Aldrich steps down as Middlebury nordic coach

Aldrich steps down as Middlebury nordic coach{mosimage}After 30 years as head coach of the Middlebury College nordic ski team, Terry Aldrich has announced that this will be his final season at the helm of the program.

‘I started coaching at the college level in 1972 at the University of New Hampshire’ Aldrich said via e-mail. ‘Last year I finished my 30th year as head nordic ski coach at Middlebury, and I felt that after 34 years of coaching, it was time to turn the reins over to someone else.’

But he’s not retiring. ‘I’ll still stay on at Middlebury as head coach of men’s and women’s cross-country’ he added, nothing that he is coaching 55 athletes in the running program this year. Under his tenure, the women’s cross-country running team has won the NCAA Div. 3 title three times. He will also continue to work with an expanded number of physical education classes and will assume administrative duties as an assistant director of athletics effective July 1, 2006.

‘I’ll certainly miss the camaraderie of the coaches and the excitement of the races but not the long van rides’ he said.

LaFountaine, Shaw inducted into UVM Hall of Fame
A pair of NCAA champions are the 41st and 42nd skiers to be inducted into the University of Vermont’s Athletic Hall of Fame. Gibson LaFountaine (’95) and Andy Shaw (’86) join several former Olympians in the university’s Hall of Fame.

A native of Lake Placid, New York, LaFountaine was a two-time All-American and a key member of UVM’s NCAA championship ski team in 1994, the last time the Catamounts won the national team title. The top-ranked female collegiate slalom skier in the United States for three straight seasons, she captured two NCAA slalom titles in 1993 and 1994 and joined fellow UVM Hall of Famer Gabriella Hamburg Sutro (class of ’90) as one of two Catamounts to win the national slalom crown more than once.

Two-time All-American and 1984 NCAA giant slalom champion Andy Shaw was also inducted into the UVM Hall of Fame. A native of Stowe, Vermont, Shaw is a member of one of the state’s top skiing families. His father, Gail, was a standout skier at Middlebury College and his mother, M.J., is a longtime director of the Mount Mansfield Ski Club in Stowe. His brother, Tiger, was one of the top U.S. alpine racers in the 1980s, and his aunt, Ann Shaw Savela (’53), founded the UVM women’s ski team and was inducted into the UVM Hall of Fame in 1984.

Both skiers said it was an honor to be recognized for their accomplishments and to join an esteemed list of fellow skiers in the Hall of Fame. LaFountaine did not take sole credit though. ‘To be recognized for my individual accomplishments feels tremendous’ she said, ‘but more importantly, I was a member of an incredible team. I want to share this honor with all of my teammates because my individual success was really a group effort.’

Shaw cherished the memories brought by his Hall of Fame induction. ‘It archives a snapshot of my life that was so incredibly fun and that generated so many great friends, memories and stories that have shaped me into who I am today’ he said.

LaFountaine now lives in Watertown, Massachusetts, and works for bicycle manufacturer Seven Cycles. Shaw lives in South Burlington, Vermont, and owns his own independent sales agency, Shaw & Heald, which he started in 1989 with former teammate Scott Heald. Shaw has also started ski racing again. Last April, he entered Stowe’s annual Sugar Slalom. ‘At the age of 41, I returned to the masters circuit for one last hurrah’ he said. And it was a true hurrah, as he won the master’s category. ‘As long as everyone ages with you, it’s all relative. I wasn’t even close to the fastest (junior) 1s and 2s but beat all the old guys my age!’