Carey Dominates Slopes

By Frank Rizzo
GRAHAMSVILLE — March 17, 2000 -- No, Colleen Carey wasn’t born on skis, but she came darn close.
The Tri-Valley freshman completed a dominating downhill season, winning five of the six Orange County League (OCL) American Conference meets, capped off by a Section IX title and a second straight trip to the state meet.
“I started skiing as soon as I could stand,” said Carey, a member of the Fallsburg/Tri-Valley alpine ski team coached by her mother, Janet. “I remember skiing Copper Mountain (in Colorado) when I was three. I was in Park City, Utah, when I was six and nine.”
Carey got ready for the season by spending 10 days last summer skiing at Mount Hood in Oregon. During the ski season she was away weekends at different slopes in New York State as part of the United States Skiing Association schedule.
No wonder that the more humble layout at her team’s home course — Holiday Mountain in Bridgeville — was not a big deal for her.
Skiing is a tradition in Carey’s family. Her sister Christie Barner won the Section IX title as a sophomore in 1995. Christie, who graduated from Tri-Valley in 1997, now attends SUNY-Albany.
Colleen’s oldest sister, Stacy Barner, is a 1994 TVCS grad who skied her senior year at Tri-Valley. Stacy, according to Janet Carey, was on hand for every one of her sister’s meets this year. The elder sibling is pictured on the Holiday Mountain brochure.
Because of asthma, Stacy spent periods of her youth in Colorado, and her sisters did some skiing there when they went out to visit her.
Colleen Carey went on to finish ninth in the slalom at the state meet, held March 1 at Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid. A year ago she did not finish the race.
“She’s the first girl in Section IX to medal at the state meet since Dory Alport in ’94,” said Janet Carey, mentioning another skier she coached.
The top 10 finishers earn medals.
Only 35 of the 70 girls entered in the slalom finished the course, according to the veteran coach. Unlike in regular season meets, which take the best time of two runs, in the states the skiers must finish both runs, putting even more pressure on them.
The next day, Colleen Carey competed in the giant slalom at Gore Mountain in North Creek (north of Glens Falls). Here, she placed 29th, as opposed to 50th last year.
“The conditions were awful,” Janet Carey said. “She took a fall before the race in a practice run, and that shook her up.”
Though only a soph, Colleen can’t afford to stand pat. On her heels is fellow soph Stephanie Kechian of Monroe-Woodbury, who finished third in Section IX.
And in the last regular season meet, Monticello seventh grader Laura Ferrante led the Monties to a win over Fallsburg/Tri-Valley to clinch the conference title.
“Laura’s an excellent giant slalom skier, and once she gets her slalom together, she’ll be a threat,” Janet Carey said.
Ferrante placed second in Section IX, assuring that the future is bound to see compettitive skiing.
In Tuesday’s issue: Monticello wins the OCL girls’ titles.