Alpine Racing Club lets avid, skilled skiers do what they love, outside varsity

Members of the club out on the slopes this year with their Saint Michael’s banner. Joe Turner ’22 is all the way to the right and Otto VanDerhoef ’22 is second in from the left.

Members of the Saint Michael’s College Alpine Racing Club (ARC) often can be found loading their gear up into a College van early in the morning before making the 45- minute commute to Smuggler’s Notch to spend two hours skiing. Different from the Saint Michael’s Division I Alpine Skiing team, the ARC team is more flexible and allows students to continue racing without the commitment of being a Division I athlete.

Otto VanDerhoef ’22, a biology major with a chemistry minor from Seattle, WA, was a member of the Division I Alpine Skiing team for his first and second years at Saint Michael’s before switching over to the ARC team. As his sophomore year was ending, VanDerhoef heard about a plan by Gus Macleod, the College’s Alpine head coach, to help students start up an alpine club sport. VanDerhoef immediately knew that he wanted to be a part of it.

He came to realize that an alpine club team was a better option for him when his busy varsity athletic schedule began to affect his grades. “The club offers a lot of flexibility. We have training available six days a week if people want it. You can be up there six days a week training, with two or three of those days being training sessions with the NCAA team,” he said. “There’s also the option to just show up for the races and not go to training or maybe just go for training and not the races. It’s really up to every student.”

Other students, such as Joseph Turner ‘22, a business and accounting double major from Westport, CT, are solely looking for a club team as opposed to an NCAA team. “I raced through middle and high school but never had any plans to ski Division I. When I was looking at schools, I was looking for a school that had a club option for skiing,” said Turner. “Saint Mike’s didn’t have one at the time I was a first year.” Turner said he loved Saint Michael’s so much that he decided to enroll despite the its lack of an Alpine club. “When they started this program I was so excited. I thought it was a great fit for me and a great fit for a lot of other kids that just want to ski race competitively but aren’t at that level to ski Division I,” he said.

Turner also appreciates the help that Smugglers Notch Ski Resort offers the team. “It’s a unique program because it’s run through Smugglers Notch ski program, so basically we have all the support and access to resources from them,” he said, “whereas the D1 team support comes from the school.” Turner and Vanderhoef both are appreciative of the resources that Smugglers Notch has offered the team from the start.

The ARC racers said that the club had five back-to-back races this semester in January and February. These races took place at different ski resorts in New England such as Mount Sunapee Resort, Pat’s Peak Ski Area, West Mountain Ski Resort, and more, over five weekends, with two races each weekend.

Members at a Lake Placid event. SJoe is third in from the left and Otto is fourth in from the left.

The club team competed in the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association’s (USCSA) McConnell division. Since it was the club’s first year competing, it was considered a guest team. The team placed fifth out of the nine McConnell division teams, which qualified them for regionals. However, a USCSA rule states that a school cannot send two teams to regionals, said Turner. Since Saint Michael’s has a Division I team, the ARC team was not able to participate at regionals, even though they technically qualified. Turner said that the club is looking into petitioning for a change with this rule, so that the ARC team has a chance to go to regionals in the coming years.

The ARC team now has hopes of hosting ski carnivals similar to those they attended at places like Mount Sunapee Resort, since many of their opposing teams are from Vermont. “We’d love to host now that we’ve had a full year of operating as a competitive club team as a part of the McConnell Division,” Vanderhoef said.

The club has many hopes for its future beyond hosting carnivals. “I want the team to grow in numbers. It’s been rough starting a club during the COVID pandemic — the participation just isn’t there,” said Vanderhoef. “Joe and I had to do a lot of self-advertising last year. So watching the team double in size this year, as well as seeing multiple prospective students interested at the open house, gives me a lot of hope for how this club can grow.”

The ARC racers are optimistic about the future of the club and they anticipate its future growth even after they finish their time at Saint Michael’s. Vanderhoef said, “It makes perfect sense for a club like this to exist at Saint Mike’s. I’m glad I was able to be a part of the start of it.”

To find out more about how the ARC team, contact Otto Vanderhoef at ovanderhoef@mail.smcvt.edu, or Joseph Turner at jturner2@mail.smcvt.edu.

For questions on the 2023 race season, please reach out to Shaun Clem, captain for the 2023 season.  sclem@mail.smcvt.edu

Another view of the club group at a race this year. Joe is third in from the right and Otto is second in from the right.