The Chatelech Eagles ended their third season on the slopes on a bit of a sour note Feb. 14.
The Eagles put in a strong team of 14 for the North Shore zone finals at Whistler/Blackcomb, but a key injury, illness and unfamiliarity with the longer course proved to be the Eagles' downfall.
"Our most hopeful racer, Josh Hlagi, re-broke his collarbone just prior the race," said Chat coach Jamie Mani. "We had a few other skiers battling the flu, and couple that with a longer, more challenging course, we finished fourth out of five schools. It was too bad. We had a really good season and we had hoped for a higher finish at the zones, but things just didn't go our way."
Despite the injury, Josh still raced and finished 11th out of 40 racers and was the top finisher for Chatelech.
"Last year we have lots of podium finishes in the novice category. This year we made the choice to move up to the experienced category and it was certainly a challenge for us," Mani said. "I'm not making any excuses for our racers, but it was a huge learning curve for many on our team. The course for the zones was much longer and quite a bit higher calibre technically speaking. When you race on an unfamiliar course against others who race there every second week, it's tough."
Mani said he wants to enter his veteran racers, who will be entering their fourth season next year in the experienced category, and look to his younger racers to gain experience and high results in the novice category.
"We'll enter both next year," he said. "Despite what happened at the zones, I'm very pleased and proud of our team. They were excited to race in the event and take on the challenge. For our team to continue to grow, we have to keep pushing ourselves. We have a great team with veteran leadership and a lot of enthusiasm from our younger racers. I think we had a strong year overall and we can only go up from here."
