For some, ski club is a way to escape from the day to day monotony of life. For others, it is a personal time to clear their minds.
But some see it as a way to just have a good time with their friends while staying in shape.
Freshman Ethan Quastler said that he has always done ski club as an in-between-seasons sport, but he likes that his friends do ski club too.
“The majority of people this year in ski club are freshmen, and it’s kind of nice that we are all friends,” Quastler said.
Freshman Anthony Hodge agrees that having friends in ski club is very important.
“This year, there are [mostly] guys in ski club,” Hodge said. “At first I tried to talk some girls into joining, but it turned out to be good ‘guy time’ for all of us.”
Math teacher Bill Jarrell, who has been involved in ski club for 28 years, said the thing about it he likes best is getting to know students better.
“I loved being with the students and getting to know them as people,” Jarrell said. “It was nice to have an equal relationship with them because a lot of times they taught me new things.”
Hodge said he likes to use the time as a new experience and to learn a new sport.
“I broke my ankle during soccer, and I wanted to try something new,” Hodge said. “I figured it would be a pretty good way to stay active.”
However, Jarrell said that this year ski club has far fewer participants than it has in recent years.
“For many years, we had between 100 and 130 students, and we would have to take three buses,” Jarrell said. “Now there are only 22 students involved, and it sort of makes me sad because [ski club] is such a good experience.”
While Jarrell doesn’t know exactly why the numbers in recent years are so low, he has a pretty good idea that it involves the array of other available extracurricular activities.
“The only thing that makes sense to me is that there has been a huge increase in club and year round sports,” Jarrell said.
Librarian Mike Nolan agrees with Jarrell’s assessment.
“People can choose from so many things, and their parents tell them they can only do one,” Nolan said. “More and more people are choosing to do [other activities] since they have already experienced [skiing or snowboarding].”
Nolan also said that an advantage of ski club is when you go with the school, it’s cheaper.
“The thing about ski club that is nice is that you can learn how to ski and develop it as a hobby,” Nolan said. “It’s relatively cheap compared to learning on your own.”
Jarrell agreed with Nolan’s sentiment.
“I started ski club because my 10-year-old son wanted to ski, and it’s a fairly expensive sport,” Jarrell said. “When I did it with school I could do it with my son for free, and it gave us an opportunity to spend time together.”
Jarrell said that his decision was definitely a good one. Nearly 30 years later, his son still skis.
“Last Christmas, I bought him new skis and a lot of new equipment,” he said.
Published January 2008. Digitized 2025.
