Jack Reading Memorial Awarded to Allegany Native
Jack Reading Memorial Awarded to Allegany Native
Hard Work Pays Off: Cait Conroy Receives Jack Reading Memorial Award
Those who have been around the ski racing circle at Holiday Valley may remember Jack Reading, who was endearingly referred to as “Grandpa Jack,” for his genuine charisma and his unwavering dedication to the sport. The award which now bears his name and has been given out since 1985 was recently given to 16-year-old Allegany native, Cait Conroy, who skis for the Holiday Valley Race Team along with her alma mater. A gathering of over 100 skiers, parents, and coaches took place at the Tannenbaum Lodge at Holiday Valley to celebrate Cait’s accomplishments and receipt of the award.
EllicottvilleNOW caught up with Conroy, along with her coach John Carbaugh, and Holiday Valley Training Center Director Miguel Azcarate, for comments.
Cait Conroy receiving Jack Reading Memorial Award
“It’s truly such an honor and I think it represents all the time and hard work I put in at Holiday Valley, and support from my coaches, my teammates, and my family. I’m so grateful and honored to be recognized,” said Conroy by way of phone interview.
The high school sophomore began skiing at the age of three and started skiing competitively at age 11. After having completed her second year in the U16 age group, Conroy will advance to the U18 age group next year.
“We compete all over,” she said. “We have training at Holiday Valley every weekend in the winter and then we’ll have races around Kissing Bridge and HoliMont - those are the closer areas, but we’ll also go to Whiteface and some other resorts out there, like Labrador,” she said. “It’s really fun! We race all over!”
John Carbaugh, Cait’s coach and the athlete representative on the Board of Directors for the New York State Ski Racing Association, is proud of her accomplishments. “I’ve been with Cait for over three years; when I first trained her, she was a very, very confident skier, and definitely one of the best in the area,” he said.
Carbaugh explained that the pair focused on basics this season, working repeatedly on drills and fundamentals. “What I always tell the kids is, I only get to see you guys really for 4-6 hours on the weekends, and in the case of winter camp, a week… but outside of that, you have every day to go skiing and to continue to work on things, so I try to push them and keep training. Cait really took that above and beyond and skied, I would imagine, every single day during the winter. It wasn’t just race training - it was going out with her friends, or going alone. She just skied and skied and skied,” said Carbaugh. “And throughout the season, she gradually increased and became better and better and better. She brought a good attitude every single day and just had such a good turnaround of a season. I think that it’s through the passion, through the hard work and the commitment, that brought her this award,” he said. “It wasn’t a question for any of us that she would win the award this year.”
Cait Conroy (left) with Miguel Azcarate (right)
Miguel Azcarate, who co-owns Mud, Sweat n’ Gears with his wife, Kimberly Reading (the daughter of the award namesake), and who is also the Training Center Director at Holiday Valley, agrees. “Not every kid works as hard, not every kid is perseverant, not every kid is such a help for the coaches, but Cait is always positive, always upbeat, someone who is really a role model for the rest of the kids,” he said. Azcarate, along with other coaches from the Ski Race Team, make the decision of who should receive the award.
Originally called the Most Outstanding Skier Award, Azcarate said that the name was changed to the Jack Reading Memorial Award in 2019.
“Jack was very involved with the ski team for years. He was always helping with all the events. He just became a character there, so he was always at the start for every race,” Azcarate shared of his late father-in-law. “He would give the start for all the kids, and all the kids knew him as ‘Grandpa Jack’.”
Azcarate noted that the award exemplifies “perseverance, resilience, hardworking, humble, being a good teammate… a role model for all the other kids in the program,” adding that these were attributes of Jack Reading. “He was humble, he was hardworking - so the match is perfect.”
When asked about her motivation to compete, Conroy shared that it is a reflection of the amazing community of the Holiday Valley Race Team. “I’m so thankful for Miguel and his leadership and everything he has done to support the race team. He was the one who welcomed me with open arms coming into racing. My coaches, too, they’ve been supporting me throughout the years. They get out there extra early, setting up the courses, everything that needs to be down the hill. They’re such great mentors,” said Conroy. “And also, my teammates; it’s the camaraderie shared between us that made the journey just that much more special and they just showed me what it means to really be a part of a team with their endless support,” she said. “Even though the sport can be individualized, I think we just come together, and we push each other every day, and that’s what makes it such a great team.”
Carbaugh added, “As a coach, you want to see somebody put in their best effort, and Cait is probably the best person to coach and to work with and to be around because there is never any emotion or drama that is brought into it. She’s there to learn, she’s there to have fun, and her motivation makes it just so easy to coach, which in turn makes you so into coaching with her,” he said.
“Competitive skiing has taught me so much,” Conroy shared. “It has taught me discipline, patience, resilience, what being on a team truly is, and what that means, and those are lessons that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.”