Great pic! I remember those years well, and wringing the hands over whether to go the ski academy route or not at about that time. Both of our kids were real passionate and hard working. Loved the sport. Both now adults....and retired racers. It's a long road, and in our family, we'd do it again in a heartbeat. Or, we might move to another part of the country to do it a bit differently. This technology thing opens up many options.
Great sport, but one with a lot of ups and downs. Can be cruel at times. It teaches SO many life lessons. Been part of my family a long time. My parents raced before WWII. Only one of my wife's parents raced.
My advice to all is to remember that it is a long haul. Our son coaches in a very large, very intense program, year round. He loves it, and he works hard. Our daughter's in the business world, and "only" skiing about 60-70 days a season. We're so glad that we all share a love of skiing. It doesn't always work that way. Very easy to burn out in this endeavor. When my son was the age of Epic's daughter, he was in a training group of six. One went on to the USST. Five skied at the NCAA level. Three were captains, many were AA's. Incredibly unusual. My daughter's training group had two ski in college. The two phenom's were done as J1's, and I think no longer ski at all. One of the more interesting bits of ski history in our house are some result sheets from our kids J3 Junior Olympic years. Fascinating to see how the entire deck was re-shuffled between then, and when they were 18-19. Same names, very different results for most. A very small handful stayed at the top.
Many kids kept making steady progress. Some at the top slowed down. Some quit. Some changed their on snow focus. My son arrived at college {as a 21 year old FY} and two kids that he raced with at those JO's were there. Both captaining other sports teams, and really not skiing at all. Both had quit racing at 14-15, and had no regrets. Were loving life. My daughter was racing in pretty big events in her 20's with a bunch of kids that she had begun racing with at age 7. She met her college roommate at J2 Nationals, when they were 15. About half of the kids there, the "best" in the country, were out of it by the time they were 19.
She still often skis with "kids" that she's skied and raced with since they were toddlers.
So yes, take the long haul. One of my favorite coaches told me a long time ago that he liked my wife and me, because we "got" it. He was chuckling, and I asked where he was going. He said "You guys grew up doing this, so you know your role. Cheer every kid, give out a ton of hugs, bring a lot of good food, and write big checks." That was pretty constant through all of the years. Some years less food, more checks.
Epic, hoping for a speedy recovery for you daughter. Great pic, Subtle proof that there's more to Jay Peak than the powder, too. VT's NVC, serious stuff!
Have fun!