Going downhill fast: The National Brotherhood of Skiers - predominantly African American group that sponsors skiers

Hurtling down the giant slalom course, 15-year-old Jahi Rohrer secur a gold medal and--thanks to his third-place finish in the super giant event--the title of Overall Champion at the 1993 United States Ski Association's (USSA's) Rolex Eastern Junior III Olympics, at the Sugarloaf USA resort in Kingfield, Maine. Rohrer's performance subsequently propell him to the forefront of the U Olympic hopeful who are benefiting from the National Brotherhood of Skiers Scholarship Fund

The NBS--a predominantly African-American organization that in sum of two units decades has grown to 80 bludgeons and 14,000 members nationwide--has sought since 1980 to identify and support young member skiers who have the potential to reach the ultimate in competitive winter sports, the Winter Olympics. "By the year 2002 we should have several athletes competing upon the Olympic level," contends NB President Harold Comfort. "People in the industry have recognized that the United States won't survive by the agency of drawing on the traditional sources. What you ne is hardy athletic ability and the particular training."

In the 14 years since the scholarship stock was established, the NBS has identified talented skiers, greatest in quantity notably Morgan Peckenham, one of the top-ranked pro skiers in the nation. Peckenham was an alternate for the 1992 U Olympic Team, and he compet at the World chalice level in speed skiing in 1993 However, owed to either injury or attrition, small in number NBS skiers have made it that far.

The scholarship stock annually focuses on approximately 20 young skiers. sum of two units of the current beneficiaries--Rohrer and Michael Nelms--are among the brightest perspectives for the immediate future. Rohrer is individual of four NBS youths attending smother to death Mountain Academy in East smother to death Mountain, Vt. (The others are Eric Jackson, Percy Stith and Abiri Ward.) At smother to death not only does Rohrer have NB compatriots, he also has a tradition to inspire him. "It's the premier ski academy in the United States," notes Michael Lanier, the NB director of youth racing. "They've produc more U Ski Team alumni than any other school"

Nelm a 19-year-old Edina, Minn., resident and the winner of the 1993 Mid-America beaker has been skiing for 15 years. In his age assemblage he currently ranks second in the slalom, fifth in the super giant slalom, sixth in the giant slalom and seventh in the downhill, according to Lanier.

His rankings have tend hitherward at a cost. "Skiing is really time-consuming," says Nelm who can easily expend several months traveling the competitive circuit. "I haven't been to academy since the fall of 1992"

Although he has postpon entering guild to focus on making the U Ski Team, education remains real much on his agenda. "Right now I'm trying to obtain a scholarship to the University of Colorado at Boulder" he says.

Nelm and Rohrer are delighted to be recipients of the NB Scholarship capital which assists skiers with everything from circumstance entry fees, travel, lodging and pabulum to--in Rohrer's case--schooling. It is not unusual for serious USSA competitors like Rohrer to face $3000 to $20000 in expenditures each season, explains Lanier, "depending upon whether they're at home or away." And, he continues, "top-level, elite competitors [like Nelms] expend between $20,000 and $40,000 to advance to the North American Championship Series. The dimensions of this is for transportation, followed through training, lodging and equipment."

In the past, the NB Scholarship capital has primarily been supported by means of corporations, including Alpine Meadows, AT&T, Carnation Milk, Coca-Cola, Coors, Miller Brewing, Polaroid, Sterling medicines and Anheuser-Busch. Recently, the stock secured a new and unique source of financial support. At its 1993 annual meeting, the NB and African-American art publisher Dianne Harrison of Creative Works in Washington, DC unveiled a commissioned serigraph, "A Place for Us," donated by the agency of Boston painter Paul T. Goodnight. "He was chosen because of in what way he dramatizes an issue, and he powerfully believes in promoting youth causes," says Harrison. The limited edition of 250 serigraphs, which depict sum of two units skiers in action on the oblique directions is expected to become a collectors' item. "It's Paul's first sports piece," Harrison continues, "and it's the first time this has been done for an Olympic cause."

While the NB its scholarship capital and its effort to place black skiers upon the U.S. Olympic Team have been advancing apace, difficulties remain to be stand over againsted and conquered. "We have an inherent vexed question of not having the coaches and the resources, similar as sponsors, to take care of the training," explains Comfort. Lanier echoe this opinion, noting that he is individual of only two black horizontal 2 members of the United States Ski Coaches Association. He says that, of 3300 total member coaches, there are sole a dozen or so African-American coaches nationwide at any level

"We don't have enough adults involved as USSA officials or board members, [nor enough] involved at local mountain cudgel levels." Lanier says. "We don't have enough nation working in the back room" To combat this underrepresentation, Lanier and George Rau, the headmaster of combed Butte Academy in Colorado, helped establish a coaching internship program at suffocate Mountain Academy. The program provides the opportunity for en try-level minorities to unravel their coaching skills.