Varsity Maine Girls’ Skier of the Year: Brooke Boone, Yarmouth

Yarmouth High’s Brooke Boone won the slalom and giant slalom races at the Class B Alpine state championships in February at Black Mountain in Rumford. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

In the arc of her lifetime, Brooke Boone knows there was a period before she was comfortable skiing down a mountain slope.

She simply can’t remember it.

Brooke Boone

“It could have been around 2,” she said. “I actually was born at Sugarloaf, and used to live there year-round until we moved to Yarmouth.”

She was 3 when that happened. Fifteen years later, she accomplished a feat rare in the annals of Maine high school skiing. The Yarmouth High senior won every slalom and giant slalom race she entered in Maine this winter.

Boone won the Class B slalom by more than three seconds and Class B giant slalom by three quarters of a second. She proceeded to win all four runs – two in each discipline – at the Maine Shootout.

She is our choice as the 2024 Varsity Maine Girls’ Skier of the Year.

The only time she didn’t win a race was at the Eastern High School Championships at Attitash Mountain in New Hampshire. She placed 11th in giant slalom, the first finisher from Maine. Poor weather forced cancellation of the slalom event.

Boone participated in the Carrabassett Valley Academy weekend racing program from age 9 through 14, after which “you either go to the academy or you race for your high school,” she said, having opted for the latter.

“She’s always been good,” said Yarmouth’s first-year head coach, Sean Lynch, who coached Boone when she was in middle school. “But I don’t think she ever dominated until this year. She just took off.”

Lynch said Boone’s offseason training paid off. She plays soccer in fall and lacrosse in spring, works hard in the weight room and – after soccer and before skiing – manages to squeeze in ice hockey, her father’s sport at the University of Maine.

Nothing compares with skiing, however.

“It’s just a really different feeling once you’re skiing,” Boone said. “There’s a pure connection with the mountain. It’s just me. There’s no coaches, teammates or other noises around. You can put all your energy into one quick minute.”

Although Yarmouth won the Class B Alpine title a year ago, this winter the Clippers stumbled to seventh in giant slalom but regained their footing in slalom and climbed back all the way to runner-up honors behind Fort Kent.

In the fall Boone plans to attend the University of Denver, ski for fun and likely play club lacrosse. She is leaning toward a major in biology. Over the summer, she works as a lifeguard at Scarborough Beach.

As a sophomore, Boone won a slalom state title and was runner-up in giant slalom. Last winter she placed fourth in giant slalom and got disqualified in slalom. She knew this season would be her final one as a competitive skier, and she wanted to make the best of it.

“I think honestly the pressure I put on myself made me perform even better,” she said. “I still had a lot of fun and the team was super fun.”

Boone also provided her new head coach with some anxious moments early in the season, when he worried she might miss her appointed start times. She always showed up, but often cut it close.

“Her place would be coming up and I’d be panicking,” Lynch said. “Finally, she was like, ‘Coach, I don’t like to sit at the top of the course. I want to get here and I want to ski.’ So she taught me something as a coach, that every athlete is different.”

Boone said all she needs before shoving off is a few arm swings and leg swings to warm up. She doesn’t want to get cold or worry about what could go wrong.

For this season at least, everything seemed to go right.