Have you ever wondered how it feels to come to school late with everything already established? Sarah Bennett ‘19 knows. She spent the first three weeks of school in Chile training with Team Quebec. A staff of The Mirror sat down with Bennett and Northwood Ski Coach Terry DelliQuadri to hear out her experience.
When asked about her recent training, Bennett said “It was good. I was excited to train for the second camp of the season. I was in Norway before, so I had an idea of how it was going to go. It was really nice. Unfortunately, the last week [the team] was [in Chile], there wasn’t much snow,” said Bennett, “but we still made the most out of it.”
Bennett said keeping up with her schoolwork while in Chile was not very difficult. “I emailed my teachers before I left, and I told them that I would be missing the first two weeks, then they emailed me the assignments. I thought it would be a good idea to start them before school started so that when it actually did start, I wouldn’t have that much to do. By the time school started, I finished my classwork so I could focus on other things. When I got back this week, I was ready for school.”
Arriving at school with everything already in motion felt strange for Bennett. “Especially with the arrival of the soccer team, there’s a lot of new kids around that I haven’t had the chance to meet yet. But I’m excited to get to know everyone.”
Even though Bennett is one of the best ski racers in her age group in North America, she is no longer on the Northwood Ski Team. “[Not training with the Northwood team] will hit me during winter time, when I won’t be able to go to Whiteface and ski with Northwood. Not being able to go to ski camps with Northwood is also going to be sad. Now, when I leave for training, I’m going to be the only one leaving. I’ll have my team to help, but it won’t be the same.”
Northwood Ski Coach Terry DelliQuadri has been at Northwood for two years and has been supportive of Bennett’s decision to leave Northwood’s team for the Quebec Provincial team. “I hope it helps her reach her goals. The girls she’ll be training and competing with are at a higher level than our team right now,” said DelliQuadri. “I wish she’d been named to the Canadian Junior Team because it’s a little higher than Team Quebec, but Team Quebec is a step in that direction,” he said.
DelliQuadri said Bennett’s future is in her hands. “It totally depends on how she does in the races. In skiing, opportunities open up if you have results. So if she has results she’s going to have opportunities like World Juniors, competing internationally, that kind of stuff. Otherwise, team Quebec does a similar schedule to what we do.”
The loss of Bennett will not affect the Northwood Ski Team as much as team sports would. “Well, she’s still a Northwood student, so we’re still claiming her as one of us. But skiing is an individual sport. Everybody sets their own goals and has their own results. So we will be the same as if she was with us,” said DelliQuadri.
