internally, others’ perception of the team may be caught in the past. Visnic admitted that students she’s talked to around campus either don’t know about the ski team at all, or think of them as “a bit crazy.” Visnic said that reputation is behind them. “We already got kicked off so we aren’t going to do it again,” she said. Plus, the team recognizes that there’s only one way to change others’ perceptions: winning. Wigmore and Hone said they are both confident that the league championships are within their reach this season, but they’re looking even further into the future. “We could be a team that competes at a high level,” Hone said. “We’re doing everything ourselves now and we’re proving we can compete.” “I just want to see the team continue improving and Northeastern seen as a school where skiers can come,” Wigmore added, noting that Northeastern could fill a niche in the lacking Boston collegiate ski community. “We want to pave the way and help make the name for the school,” Hone explained. “We want to be the kids who helped make the team back to where it used to be in the 70s.”
We could be a team that competes at a high level. We’re doing everything ourselves now and we’re proving we can compete. -Dan Wigmore