After eight years, an era is ending at Biddeford High School. No more will the Tigers field an Alpine ski team.
Call it Paradis lost.
Curtis Paradis will graduate this spring having carried on a family tradition started by grandfather Howard (a 2013 Maine Skiing Hall of Fame inductee following a 35-year coaching career in Madawaska) and continued by father Mike (the 1977 skimeister state champion when ski jumping was also in the mix) and sister Erin (a 2011 graduate of Biddeford High who won SMAA slalom and giant slalom titles).
Erin paved the way as an independent skier. She was nominally aligned with Cheverus High (her Shawnee Peak coach also coached the Stags) and Curtis followed the same path for the succeeding four years. During that time he won three Class A state titles, including the giant slalom last month at Mt. Abram to go along with his 2012 and 2013 slalom victories.
He also won every SMAA Alpine race he entered this season and was the first Maine finisher in both slalom and giant slalom at the recent Eastern High School Championships held at Gunstock Ski Area in New Hampshire. At the EHSC Paradis was 12th among 99 slalom skiers and 19th out of 103 in giant slalom.
“I like taking risks and being on the edge and sending it to the post office,” said Paradis, the Maine Sunday Telegram’s choice as boys’ skier of the year.
Sending it to the post office?
“That’s just a term me and my buddies use,” he said. “You just lay down a really good run.”
Paradis, who also runs cross country and plays lacrosse, went over the edge last winter at Shawnee Peak with three gates remaining in his second Class A giant slalom run after posting the fastest time in the first run. He helicoptered, crashed and, after spitting up blood, wound up spending the night at Bridgton Hospital with a bruised lung.
He returned this winter and, aside from breaking a pair of skis midway through the season after jumping from the starting gate, was back on track. Then came the state meet, and Paradis fell in his first slalom run and missed the third-to-last gate in his second.
“I just figured it was in the past and I can’t let that carry on to the next day,” he said. “Right when I woke up in the morning I said I will not be doubting anything.”
He won giant slalom by more than a second, posting the fastest time in both runs.
Part of the reason for his successful comeback can be attributed to his visits to Madawaska with his grandfather.
“I usually go up for about eight weeks at a time,” Paradis said. “He used to be a marathon runner back in the day so every morning we’d go out for a run. I’d come back and lift weights, then go out mountain biking for an hour or two. He lives on a really big hill, so I’d roller-blade down that and do ski turns. He always says, ‘One more!’ when I’m gassed.”
Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or at:
Gjordan@pressherald.com
Twitter: GlennJordanPPH
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