Fast Times

This is what Matthew Gillis thinks about:

Keep pressure on the downhill ski. Lean forward, especially on the icy patches. Keep the hands out front.

And maybe, just maybe, he thinks about a recent race.

“My ski caught a gate and it flipped me,” he says. “I really have to think about my turns.”

It’s an awful lot for an 11-year-old to have on his mind.

Matthew is coming off a top-10 finish last weekend at Mountain High Ski Resort in Wrightwood, where he is one of the younger members of the junior team. He will travel to Big Bear Lake for a race at Snow Summit on Saturday.

This is his first season of competition and, while other kids his age are learning to field grounders or dribble a soccer ball, Matthew practices a delicate balance of nerves and velocity. Three days a week, he makes the one-hour, 20-minute drive from his Santa Clarita home to train in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Actually, his mother drives, which gives Matthew time to think.

“I think a lot about how to get speed in the flats,” he says.

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Junior ski racing is not so different from Little League. Teammates gather after school, joking and teasing each other before practice. They are attended to by helpful parents and patient coaches.

But young ski racers are far less common than young ballplayers. An estimated 2.7 million boys and girls participate in Little League. Only 6,687 youngsters are licensed to compete in the 736 alpine events sanctioned this year by the U.S. Ski Assn.

Junior racers cannot compete on a sanctioned level until they reach 11 years old. By 13, they can travel throughout the state. At 15 and older, they are eligible for national events.

“I think it might attract a different type of athlete psychologically than you’d find in Little League or soccer or pee-wee football,” said Mark Holman, director of the junior program at Mountain High. “It’s an individual sport so they tend to be a little more independent.”

There’s one more thing.

“They definitely have to have some aggression,” said Tina Shippy, a Mountain High assistant coach. “Most of them have no fear.”

Hundreds of such kids compete for teams at resorts such as Squaw Valley, Vail and Steamboat Springs. Big programs flaunt Olympic-caliber coaches and dozens of assistants. At Mountain High, Holman and his six assistants work with 35 skiers and snowboarders who range in age from six to 18.

While Matthew is limited to practicing on Wednesday afternoons and all day Saturday and Sunday, most of his teammates live near the resort and train six days a week. They prepare for four types of races: the long downhill, the super G with its snaking turns, the tighter giant slalom and the short, crisp slalom.

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At the start of a typical weekday afternoon practice, the team gathers at the base of the mountain, then splits into groups and heads up on chairlifts with the coaches.

Tom Charland works with Matthew’s group. The racers begin with one-ski drills, tearing down the mountain on only their right skis, then only the left. Later, they practice giant-slalom turns.

The youngsters look cute tugging on their gloves, heads bobbing inside oversized helmets, but on the slopes they are inordinately fast. They are poised, shoulders square to the hill, leaning out over their skis.

On another part of the mountain, older kids work with Shippy and Stever Bartlett, a former top collegiate racer. With a race approaching, Bartlett preaches technique. The kids listen but also flick snow at each other with the tips of their skis. There are equal parts strategy and giggles.

“You try to keep it fun,” Shippy says. “Get them hooked on skiing. Then their desire to race will increase.”

While other kids dream of becoming the next Michael Jordan or Ken Griffey Jr., these racers idolize the likes of Tommy Moe and Picabo Street.

“Do I like going fast?” asks Jeff Johnson, 12, of Wrightwood, who won last week’s Super G on his home course. “I love going fast. I’m going to be a downhill racer.”

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Youngsters in programs larger than Mountain High’s can look to the past for inspiration. The Squaw Valley team, for instance, has produced a dozen Olympians and nearly 50 World Cup competitors, including Tamara McKinney.

“Our World Cup racers come back and the kids can ski with them,” said Shelley Dunlap, a Squaw Valley coach. “The kids feed off that.”

Mountain High can boast of no such heritage.

“It’s like skiing in the desert, right?” Dunlap asked. “It seems like they have a real involved, enthusiastic program but the numbers aren’t going to be there.”

The current stars of the Mountain High team are Jamisen Lee Jenkins, 15, and Kelly Linde, 16, both of whom rank among the top 25 female racers in the Far West region and will leave this week for the Junior Olympics at Mt. Alyeska, Alaska. They serve as role models for younger teammates because they are on track to try out for the U.S. Ski Team.

It is the goal of most young racers to make the national team, but there are plenty of pitfalls along the way.

Some burn out or cannot afford to stick with the sport. Team dues can total $1,000 per season and the cost of high-tech skis, boots and clothing can easily exceed that amount.

Some get injured. An estimated 16,647 skiers aged five to 14 were hurt badly enough to require emergency-room attention in 1995, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

But that statistic, which includes recreational and competitive skiers, compares favorably to the estimated 141,659 young baseball players hurt that same year. Taking overall participation into account, the rates of injury were roughly equal.

“The rate of injury for racers is probably even lower,” Holman said. “First of all, they are well-conditioned. Second, they have probably fallen enough that they know how to fall well.”

Motivation, finances and fitness are only part of the equation, though. Some kids simply aren’t talented enough to succeed on a national level.

The best 11-year-olds, for instance, ski at up to 45 mph in the fast stretches. They must eventually double that speed to reach world-class status.

“Ski racing is brutally honest. You look at the results and there it is, no doubt, no questions,” Holman said. “That’s why we try to foster a love of the sport. Let’s learn to ski technically well and have fun.”

The coach’s philosophy does not prevent his racers from keeping a close eye on their times.

The 11- and 12-year-olds are getting their first taste of competition against skiers from other Southern California resorts. When asked who was the fastest among them, two-thirds of the Mountain High team immediately raised their hands.

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Matthew knows he is in the middle of the pack. The coaches compliment his enthusiasm and improvement, but he knows he must compete with kids who spend twice as much time on the slopes.

Still, the youngster perseveres. He commutes to practice with his mother, Vicki, and his little brother Nathan, 8, who is too young to race. Even after his tumble during a recent event at nearby Snowcrest, he harbors big dreams.

“I want to be on the pro tour and win money,” Matthew says while riding a chairlift to the top of the mountain. “That way you don’t have to sit at a desk all day.”

Maybe he’ll be thinking about that, too, when his race Saturday comes around.