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| Wednesday, July 16 |
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| Boarding for takeoff By Frank Katz SchoolSports.com | ||||||
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Kelly Clark often stands out from her classmates. She doesn't do it intentionally, mind you, but rather because of where she's from and, more importantly, where she's headed. At Mount Snow Academy (Mount Snow, Vt.), Clark is surrounded by affluence. The fancy ski and snowboard school is home to hundreds of rich kids who are fortunate enough to spend the majority of their days on the slopes learning the finer nuances of their sport.
At TC's Restaurant, a family-style eatery her parents, Terry and Cathy, own, Clark has spent hundreds of hours waiting tables and scrubbing pots, pans and, worst of all, says the 17-year-old, crusty lasagna casserole dishes. "Ugh, it's a bummer," says the West Dover, Vt., resident. "It's pretty messy." But even without steel wool in hand, Clark stands out from those at Mount Snow. Watch her snowboard through a half pipe and the reason why becomes immediately clear. "She's worked really hard at the basic stuff to come along really far," says Mount Snow Academy head snowboarding coach Dave Redden, 34. "And she's very confident. ... A lot of people get embarrassed when they fall down, but not Kelly. Even when it hurts, she gets back up. She doesn't care how many times she falls or who it's in front of while working on a trick; she gets back up and makes it work." Clark, who attends Brattleboro Union High (Brattleboro, Vt.) for the first two and last two months of the academic year, has already competed in some of the world's top snowboarding competitions. In February, she won a gold medal in the half pipe at the Junior World Championships in Germany. She won a gold medal in snowboardcross at the X-nix U.S. Championships in Okemo, Vt., in March, and took fourth in the slopestyle event at last year's Winter X Games. Clark is one of 15 members on the U.S. Junior National team and one of four athletes on the U.S. women's snowboarding freestyle squad. The teen will soon be competing in approximately five qualifying events, sanctioned by Federal International Snowboarding (FIS), with the ultimate goal of making the U.S. Olympic women's snowboarding team that will compete in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2002. "The Olympics is obviously a big dream," says Clark, who spends much of the fall season playing soccer for Brattleboro Union. "I'm sure being on the U.S. national team will help my chances, but I have to do well in the FIS events." "She's definitely in a great spot, and she's lined up for her chance," adds Redden. "If [the Winter Olympics] was in six months, I'd definitely say she'd be a front-runner to make the team, but it's too far away to say right now." Clark knows that, which is why she continues to work hard both on and off the slopes. Thanks to her job at TC's, as well as the money she earned in the summer of 1999 docking boats in Rhode Island, the teen has been able to enjoy the fruits of her labor -- namely, the recent purchase of a 1997 Chevy Blazer. "My old car -- it was an '84 Blazer -- would stall every time I took a left turn," she says with a laugh. "I kind of had to get a new car." Clark says she plans to attend college "in a year or so" and study art and design. Northeastern University in Boston, Mass., is her No. 1 choice because the school offers a flexible co-op program that would allow her to enroll for fall and summer classes and spend her winters traveling and snowboarding. Make no mistake, this 17-year-old knows where she's headed and has a good understanding of what it will take to get there. "You have to want to get better," says Clark. "Most kids (at Mount Snow) just like to ski or snowboard, and do it. I love it, and I want to continue to get better."
Material from SchoolSports.com.Visit their web site at www.schoolsports.com | |
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