NEWRY, Maine -- On March 11, 2020, Bates alpine skier Arie van Vuuren placed 29th in the giant slalom at the NCAA Championships in Bozeman, Montana. He was scheduled to compete in the slalom two days later, but the country shut down and the Bobcats have not competed in an EISA or NCAA event since then due to the pandemic.

This Friday and Saturday, at long last, the Bobcats return to the slopes when they compete in the Colby Carnival, hosted by the Mules at Sugarloaf Mountain. 

Led by senior captains van Vuuren (Boulder, Colo.) and Sarah Gillis (Branford, Conn.), the Bobcats are ready to race. Head coach Kurt Simard served as the interim head coach throughout the year of no competition before being promoted to the permanent position in June.

"We got off to a good start Thanksgiving week with some training," Simard said. "We did a training camp and then we transitioned into some open races, we call them scrimmages. So we've been able to see a little bit of how we're doing, and we're pleased." 

On the men's side, the Bobcats have a young team, with six first-years out of the 11 skiers on the roster. A pair of sophomores are essentially rookies as well, leaving van Vuuren, fellow senior Patrick Gallagher (Stowe, Vt.) and junior Crawford Jones (Killington, Vt.) as the only Bobcats who have experienced what it's like to compete on the carnival circuit. 

Simard sees sophomore Bo Underhill (Newbury, N.H.) as someone who could make an immediate impact this season. He is looking forward to seeing how the roster sorts itself out, as teams can only send six skiers to compete in any given carnival.

"It's obviously a completely different team than it was in March of 2020, I wasn't even here yet at that point." Simard said. "I think Arie, Crawford and Bo will lead the way, and there's others. I won't name too many more names. We'll see how it all shakes out. They'll make their own name when they get there." 

For van Vuuren, the desire to get back to nationals is an almost singular focus.

"We're basically to the point where managing that hunger is where we're at with Arie," Simard said. "It's good that people know that (making NCAAs) is possible for others on the team as well." 

On the women's side, a trio of seniors lead the Bobcats. Gillis, Tess Coutu (Foster, R.I.) and Daphne James (Sausalito, Calif.) have all scored plenty of carnival points through the years for Bates, with Coutu ranking 37th in the slalom and 33rd in the giant slalom on the EISA circuit in 2020. 

Gillis missed her first season due to injury and her junior season due to the pandemic. But her passion for the program remains strong.

"She really cares about the team tremendously and she's a good skier as well," Simard said. "I expect her to be scoring some points for us this season. All three seniors are really strong leaders for us." 

The women's roster is smaller than the men's but boasts a little more experience, with junior Grace Schierwagen (North Hampton, Pa.) having impressed as a rookie two years ago. 

"I think this past week the women's team has really started to find its stride," Simard said. "And we have two or three first-years that I think we'll get into the mix.

"We're ready to go."