Despite the impressive individual wins, the notable award, serving as varsity captains for three years each, and nearly 30 years of combined downhill experience, the captains for Williston’s Alpine program are about as laid back as you could expect two leaders to be.

“I feel like I try to really embrace the love of skiing, the love of being a part of a team, and giving that back to the skiers,” said senior captain Emmett Gould. “I love getting people into this passion of mine and passing this knowledge of the sport on to others.”

Since sophomore year, that’s what Gould and his co-captain, Sierra Grandonico, a day student from Hatfield, Mass., have done with heart and humility for the 16 athletes on the Ski Team, which finished their year on February 25 competing in the NEPSAC Class C Championship at Catamount Mountain Resort. Gould placed eighth in slalom. Grandonico said she didn’t do well, but that racing, for her, “is not totally about my time, it’s more about having fun with the team.”

Gould chimed in, putting forth the idea that as he gets older, the time on the clock isn’t his only objective.

“I’m able to accept that I’m doing it for myself,” he said. “I’m outside, skiing, doing the thing I love with great people. There’s a lot more to skiing than just times.”

According to head coach Chris Tanguay, both Gould and Grandonico excelled at their roles over the past three years.

Grandonico, Tanguay said, was consistently strong in encouraging team bonding and camaraderie—both are crucial for the frequent long bus rides the team takes—as well as fostering a love of the sport in younger athletes.

“I just like to be a friend,” she said. “It’s a very friendly team, nobody has any ill will. It’s never like, ‘this person got playing time over me.’”

Gould, a day student from Williamsburg, Mass., has been Williston’s top skier since ninth grade. Tanguay named him captain as a sophomore and came to rely on his expertise.

“He just knows so much about racing,” said Tanguay. “He’s really good at working with younger kids and trying to keep everyone competitive.”

In that regard, Tanguay said Gould has served as “an unofficial assistant coach. He’s great at keeping everyone involved, giving good tips and pointers when he sees something that I might not. He’s just been a great leader this year.”

It’s no surprise, then, that Gould was the recipient of this year’s Zephyr Rapinchuk Award, an honor given to the athlete who best exemplifies kindness, enthusiasm, love of skiing, and mentoring others.

In his remarks after Gould won the award—named in honor of Rapinchuk, a Northampton skier who, in 2011 at age 18, died in a skiing accident in Lake Tahoe—Tanguay spoke to just how much Gould embodies the spirit of the trophy.

“Emmett Gould exemplifies the spirit of the Zephyr Rapinchuk Award because he truly embodies kindness, enthusiasm, a love of skiing, and a commitment to helping others,” Tanguay said. “A three-year captain, and the team’s top racer since he entered the program in ninth grade, Emmett has been a leader from the moment he joined the team. Even with an inexperienced and often short-staffed coaching group, he never hesitated to step up.  As a freshman, he was leading slips for races, offering technique tips, and suggesting drills when we couldn’t set up a course, and nobody, including six-year seniors, questioned it for a second.”

Tanguay said a strength of Gould’s is that “over the past four years, he could have easily become frustrated with the program, but instead he showed up every day with a positive attitude and genuine enthusiasm.”

It’s clear Gould and Grandonico, both of whom grew up skiing for Berkshire East’s Ski Racing Team, ski for the love of the sport, the love of being outside, and the joy of getting the next crop of racers ready.

Tanguay, in his remarks at the Rapinchuk awards ceremony, told a story of Gould encouraging younger racers to challenge him.

“When he was beaten for the first time by another member of our team in his Williston career, he pulled the sophomore aside to make sure he knew he should be proud,” Tanguay said. “Great racing like that is exactly what our program needs.”

Aside from their positive approach to mentoring their teammates, Grandonico and Gould admitted there is an intense training regiment that goes into being a competitive downhill skier. “It’s not just those two minutes on the course,” said Grandonico. That training includes—in addition to hours nearly every day at Berkshire East—twice-weekly lifting sessions and “dry land” mobility training, which focuses on mobility, legs, knees, ankles, joints, and “all the little muscles that you don’t usually use in your day-to-day life” but that are crucial to effective and fast racing.

Though the season is over, both Gould and Grandonico are planning a ski trip to Vermont over March break and will miss the deep connection they say the sport facilitates. They have advice for their Wildcat teammates, many of whom are years from graduation, just like they were when they became captains.

“Keep putting in the effort,” Gould said. “Don’t let the fact that we’re not the best impact you. Have fun, do your best, don’t think about it like, ‘oh no I’m not placing top 10.’ Push yourself from how you were in the beginning of the season.”

Grandonico is attending the University of Tampa next year, so may see a little less action on the mountain; Gould is going to Bates College and is already planning on joining the club team and getting runs in at nearby Black Mountain.