Adjusts well in second year in J4 level
By: Justin Feil
Kelly Rowland expected to have a better ski season than she did last year.
Last year, competing at the J4 level, the West Windsor resident routinely faced girls older than she was. This year, as a 12-year-old in the J4 level, she was among the older competitors and she didn’t disappoint. She actually exceeded even her biggest goals by reaching the Eastern Regional Championship.
"I think it is the best year for me," Rowland said. "This is the first time I made it to this competition. The fact I made it to here helps me know it’s better this year."
A year ago, Rowland just barely finished on the outside of making Future Stars Camp, which goes to the top six finishers at the Pennsylvania Alpine Racing Association J4 Derby.
"Going into this year’s season, I wanted to make it to Future Stars Camp," Rowland said. "I went beyond that which is good. Last year, I missed this camp by just a couple hundredths of a second which was really stinky."
Rowland not only secured her spot in the top six this year at the PARA J4 Derby, but missed the very top spot by just three-hundredths of a second. Her second-place finish earned her a special place competing in the Whistler Shootout that was held Sunday at Sunday River in Bethel, Maine, to lead up to Future Stars Camp.
"I went to other competitions that involved girls from Vermont and New Hampshire," said Rowland from Maine. "This is the first competition I’ve been in that involved the whole Northeast.
"We were confident that I’d make it to Future Stars Camp. I didn’t know I’d make it to the Whistler Shootout. That’s only for the top two girls."
Rowland made a strong showing at the Whistler Shootout against girls that ski two or three times as much as she does. The winner goes on to compete at Whistler, British Columbia against some of the top young skiers in the world.
Rowland was 13th in the giant slalom and 10th in the slalom before breaking her thumb on a fall on her final run. Her thumb ended any chance of skiing during the Future Stars Camp that finished Tuesday at Sunday River, but it couldn’t diminish quite a season.
"This is the most important year for me because it’s the last time I was in J4," said Rowland, who is a seventh grader at Community Middle School. "I’ll go in a harder age level group next year."
She exits the J4 level after a solid showing against the best skiers in the Northeast. It was a special finish because it showed she belonged among the elite at the Whistler Shootout and set her up for a bright future.
"This is the biggest one," Rowland said. "Not a lot of people come here. It’s postseason. It’s after regular competition is over. This will be the last one."
When Rowland begins at the J3 level for 13 and 14 year olds next year, she will have some help in developing her considerable skiing skills. Rowland has accepted a place for next year’s winter session in the Burke Mountain Academy in Burke, Vt. Burke has produced more than a hundred USA ski team members and 10 Olympians in its quarter-century history.
"They only take one or two kids for this winter term," Rowland said. "When I went there, they acted like they liked me. They asked if I wanted to come train with them. We didn’t know what would happen."
Matriculating to Burke Academy will help Rowland share some of the advantages of her fellow racers, such as daily practice. Despite not skiing as much as some in the Northeast, Rowland was the top qualifier in the Eastern Pennsylvania region this winter after winning a pair of slalom races, one giant slalom race and finishing second, third and fourth in three other competitions. Rowland is excited to see how she fares with more practice time.
"Usually, I only train on the weekends and one day is usually a race," she said. "If I got there, we knew I could train every day in the morning then go to school in the afternoon.
"If I could train all this time," she added, "I can become better and hope to go to the next level."
Kelly Rowland already has reached a high level in a short time. In her third year of competitive skiing, she developed into one of the top two skiers in Pennsylvania. Those steps put her on pace to strive for plenty of even better seasons and her Olympic-sized goals.

