program. From those small beginnings the program has grown each year with a record 18 student-athletes enrolled—and the designation of U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s Freeski Club of the Year—in 2019-2020. Around the same time, SMS took the idea of expanding its athletic programming to a new, elite level. At the time, the national landscape of Cross Country Skiing was beginning to move towards a club model that provided greater support for athletes aspiring to national teams. Discerning an opportunity to support the growth of the sport, provide a pipeline for SMS alumni, and enhance training for junior athletes, Caldwell began working towards establishing the elite group that would later become the SMS T2 Team.
Did You Know?
"Andy Newell was on the U.S. Team and he would come back and train with us a lot, which was awesome for the kids—here’s one of the best skiers in the U.S. training right alongside us," Caldwell said. "We had this new model, and Andy was out there, and I thought it would be nice for him and our juniors if we had a team of senior athletes." In 2013, SMS added a fifth discipline, Freestyle skiing, to its athletic programming. Mogul and aerial athletes had attended SMS during the winter term in prior years, working closely with Stratton Winter Sports Club coaches. The program gained new legitimacy in 2013 when Kaltsas, alongside then-Assistant Head of School Carson Thurber, brought on Deb Newson as Freestyle Program Director and Sam Tarrant as Head Coach to start a full-time program.
A Bright Future
Peggy Lord and Eugenie Greeff co-chaired the first Ski Ball, which was hosted in the Stratton Base Lodge. Peggy later donated the bell that sits on Garthwaite Green, which is rung on special occasions each school year.
Throughout the past fifty years, Stratton Mountain School has continued on the path of excellence envisioned by Warren Hellman and Donald Tarinelli in 1972. Each successive generation of SMS leaders has refined that vision and, now, the school has embarked on a new phase under the leadership of Headmaster Carson Thurber ’02.
Proud SMS Parent Bill Koch competed in the 1976 Olympic Games and won the first-ever U.S. Cross Country Olympic Medal (Silver) for his legendary performance in the Men's 30k.
In 2020, the cohesion of these outstanding athletic, academic, and community programs and facilities earned Stratton Mountain School the designation of Club of the Year by U.S. Ski & Snowboard.
"My vision for the future is built upon a commitment to continuing the trajectory we’ve been on for the past 50 years, and ensuring that it continues to trend upwards," he explained. "That’s going to be done by keeping fantastic staff in both our academic and athletic programs as well as making sure that our students have every opportunity—in the classroom, at our facilities, and on the slopes—to reach whatever goals they may have as students, athletes, and global citizens." "Further refining the formula and continuing to bring lifelong, passionate, dedicated families to our sports is what’s going to drive the viability and the life of our industry going forward," added Shaw. "As long as Stratton Mountain School can stay out in front of doing that, it will accomplish extraordinary things. I think the mission is clear, and you can see that in where it’s come from, where it has gotten to, and where it is headed."
Former Headmaster Sumner Erbe once compared SMS to The Juilliard School by saying, "To watch a kid ski a slalom with a degree of perfection and hard work and poise and self-control, that is just as extraordinary as when you sit and you listen to a child play Mozart extraordinarily well." Kristin Luckenbill '97 is not the only SMS Summer Olympian. Juli Furtado '85 competed in Mountain Biking during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and former Nordie Brooke Mooney competed in Tokyo for Rowing earlier this year. SMS had a Freestyle Moguls Program in 1977 and current Trustee Darcy Ahl '80 was on the team. However, the program would not resurface at SMS until 2013.
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