In the late 1970s, shortly after retiring from his position as the head of SIA, Doc DesRoche sat down with Tom Reynolds, who was the University of Maine at Farmington ski coach at the time. Doc DesRoche was concerned about the talent pool in the ski industry and wanted to do something proactive to help the situation. Basically, he was tired of being forced to choose between active skiers with limited business background and people with strong business credentials but no ski experience.
DesRoche and Reynolds decided that they needed to create a school for the ski industry. They put together a proposition for the University of Maine at Farmington, and in 1980, the Ski Industry program was born. The program has evolved somewhat over the past 25 years, the main change has been the inclusion of snowboarding, but essentially the primary goals have remained the same. The Program gives students the opportunity to pursue any major and receive a minor in the SnowSports Industry.
Leigh Beidenbach was one of the first graduates of the program and now is its director. She told BOSS, “Simply put we are interested in attracting the best young talent out there, and make sure they have a solid college education with an intensive focus on one of three areas in the SnowSports world: coaching/teaching, adaptive sports, and business.”
According to Beidenbach, the programs graduation rate is about 10-15 students every year, about 75% go into the SnowSports industry full time. Almost every student stays involved in the industry even if it is only part time. Like most successful education programs, the Ski Industry Program mixes real world experience with classroom time. Beidenbach has developed relationships with nearly every company in the ski industry and the program offers practicum and internships at companies like Boeri, NSAA, X-Games, Salomon, Ski Depot, Gravity Jones, Vail, ASC, Marker and many more. This years freshman class has 14 different guest speakers from different SnowSports companies throughout the first semester.
The program credits much of its initial success to the reputation of its founders, but since the program keeps churning out more accomplished alumni, that success has grown to a point where it is now a self-sustaining cycle. Students become graduates who become successful SnowSports executives who then share their knowledge with the current batch of students.
The program has become so successful, that many companies have made the University of Maine at Farmington their first choice for recruiting. “I enforce a strict dress-code with my students, and they are expected to be ready to give a top-quality professional interview at any time, because you never know when someone will drop by campus looking for an intern or a new hire,” said Beidenbach. “There isnt a single company in the industry that doesnt have at least one of our alumni on their staff
The list (of notable graduates) can go on forever.”
Beidenbach is not one to turn a blind eye to the problems in the industry. Every graduate of the program is acutely aware of the challenges the SnowSports industry faces.
“The biggest problem facing our industry is the flat growth. We deal with this in every class. We take a good look at the business plans and structures of all the major companies and resorts. We study the product, and we study current customers and how are we are delivering the SnowSports product,” said Beidenbach. “We also are looking at the conversion rate. Only about 16% of the beginners who try the sport stick with it. America is suffering form time poverty, and this does not match up with the traditional ski-week concept. We need to be more relevant to todays consumer.”
>>> This makes us wish we went to UMF; think of the possibilities
