|
|||||||||||||
Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
Steve LaHaye vs. the mountain
Like most kids, Steve LaHaye just wanted to be cool.
When he was around nine or ten years old, after approximately five seasons of skiing, LaHaye noticed the snowboarders flying around the hills at Virginia's Wintergreen Resort. He saw them lounging, emitting that laid-back, above-it-all vibe, and he decided he wanted to be one with them. Dad Tom wasn't so sure. “I wasn't real comfortable with that whole scene and I pushed back,” Tom recalled.
One day, he and Tom had one of those “Show us a sign” moments. “Steve saw the ski race team at Wintergreen from the chair lift and his jaw just dropped,” Tom said, “and he said, 'Dad, I want to do that.'
“He hasn't asked to snowboard since.”
Now 14, LaHaye will travel to New Hampshire this weekend for the USSA Junior Olympics where he'll compete in the J3 (13-14 year-old) division against some of the eastern United States' best. “I'm definitely excited,” said LaHaye, who still skies for the Wintergreen race team. “It's just the general experience of saying 'Hey, I went to the Junior Olympics.'”
LaHaye qualified for the prestigious competition by ranking second through the Southern Alpine Racing Association (SARA) season at the J3 level. SARA includes skiers from Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, New York, Kentucky and Tennessee.
LaHaye finished behind only North Carolina's Austin Oliver this season. Oliver is also heading for the Junior Olympics. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime shot to go experience that,” Tom said. “There are kids he will be skiing against that will probably be on the Olympic team (in the future).”
In some ways, this is actually a twice-in-a-lifetime chance for Stevem who qualified for Junior Olympics two years ago, but was unable to attend.
LaHaye can credit a knee injury — though it did not happen as one might expect on the slopes. LaHaye was working on some BMX bike tricks when he suffered a mishap.
“I overshot a jump, and did a nose dive from about four feet in the air and just shattered my kneecap on contact,” LaHaye said. “Actually, the doc said it was like a hard boiled egg and the shell had cracked and stayed in place, so I didn't need surgery.”
LaHaye tried to ski just a week after that injury occurred but found it impossible. He got to a race and booted in but couldn't put enough pressure on his knee to stomp into my binding. “I had to ski on one foot all the way down the hill.”
Now healthy he was not about to pass up another Junior Olympics. Both Steve and Tom are realistic about the weekend's outlook. Steve passed up on a couple of other winnable events for the Junior Olympics, where the competition will be significantly fiercer.
“This is kind of like a Jamaican bobsled thing,” Tom said, letting out a short laugh. “He's going to get his butt kicked.”
Not that such an outcome would be disappointing. This Junior Olympic competition features all of the best 13- and 14-year-old skiers from the Northeast region down into the areas SARA encapsulates. Past contestants have even moved on to the United States Olympic team after a couple extra years of practice.
“Steve won’t win any races unless he pulls a USA hockey team,” Tom joshed, referencing the revered “Miracle on Ice” U.S. Olympic victory over Russia in 1980.
How Steve handles defeat this weekend will be an interesting subplot. He has been skiing for nearly 10 years and competing for four. One thing he has found out is that skiing brings out the cutthroat competitor in him.
“All of my other sports, I like to win,” LaHaye said, “but when it comes to skiing, I hate to lose.”
The ability to win on the slopes, however, comes at a high price both physically and financially. LaHaye skies 30-to-40 times a year, and still feels pain in his previously-injured knee.
Plus, the sport costs a truckload. Outside of things like lift tickets and travel (the LaHayes paid their own way to Junior Olympics, for example), Steve requires pricey new gear frequently. LaHaye says he needs two fresh pairs of Fischer skis a year, two new sets of Leki poles and one replacement pair of Nordica boots per year.
“He’s got me into trying to save some money,” Steve said of Tom. “I’m not going to argue with him when it comes to that.”
The dollars spent have paid off for LaHaye. According to Tom, Steve raced 14 events this year — winning six of the last 12 times.
While the local competition is far less extreme than that seen in the Northeast, LaHaye’s rise in SARA’s J3 division is nonetheless impressive. “He’s number two in the region,” Tom said. “That’s pretty good.”
Steve also swims avidly through the FAST program in Warrenton, and will likely compete for Fauquier High next year. He will continue to ski, with hopes of competing for the University of Virginia club team in down the road. As Tom points out, skiing is a “lifetime sport,” and Steve has no plan to stop.
“There’s definitely that adrenaline rush, bombing down slopes with boards slapped to your feet,” Steve said. “I’ll (ski) as long as I can.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.