High School Playbook

 The typical kid likes to stay at home on the weekends and hang out with their friends.  But for Luc Dozzi, it is a time for trying to improve his skiing skills and staying on top of the competition.  Dozzi, a freshman, goes up to Seven Springs almost every weekend to hang out with his friends and improve his skills on the slope in the Superpipe, the Board Parks, and in other freestyle areas.  Dozzi is what we like to call a "hucker".  The definition of a hucker is someone who likes to jump off huge cliffs.  Unfortunately, that's different in Pennsylvania because there are no huge mountains so the term goes to anyone who is a freestyle skier.  "I started to learn how to ski about 5 or 6 years ago," Dozzi said.  "I didn't start doing freestyle until 3 years or so ago."  Dozzi goes up and hangs out with a variety of friends who all do the same thing he does - freestyle moves.  "I ski with John Arcangelo, Nick Eremic, Beanie Osekowski, Jordan Riley , and Mike Owens, my dad and brother pretty much all the time," said Dozzi.  Eremic, also a freshman, was the first one of his friends to enter a competition at Seven Springs.  "There are a couple of competitions that go on during the year such as the Winter X Games," Eremic said.  "They host events such as the Rail Jam, which I entered, and the Superpipe competitions."  These two both model their skiing styles and tricks off of Pro Skiiers such as Tanner Hall, Simon Dumont, TJ Schiller and Andreas Hatveit.   I like Dumont and Hall, but I think my favorite would probably be Schiller," said Dozzi.  Other than just skiing, Dozzi films, edits and produces a yearly skiing video of himself and his friends.  He and his friends also created a new type of racing called "meloning".  Meloning is where you sit on the tails of your skis and go down the hill.  You go a lot faster that way and it is really exciting.  Unfortunately, these races can go from fun to problems in a matter of seconds.  "One time we were meloning down a hill and Christian Kolic took out one of the Safety Rangers that works at Seven Springs," said Eremic.  "Luckily, he got his stuff on and got away before he got yelled at.  Plus, no one was injured."  But there are also many other things that you can do other than skiing freestyle or meloning.  Freshman Chad Bowman is a competitive downhill racer for a ski team.  He has competed in many competitions such as the Junior Olympics, USSA's, FIS, Mack Cup and many other things.  "This past winter, I attended Waterville Valley Academy to help improve my skills," said Bowman.  Bowman has been skiing for over 12 years now.  He started when he was 3 years old.  "I started learning at three years old and started to learn how to do competitive racing a couple of years later," said Bowman.  Just as Dozzi and Eremic try to copy moves and style from Schiller, Hall, Dumont, and Hatveit, Bowman tries to model his racing after skiiers such as Andrew Shybrek and Ted Ligiety.  Even if skiing sounds fun, injuries can also occur and end the season for you or just have you out for a little bit.  "One time, I went up on to a rail to grind," said Eremic, "and my skis split apart and I landed in-between my legs.  It didn't feel too good and I was down for quite a while."

-Brandon Osekowski