TRAVERSE CITY -- This winter has been a busy one for Travis Hill.
The first-year Petoskey ski coach is adjusting to a new town, new job, new team and added a second child to his family in January.
Now he hopes to top it off with a state title -- or two.
"It's been a busy winter," Hill said, "and a very rewarding one."
Hill came to Petoskey from Harrison, where the Hornets won the Division 2 boys state crown under his tutelage a year ago.
The Northmen are one of many area teams gearing up for Mondays' state skiing finals.
Traverse City Central and West are in both the boys and girls Division 1 finals at Boyne Highlands, while Division 2 is filled with local squads hoping to make a mark. Harbor Springs, Boyne City, Manistee, Cadillac and Traverse City St. Francis are in the boys field, while St. Francis, Harbor Springs, Manistee, Glen Lake and Petoskey compete in the girls portion.
"It's just exciting to see the whole Traverse City skiing program doing as well as they are," said TC West coach Ed Johnson. "You look at the Olympic year and how well the U.S. is doing in the Olympics and it gets people excited. And with a local ski program like the Grand Traverse Ski Club, which has brought these kids up and then dispersed to Central and West and some to St. Francis, it makes for strong high school programs. We're excited about the upcoming years; we've got more good stuff coming."
Petoskey's girls won their regional and junior Kyle Antonishen and freshman Brian Erhart qualified as individuals on the boys side in both disciplines.
The Northmen boys will likely be strong again next year, considering the team doesn't have a senior and could return completely intact. The Petoskey girls have three seniors, which could pay big dividends immediately.
"The girls team altogether is hungry for it," Hill said. "Last year, their teammate, Victoria McVickers had dual wins, but it just wasn't enough to get them over the top of Manistee. They have an eyeball on Manistee this year, but it's not a two-team race. It'll be heavy competition."
Manistee, the defending girls Division 2 state champion, dominated its regional to win the crown and earn a spot in the nine-team finals field.
"I'd like to see a performance like at regionals, where they just stepped out in front," Hill said. "And they can do that. I think they're ready to pull it together. Their practices this week have been spot on."
Skiing on their home slope doesn't hurt, either. The Northmen and Harbor Springs both use Nubs as their home base.
"It's a comfort level," Hill said. "Those kids have been skiing at Nubs Nob since they started skiing. They're going to get out of bed Monday morning and go to their second home. They're not going to get on a bus and travel an hour or so to another venue. They're not like some out-of-town teams that will be traveling this weekend."
Hill said he doesn't think the course will give the Northmen too much of an advantage, though.
"The two biggest factors are coming mentally prepared and putting all the pieces together in their skiing ability to be the fastest athlete out there. Harbor Springs, it's their home hill, too. The Harbor Springs girls took their conference this week and did very well at regionals."
TC West, which is hoping to keep up with boys and girls regional champ TC Central, is familiar with the finals' other venue, having raced twice at Boyne Highlands this season.
"We're looking forward to a really good day on Monday," Johnson said. "Mike Waning and Austin Johnson over there have done an incredible job at Central, and they've got a strong team and a lot of depth. But I think we can be right with them. The last race or two, we've been running close."
"We could very well see the Traverse City teams going first and second. That would be first, at least as far as I know. That would be really exciting."
TC Central won their only race of the year at Boyne, taking both sides of the season-opening Petoskey Invitational on Jan. 3. The Trojans had a practice run there on Thursday.
"It's going to be a barn-burner all the way to the end with both the men's and women's," Waning said. "We've got to come out right from the get-go and set the standard high right away. We can't come out flat."
Traverse City had a 1-2 finish in the boys regional and were 1-3 in girls, with Central winning both.
After winning twin state titles last year, Marquette came up just short in both regionals.
"We're deep, and that's what it's going to take to win," Waning said. "Just like at regionals, we went five down before we won it. And that's what it's going to take again. They wait for each other at the end of the runs and cheer each other on. They look for me right away at the bottom to radio the course reports up so they work as a team. There's not one superstar on the team. They all work together."
Central's girls won their regional on a tiebreaker with the defending Division 1 champion Redettes. The Trojans also won the boys regional, with the Titans 33 points back in second and Marquette third.
"Our girls are going top have their work cut out for them," Johnson said. "There's a lot more teams that can sneak in there. But I see our girls in the top four. But you never know. You may see two teams like Central and Marquette that decided they have to battle the whole thing out, and I've seen it before where a team like West can sneak in the back door and have both of them standing there wondering what just happened."
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