Byline: CAILIN BROWN Staff writer
ALBANY The dwindling days of summer, precious to so many, are practically being rushed out the door for 35 city girls who are headed for a weekend of winter sports training in Lake Placid.
While local folks are squeezing in those last summer barbecues and the final days of softball and sailing, 13- to 18-year-olds will be trying their skill at luging, skating and skiing this Labor Day weekend.
The free three-day trip, sponsored by Winter Sports for Girls and the Albany Police Athletic League, will expose youngsters to sports they might not learn about and give them a chance to work with role models, including Olympic athletes.
The girls and their parents met this week with Police Officer Lisa Simmons, who will accompany them to the Olympic Training Center.
At the center, the girls will see demonstrations by world-class athletes and will take part in the same exercises the athletes do, including in-line skating for speed skaters, trampoline work for acrobatic skiers, and a trip down a miniature luge run. They also will shoot rifles, a skill familiar to biathletes.
``One of the major goals is to provide positive role models,'' Simmons said Friday. ``Possibly, somewhere down the road, they may become interested and skilled to the point where they could be athletes themselves.''
In May, Simmons visited 35 local schools in search of girls who qualified for a chance to go away for the sporting weekend. The students had to attend classes regularly, behave well in school and be recommended by principals and gym teachers.
`'The girls we chose are girls that are good in school, their grades are up and they've never been in troubles,'' Simmons said. ``We wanted to say, `We know you're out there, and this is a reward for all your hard work,' '' Simmons said.
One of the founders of the Winter Sports for Girls program is Tamara St. Germain, an Averill Park High School graduate and a member of the U.S. Ski Team from 1989-1993.
``The goal of the program is to give girls a chance to learn about all the different sports, giving them a different perspective on the way people live their lives,'' St. Germain said Friday from Colorado.
The weekend will teach girls goal-setting and teamwork skills and show that they can be competitive in a sport on the field and yet continue friendships off it, St. Germain said. She said women don't learn the same skills as men do in team sports, and they sometimes end up being catty or holding grudges.
Cynthia Danzy of Albany sent her daughter, Katrina, 16, on the trip last year, and she will go again next weekend,
``I thought she would enjoy it and get a chance to meet a lot of different people and a chance to do some traveling,'' Danzy said. ``She can't wait to go back.''
Katrina, an Albany High School sophomore, just finished working her summer job as a day camp counselor at the Church of Jesus Christ on Clinton Avenue.
``I like the luge,'' she said. ``It was fun because in the real Olympics you can see people going down and when I tried, it was really fun. It felt different. Cold and fast.''
The trip is also sponsored by Key Corp., which is providing the bus transportation to get the girls to the site.
``While chances are these girls will not be gold medalists, it gives them a chance to experience something new and meet young ladies from around the state,'' said John Mastriani, president of Key Brokerage Co. in Albany. Along with the Albany contingent, Key is flying in eight girls from Cleveland. Girls from the North Country will also participate.
