'Over the moon': Cohasset High ski team cherishes unprecedented season

Jason Snow, The Patriot Ledger

March 14, 2022 at 10:39 PM·4 min read

The Cohasset High ski team's banner won't rest blank over the school's gymnasium floor anymore.

It now serves the purpose of cementing the 2022 team in school history: the Skippers won the Ski East League title for the first time. And with the state competitions on Tuesday, they're not done quite yet.

In what was a season of firsts for the girls team, in particular, sisters Viola and Gabrielle Henry took home some illustrious hardware. Viola, a senior, won the A.J. McEachern Memorial Race, and Gabrielle, a junior, won the Peter Wall Memorial Race. It's the first time Skippers had earned those trophies, too.

Cohasset sisters Viola, left, and Garielle Henry after a race. Viola is holding a trophy for the Peter Wall Memorial race, Gabrielle with the trophy for the AJ McEachern Memorial race.

“Everybody was just over the moon (about) both the team victory and the fact they won individually. The Henry sisters demonstrated incredible leadership,” head coach Jack Dane said. “I can’t describe enough how excited (the team was) to win these trophies.”

The sibling bond doesn't end at the Henry's, though, as they are one of four pairs Cohasset has on both its boys and girls rosters. Elizabeth and Robert Blanchard, Caroline and Maggie Brinzey, and Libby and Rex Schiffmann make up part of the valuable depth Dane relied on more throughout this season than any other. He's never coached a team quite like this one.

“They would push each other rather than compete with each other, which is exactly what I wanted,” Dane said. “It was kind of unique. Not like (sibling rivalries) would’ve been a bad thing. Sometimes you want to use them to enhance performance; it’s not cut-and-dry what the right chemistry is.”

The Skippers, who won 13 races as a team this season and edged out Needham for the league title after a back-and-forth chase all year, have five girls competing in the state meet on Tuesday -- the Henry's, the Brinzey's and Elizabeth Blanchard. Caroline Brinzey is a junior, while Maggie Brinzey and Blanchard are both freshmen.

Cohasset High ski coach Jack Dane, back, joins the girls team after a race.

Dane, who has been coaching the team for over 30 years, says this team sets itself apart from others of the past due to its shared character and overall number of racers (16).

“That’s sort of the most fascinating and enlightening aspect of the season. Skiing is an individual sport that you’re on a team for,” Dane said. “This team was composed of some very driven, alpha-type personalities on the girls side and they could’ve gone off on their own little islands and resided there covertly. The beauty of this team was, that just didn’t happen.”

“When I review the season," he added, "that sticks out in my mind more than the actual victories.”

Cohasset's Gabrielle Henry during a race.

Among the 84 racers on the girls side in the Ski East League, Cohasset boasts six in the top 22. Robert Blanchard, a talented eighth-grader, represented the boys side of less experience at the No. 20 spot in the league.

“This team is by far the most talented team just in terms of having six people compete the way they do,” Dane said of the girls' side. “(It’s) unprecedented in terms of depth, performance and aptitude.”

Cohasset won the Ski East League over rival local schools Hingham, BC High, Scituate, Norwell and Notre Dame Academy and even earned the MIAA sportsmanship award. Dane hopes that the success this team brought can be a sign of things to come, despite tough competition ahead.

The Cohasset High ski team after a race.

In an analogy, he likened the feeling around this year's league title to the Patriots' first Super Bowl win in 2001, to a degree. Dane is not expecting a 20-year dynasty to unfold by any stretch, but the emotions around the 'firsts' are now woven into the program's fabric, especially with the team's young talent playing a key role. Perhaps more wins will come down the slope, but Cohasset's collective triumph this year is a singular treasure.

“It’s not inconceivable that we could have similar results in the future, but the fact that this is the first time we’ve done it in the conception of the program puts it into an entirely different category. And nothing can take that away,” Dane said. “The feeling that was generated by this season, nothing can eclipse that.”

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Cohasset High ski team eyeing states after winning first league title

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