Jay Pier may be just a freshman, but he already figures big on the Freeport Alpine Skiing Team, having, for instance, played a major role in their second-place finish at States. But when the high school season ends, Pier doesn’t stop skiing, and he recently showed his stuff as a member of the Wildcat Mountain team, winning both the slalom and giant slalom at the U16 Eastern Finals at Sunday River March 6-9 and earning himself a trip to the Am-Cans at Mont Tremblant, Quebec a week ago.

The Wildcat Mountain team participates in the New Hampshire Alpine Racing Association, one of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association’s eight Eastern Region programs. The squad races mostly against other New Hampshire outfits, but also in surrounding states as the season progresses.

The season, by the way, naturally overlaps with the high school season – when the cold weather hits, when the snow comes, after all, is essentially when skiing has to happen. Luckily for Pier, and other kids in his position, “the high school ski team is on weekdays,” he says, “and the Wildcat Mountain team is on weekends.”

“So, in the winter, it’s pretty much skiing all the time.”

“In the beginning of the year, it’s qualifiers,” Pier says, “to see how to rank you among the New Hampshire kids, and then there’s other races you can get into. There’s Eastern Finals, which is the one I made, at Sunday River.”

At that event, not only did Pier win the slalom and giant slalom, he also took sixth in the Super G. The performance advanced him to the Am-Cans, where he faced some difficulties. “I didn’t go out for the Super G,” Pier says. But then he went up for the giant slalom and the slalom – the giant slalom was canceled due to weather – and in the slalom he missed a gate, and had to hike back around it.

But those are live-and-learn moments, and at just 15, Pier’s best years are surely still ahead of him. Now, while some of those will be with Freeport, he can’t stick with Wildcat Mountain past this year, as they don’t have a U18 squad for him to grow into. So he’s in the market for a new mountain. He hasn’t picked one yet, but is hoping to continue racing in New Hampshire.

Why New Hampshire, if he lives in Freeport? “My grandmother lives up in New Hampshire,” he says, “and my cousins used to do the Wildcat Mountain team. So it’s always just been a family thing that we did at Wildcat.”

Like most accomplished athletes, Pier’s been at his sport for quite some time. “Since I was really young,” he says. “Since I was getting dragged behind my dad down the mountain with a rope-tow.” In the ensuing years, he’s cut through his fair share of powder. He’s even skied the Swiss and Austrian Alps, numerous times.

Pier plays soccer in the fall and ultimate Frisbee in the spring, but skiing is his primary interest, and the one on which his off-season training focuses. He’ll be lifting weights through the summer in preparation for next year, and he’s hoping to attend a camp at Mt. Hood, in Oregon.

His Wildcat teammates are a group of friends for Pier entirely separate from his high school pals.

He has, however, had the opportunity to race against fellow Falcon Blake Enrico a few times – Enrico skis for Sugarloaf. But, while he admits to enjoying the camaraderie and the competition, his favorite memory is “just every powder day. Finding pockets of snow, and skiing for fun.”

Jay Pier waits inside the starting gate before one of his runs at the U16 Eastern Finals at Sunday River.

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