Last Friday, the Brattleboro girls' Nordic ski team got the traditional motorcade up Main Street that every state championship team in town receives.
This year's team won the school's first-ever girls' Nordic title, and a big factor in the Colonels' success was sophomore Halie Lange. She skied the anchor leg in the relay events, and together with teammates Linnea Jahn, Maddi Shaw, and Emma Shaw, she was a consistent performer all season.
Lange is also making a name for herself as an individual skier. Earlier this month, she was the top New England finisher, with a fifth-place performance, in the freestyle 5K individual start event at the U.S. Ski Association's Cross Country Junior Nationals in Minneapolis. She also teamed up with Zoe Snow and Hannah Benson for third place in the Classic 3x3 Relay, and finished 10th in the 5K Freestyle Sprint and 23rd in the 5K Classic.
Lange is a three-sport athlete, playing soccer in the fall and participating as a middle-distance runner on the track team. She trains hard, as you'd figure for someone who is the daughter of triathlete, distance runner, and personal trainer Hank Lange. Halie is quick to credit her father and Diana, her mother, for their unwavering support for her budding ski career, as well as her Nordic coach, Bill Jahn.
There has been a long line of great Nordic skiers who have come out of Windham County over the past four decades. Halie Lange is on her way to joining that illustrious group.
BMH presents program on school sports, head injuries
• There has been much attention of late regarding head injuries and the effects of repeated concussions in professional sports.
Not getting as much attention is the fact that nearly 136,000 high school athletes each year suffer concussions - many of which are mild - and show no significant symptoms, according to Ohio State University research.
They are a small portion of the 1.7 million annual traumatic brain injuries in the United States, but a head injury in school sports is especially worrisome, because teenage brains are still maturing and growing.
On Monday, April 11, orthopedic surgeon Dr. William Vranos and pediatrician Dr. Valerie Rooney, both on the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital medical staff, and Brattleboro Union High School athletic trainer Matt Howland, who works with the BMH staff, will present a program called “A Discussion on School Sports and Head Injuries.”
The presentation, which starts at 7 p.m. at the Brew Berry Conference Center at BMH, will address the latest information about concussions and head injuries in school athletic activities. To register for this session, call 802-257-8877.
Miscellany
• The annual season-ending festival of high school basketball that is the Vermont Basketball Coaches Association's Senior All-Star Games took place in Windsor on Saturday, and the North teams won three of the four games. The only South win came in the Division I-II boys' game, a 111-102 victory.
The dominance of the North isn't unusual. North squads, which are made up of the schools north of Rutland and Route 4, have a 32-12 record over the last 11 years of the event.
• Brattleboro forward Maddie Rollins was named to the third team of the Lake Division girls' hockey All-League squad. Rollins, a sophomore, was the Colonels' leading scorer this season. Seniors Logan Robinson, TyLyn Issacsen, and Jesse Woodcock were named Academic All-Stars. The Brattleboro trio all had cumulative grade point averages that exceeded 3.5.
• There's still time to sign up for Brattleboro Small Fry baseball. All children who who will be 8, but have not turned 10, by May 1 are eligible. The cost is $25 for Brattleboro residents, and $40 for non-residents.
Coaches are also needed. Applications are available at the Brattleboro Recreation and Parks Department office at the Gibson-Aiken Center, 207 Main St. You can also call Ben Underhill at 802-257-5754, in the evenings, for more information.
• Another three-month session of the Fit Body Boot Camp, led by instructor and personal trainer Trisha Selbach, will begin on April 4 at the Gibson-Aiken Center.
The goal of the Boot Camp is to make health and wellness a priority by building muscle, raising metabolism, and encouraging proper nutrition, all in a supportive group environment. Boot Camp will consist of three, one-hour group trainings taking place Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 6:15 a.m., with an optional Saturday class in Westminster, and one-onone nutritional counseling with Lisa Dumont, a fitness coach and nutritionist.
Call the Brattleboro Recreation and Parks Department at 802-254-5808 to register, or call Selbach at 802-376-9020.