At the time, Colon was the Alpine ski program director at Northwood School in Lake Placid. He watched as talented skiers left the area to attend ski academies like Burke and Stratton in Vermont. Those schools had set training times, while Northwood skiers faced uncertainty at Whiteface. Whiteface’s racing trails weren’t fenced off, either, so recreational skiers could weave in and out of the slalom course.

“I tried to talk them into staying here, but at the last minute they would go to Burke, and why not?” Colon said.

Colon started to realize that Northwood’s Alpine ski program would inevitably fade away if they didn’t create a more formal one.

“We knew that the state was in charge of the mountain. We had to get them on our side,” Colon said. “Otherwise, it’s the same thing: ‘Oh you can’t train today.’ We’d get down there with 12 kids in a van, and we’d have to go free skiing.”

Ted Blazer, left, and Horst Weber (Provided photo — NYSEF)

This was the start of the New York State Alpine Training Center — a name that would be changed to the New York Ski Educational Foundation in 1984 after ski programs were added at Gore Mountain and new sports joined the organization.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of NYSEF, an organization based in Wilmington that has a history of creating educational opportunities for children and young adults through athletic training in snow sports. The organization has produced more than a dozen Olympians.

“It’s been a lifetime of history and part of my family’s heritage as well,” former executive director and part-time ski jumping coach Jay Rand said.

Before NYSEF came about, Colon struggled to find someone who could work in an office and had an understanding of ski racing. That was until Faris Taylor, the former chair of the New York State Ski Racing Association, volunteered. She turned NYSEF into a state-wide program and connected with state Assemblyman Clarence D. “Larry” Lane to help state officials in Albany buy on to make NYSEF a formal 501(c)(3) a nonprofit organization.

Once the 501(c)(3) became official, the Alpine Training Center took full shape. Horst Weber served as the head coach from 1981 to 1984 before becoming program director in 1985, according to NYSEF’s website. He held that position for 15 years, responsible for Alpine programs at Whiteface and Gore in addition to cross-country and ski jumping.

NYSEF coach Jimbo Johnson poses with a group of kids. (Provided photo — NYSEF)

As other coaches took over, Colon left NYSEF to continue working at Northwood. In 1982, Colon left the area to kick-start a ski academy in Maine called Carrabassett Valley Academy, which later produced six-time Olympic medalist Bode Miller.

Colon has since returned to the area. While looking back on the program’s 50-year history, he was proud to see how far NYSEF has grown over the years. The organization has since grown to include seven disciplines across five training venues. Freestyle skiing (moguls and inverted aerials) was added to NYSEF disciplines in 1994 while snowboarding was added in 1999.

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Current state

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When NYSEF first kicked off in 1973, 24 kids signed up. Now the program boasts nearly 600 athletes annually across all of its venues, according to Executive Director John Norton.

“We have kids from all different walks of life, all different physical strengths, many local, many second homeowners,” Norton said.

Norton has been the executive director since 2016. In recent years, the program has continued to expand, including to Bellyare, a state-run ski center in the Catskills.

Today, NYSEF offers disciplines in Alpine, Nordic, biathlon, Nordic combined, ski jumping and snowboarding. Each of its programs has produced elite-level talent at the Olympic and World Cup level.

“The number of high-level athletes that have come through the doors and worked with the Bruce Colons or the Horst Webers or the Chris Jones is just super-high,” Norton said. “It’s an incredible number. It’s a huge family of high-level athletes.

During the 2010 Winter Olympics, NYSEF claims it was the most represented domestic ski program in the country. During those games, two NYSEF athletes, Billy Demong and Andrew Weibrecht, walked away with Olympic medals. Demong won gold and silver in Nordic combined, and Weibrecht won bronze in Alpine Super-G — and then silver at the 2014 Olympics.

Weibrecht said that while there were a lot of steps to get to that Olympic level, his first 10 years with NYSEF were a big reason why he was successful.

“It was just building that foundation so I could prepare to make the next steps when I was in a place to do and be successful as I transitioned onto the National Team.”

Weibrecht said he spent most of his childhood winters with NYSEF. The coaches he said made a big impact in his career were Petra Weber, Jimbo Johnson and David Smith.

“It was one of my biggest social outlets. It was the avenue that I took to become an athlete to reach the level of athletics that I did,” he said. “Like all kids, it started out being all casual and being fun. As I progressed, NYSEF was able to progress with me and to give me the tools that I needed to continue down the path that I was in ski racing.”

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A NYSEF family

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Norton describes NYSEF as an extremely close-knit family of hard-working individuals who share a love for snow sports.

“It’s a group of athletes and family members that can count on each other and be supportive in whatever endeavors they have post-skiing or within skiing,” he said.

Norton also spent a lot of his childhood with NYSEF. He grew up in the Albany area, and his family owned a house in Schroon Lake. He got his start when he was 10, through the Gore program after an acquaintance of his father told him to try NYSEF.

“My sister and I started at Gore,” Norton said. “I raced there through my sophomore year and did two years at Northwood — my junior and senior year I went to Northwood — so I stayed in the NYSEF program at Whiteface. I went to St. Michael’s College and did winter coaching.”

Norton started coaching international women skiers and came back to NYSEF as the Alpine program director in 2010, before taking over as the executive director.

Prior to taking over, Norton also had a helping hand in creating the winter term tutorial program for homeschoolers.

“NYSEF has been a huge upbringing and my life really,” Norton said.

Jay Rand, who held the position of executive director prior to Norton, said NYSEF is one of the most dominant organizations in his life, too.

Rand grew up in Lake Placid and was a member of the U.S. ski jumping team for over a decade in the 1960s and 1970s. He first got involved with NYSEF as a member of the 1980 Winter Olympic organizing committee. Shortly after those games, Rand managed the ski jumping complex for 15 years for both the town and the state Olympic Regional Development Authority. He later ran Whiteface for ORDA.

“Throughout that time I had three daughters who were all ski racers, and one was also a ski jumper,” Rand said. “One also participated a bit in the cross-country ski program. All of my daughters were involved in that program. It’s a fantastic program.”

Rand said his oldest daughter, Ingrid, was coached by Horst Weber around the late 1980s and 1990s.

“(Now) I have seven grandkids, and most of them have been involved in one way or another in NYSEF,” he said. “Now my granddaughter, she’s a ski jumper. She started ski jumping, and she’s 7.”

Rand’s granddaughter also happens to be Andrew Weibrecht’s daughter. So far she has taken on her grandfather’s sport.

“She’s going to do the Alpine program this winter, but she also really enjoys ski jumping,” Weibrecht said. “That’s kind of what she has been doing this summer. It’s really cool to see that all come full circle. For her to be enjoying it in the same way, it’s nice to see that even 30 years later it still exists and that program is set up to be a really supportive, fun experience regardless of where they are at.”

After 50 years, NYSEF will wrap up the summer season with an annual benefit, which has been going on for around 40 years.

“It’s sort of the end of summer fun time for everybody to get together and tell stories,” Norton said. “One of the things we’ve started to do that we’re pretty proud of is we spend some time honoring our long-time volunteers or athletes that performed at a high level for the season and recognize them for their accomplishments.

“It’s generally just a good time, and hopefully supporters, alums, parents or friends and acquaintances get to know us and celebrate what NYSEF has accomplished and where he are headed,” he added. “Really just to get to know people and have some fun.”

The NYSEF Summer Benefit will take at the Olympic Jumping Complex in Lake Placid on Saturday, Aug. 19 from 6 to 10 p.m.