UPDATED: Ski Team Wants 'Recognition' From Framingham School District

The Framingham High alpine ski team is in its third season. It will have its first meet of the season today. Junior varsity will compete and varsity will have first race next week.

The team competes in the Massachusetts Bay Ski East League. Last year, one of Framingham’s skiers was one of 24 female skiers to qualify for the state meet.

The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) recognizes them as a varsity sport, but the Framingham Public School district has yet to grant them that designation.

So Tuesday night, the team attended the Framingham School Committee meeting and one by one members of the team asked the Committee to have the district recognize them. The skiers also talked about their experience on the team.

“We would like formal recognition and standing as a varsity sport,” said parent Bob Keane, whose daughter Jacklyn, as a freshman made the state meet as a member of the Framingham High alpine ski team. “We hope to be recognized as a sport by the athletic department and Framingham High School, which would mean hopefully, the continuous funding of the varsity ski team coach, as well as financial support for transportation costs.”

Framingham High ski team members pay the the athletic department a $225 fee (same as the district’s imposed athletic fee), but are not formally recognized as a varsity sport.

“The skiers pay a $225 fee which is the same amount of the athletic fee for lift tickets,” said head Coach Roni Sue Bower.

This year, Framingham did pay for the coach’s stipend as it was added to the teacher’s contract.

And the team, like many Framingham High sports teams, also has to hold fundraisers to support the team, its coaches, and transportation.

“This (district) support is necessary,” said Keane as the team is gaining “momentum and growing in popularity.”

“We are asking for continue support of the stipend, and for transportation costs,” said Bower.

In 2013, when the Framingham High alpine ski team began it had just 11 skiers.

This year, the team’s third season, there is 22 members, 9 girls and 13 boys, who race out of Blue Hills in Canton.

“The team is recognized by the MIAA as a varsity sport,” said Keane.

“There are not any club teams in Eastern Massachusetts,” said Bower. “Just competitive ski teams. ... We are a well-respected team.”

“This team has worked so hard in the past three years. We have become a respected member of the League, that not only participates but competes,” said senior skier Tucker Reynard.

“We compete against the same 12 teams each race,” said Bower. “The camaraderie is unique as the coaches and races get to know each other very well.”

“We have scored points each year and moved up in the standings,” said Bower, who said there are more than 250 skiers in the league, but only the top 24 boys and top 24 girls qualify for the state meet.

At the end of each season, the League holds a banquet to recognize the top 10 skiers and the captains from each team, said Bower.

“Skiing has always been one of my favorite sports,” said Andrea Buck, a senior on the team, who also played field hockey and runs track at Framingham High. “but it was only something I had done recreationally until last year. The team was created my sophomore year, but I was a little hesitant to join ... as I didn’t know much about racing, and I was involved with indoor track at the time.”

Since joining the team as a junior, Buck said she learned how much she loves ski racing, and has joined a club team in addition to the Framingham High squad. And she would like to compete at college at a club level.

“This has been a great opportunity for me and I hope it continues for others,” said Buck to the School Committee.

“Thanks to my great experience with this team, I hope to continue racing in college next year. I hope that every year I can come back and watch the Framingham High School ski team, because I know that the team will last,” said Reynard. ““I have played many sports at the high school but the ski team is the best in my opinion. No other sport I have participatedipated in has a better sense of community. I have met many new people, who have become close friends. The athletes love it, and the parents want to be involved and support the team, as much as possible.”

Schools in the alpine Bay Ski East League include Brookline, Dover/Sherborn, Duxbury, Framingham, Marblehead, Milton, Newton North, Oliver Ames (Easton), Ursuline Academy (girls only), Wal-Lex, Wellesley, Westwood, and Xaverian Bros (boys only).