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During a recent clean up and work party at the ski club an ancient scrap of paper was discovered in the rafters of the cat shack. Although discolored with age and rodent droppings much of the text could be deciphered. It turns out that this piece of aged paper contained the handwritten notes from Marty L. King Jr., Jim and Pete's distant third uncle removed. As the story goes some time ago on the eve of a ski race Marty stopped by the club to give the young Cazenovia ski racers one of his famous and inspired pep talks. This particular one went something like this:

"I Have A Dream"
by Marty King, Jr.

"I have a dream that one day on a snowy hill in Cazenovia the sons and daughters of alpinists and the sons and daughters of telemarkers and the sons and daughters of snowboarders will be able to sit down together at a tabletop of brotherhood. I have a dream that my children will one day live in a world where they will not be judged by the color of their ski suit but by the character of their carving. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made skiable, the ruts will be made plain, and the crooked places skied straight, and the glory of Cazenovia Ski Club shall be revealed, and we shall all see it together. Let skidom ring from every hill and every molehill of Cazenovia. From every mountainside, let skidom ring. We will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Alpine spiritual, "Ski at last! Ski at last! Thank God Almighty we can ski at last."

Although Marty drank a lot and was later disowned from the King family his words still inspire young Cazenovia Ski racers to this day. And inspired racing was what took place Sunday, January 18th at the opening race of the Central New York Ski Racing Council at the Skaneateles Ski Club. Although due to a protest by a parent in dire need of a real life, results for the race are harder to come by than weapons of mass destruction in Iraq we can tell you this; Cazenovia simply dominated the event.

In the J5 Female division Kaitlyn Button, the Tiny Tiger of Perryville, skied to a fourth place finish. This continues her streak of top ten finishes which began early last season. Also skiing strong for Caz in this tough division was Alex Verbeck. Both Coach Button and Lapham were particularly impressed with Alex's huge improvement and look forward to a strong season from her.

Over in the J5 Male division Barclay, Bode Miller, Talbot, blazed to a third place finish. Although characteristically cryptic with reporters Barclay did credit his rigorous off- season training regime for some of the early positive results. The skiing of the Smith brothers, Nate and James, was nothing to cough at as well. Both looked much improved over last season and expectations for them continue to be high. Unfortunately their times and places are being held hostage to the protest.

In the Fun Run, Cazenovia was all business. Aaron "Eggs" Benedict blew away the competition with a first place finish in the boys group while Sara Fellows walked away with a second place finish in the girls group. Newcomers to the Cazenovia Alpine racing team and skiing in the Gate Busters division were Sammy and Jamie Brownback, Jack Woltman, Will and Sam Fellows, and Cole Willard. Coach Lapham was very enthusiastic about this strong core of young racers. "This is one of the strongest group of young skiers we've had in a long time at Cazenovia. And when you consider the rich tradition of racing at Cazenovia that's saying a lot" Annie exclaimed excitedly.

Next week the travel team heads to Greek Peak for week two of the 2004 racing season. Don't forget to sign up for the Cazenovia Dual Slalom on February 8th. Another Ski Club Classic.