Haileybury College snow sports team members, from left, Alice Dawson, Andrew Gibson, Ewa Potoczny, Tim Gibson and Jonathon Somers.Year eight student Andrew Gibson carves his way to an Australian Interschool Snow Sport Championships silver medal at Falls Creek last month.By Paul Pickering
THE Haileybury College Snow Sports team ascended to unfamiliar altitude last month, recording its best results in the Australian Interschool Snow Sports Championships at Fall Creek.
The school finished second overall in the Australian Secondary Girls Schools competition and third in the Secondary Boys category, claiming nine gold, eight silver and seven bronze medals.
The 2007 team’s success easily eclipsed the school’s previous tilts at the national championships, prompting its more-fancied rivals to question how such a meteoric rise could have taken place.
Most judges are pointing to the Haileybury’s newly established Alpine Academy program.
The academy, the vision of founding director Julian Cross, offers gifted young skiers and snowboarders an opportunity to live, train, compete and study on the slopes of Mount Bulla and French ski resort Valmorel for a full school term.
Now in its second year, the academy – which is the only program of its kind in Australia – has already begun to produce some extraordinary emerging talents.
The 23 students enrolled in the academy for 2007 joined the rest of the snow sports team for the nationals at Falls Creek on 13-16 September, leading the squad to unprecedented success.
Alpine Academy member Ewa Potoczny, a year eight student at Haileybury’s Berwick campus, said the program had given her and her team-mates a distinct competitive advantage.
While staying in Valmorel earlier this year, Potoczny and Caitlin Allnut had the honour of representing Australia in the French national ski championships.
Potoczny said the exposure to elite level European competition had been a key factor in her bronze medal win in the Skiercross Division Three (year seven and eight) at the national championships.
Allnut won gold in the Alpine Grand Slalom Division Two (year nine and 10).
Despite the excellence displayed by the Alpine Academy members, Haileybury’s head of snow sports Matt McDonald was keen to note that the school’s improved performance had come from a broader revamp of the snow sports program – including regular training trips for the on-campus students.
Still, McDonald, and the rest of the school, is clearly excited by the potential of the alpine prodigies.
“We’re in it as a long-term project,” he said.
“But with the results already in the Division Three and Four competitions, we can see these kids coming through to really bolster the ranks in the next few years.”
Team captain Jonathon Somers, a Year 12 student at the Keysborough campus, also admitted to being in awe of the emerging crop of youngsters.
“They’re going to be at the absolute top level,” he said.
While the 60-student team is still dwarfed by the contingents entered by schools such as Melbourne Grammar and Wesley College, few would doubt Haileybury’s French connection looks set to thrust the school to the summit of the Australian snow sports system.
