The Winter Sports School held its graduation ceremony last Friday for a class defined by strong academics, extreme athleticism and a sense of humor that carried them through four years together in one of Utah’s smallest high schools.
Twenty-eight students received diplomas, with 14 earning honors by completing at least 10 advanced courses with GPAs of 3.5 or higher.
Assistant Head of School Megan Altman said the group stood out for its blend of drive and personality despite the typically tiny class size. The Winter Sports School is a public charter high school program made for students who compete in demanding winter sports. The school condenses the academic calendar, running from April to November, allowing athletes to dedicate their time solely to their sport during the winter months to train and travel for competition.
Students attend classes five days a week and move through full academic days, but because the entire curriculum is fit into the April–November window, the pace is fast and students cover material more quickly than they would in a traditional school year. Small classes and attentive teachers play an important role in helping students keep up with that accelerated schedule.
“It’s also an academically driven class. The pace here is swift, and they showed commendable commitment to both academics and athletics, ” Altman said.
After graduation, most students plan to attend four-year colleges, though final admissions decisions won’t arrive until the end of winter. Several seniors said they intend to take gap years to continue ski racing, hoping to earn collegiate or national-team placements.
“The Class of 2025 is one of the sweeter, sillier classes I’ve known,” Altman said. “They know who they are, and they aren’t afraid to show their authentic personalities.”
That sense of personality and the closeness that comes from small classes and shared competitive goals set the tone for the ceremony.
Student Body President Zeke Sherman addressed the packed Jordanelle Ballroom at the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley with a string of shoutouts that made clear how well the 28 graduates knew one another. Instead of offering a formal reflection, he rattled off inside jokes and the individual habits that only a class of this size would notice.
He teased classmates for their infectious laughs, their “mysteriously cool cars,” their unexpected Costco trivia and the way they always looked out for each other. He thanked the students who stayed calm in a crisis, the ones who brought laughter into every room and the few who never stopped surprising the class with strange hobbies or their unfiltered sense of humor.
“What we built here wasn’t just a class,” Sherman said. “It was a balance of drive, individuality, teamwork, ambition and patience.”
His classmate Sam Eden leaned into the humor that has defined the class since freshman year. She remembered moments that became part of the Class of 2025’s shared lore — a student sprinting past a classroom window after being caught using Siri during a chemistry test and an AP Calculus class forced to relocate because the Spanish class downstairs had become “a little too spirited.”
Eden teased her classmates as she showed how those shared moments, along with long training days and a demanding academic schedule, helped define the steady momentum they now carry into the future.
“As we walk out of the ceremony tonight, we’re stepping across a threshold we’ve been eyeing for 13 years,” Eden said. “Luckily, our class excels at forward motion. Place one foot in front of the other, pick up speed, but no matter what, never stop moving forward.”
By rearranging the academic calendar and compressing core courses, the Winter Sports School creates room for students who want to push themselves, whether they begin at the top of their sport or far from it.
“On paper, I never should have been a ski racer,” said graduating senior Avery Johnson. “But I was addicted to the feeling of getting better and sliding across snow.”
She said the school gave her space not just to race, but to become the kind of person who believes difficult things are worth attempting and sticking with, regardless of results.
Johnson said developing that mindset changed her understanding of success. She described watching the Class of 2022 graduation livestream multiple times as an eighth grader considering enrollment and promising herself she would one day speak at her own commencement. She said that in realizing that dream of giving her speech, she said, she realized the community she built at the Winter Sports School mattered more than any result she earned on the hill.
“Somewhere along the way, I had the realization that I’ve already won,” she said. “My life these last four years has been overflowing with love, laughter and purpose.”
Johnson and her classmates said the school brings together students who are adventurous, driven and willing to push each other to go farther in ways that extend beyond competition.
“It’s a well-knit group,” said Sherman. “I think I’ll be friends with them for a long time.”
Sherman said the Winter Sports School allowed him to keep ski racing at a level that wouldn’t have been possible at a traditional high school. He, like many of his peers, trains and travels year-round, including international camps in the Southern Hemisphere. The school’s schedule and support allowed Sherman to stay on track academically while pursuing those opportunities.
He described the Winter Sports School community as one where everyone knows each other, where personalities are celebrated and where students push one another on and off the snow. Sherman said he is graduating with appreciation not only for the people he met, but for the chance to pursue skiing seriously while continuing to excel in academics.
“I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity I’ve been given,” he said. “I know it’s rare. I’m trying my best to make it all worth it.”
Students said the school gave them room to build identities that stretched beyond a single label of skier, snowboarder, artist or math student, and to see themselves as people capable of doing many difficult things at once.
For Ashley Sell, being surrounded by classmates training at a high level, taking challenging courses and balancing travel with schoolwork made obstacles feel like part of the process rather than signs she didn’t belong.
“Perspective can turn a setback into a lesson, a disagreement into an opportunity for understanding and an ending into a beginning,” she said.
Sell said the Winter Sports School encouraged individuality and gave students room to interpret their challenges in their own way, helping them grow not just as athletes or students, but as people ready for whatever comes next.
Altman added that the class embraced comedy as easily as competition. Their senior prank was a perfect example. In previous years, seniors had decorated classrooms, but this year, teachers said the class couldn’t set anything up inside the building.
Instead, the seniors moved the prank outdoors, blocking the school’s front doors on a rainy morning and staging a mock wedding while students and staff waited until just after 8 a.m. to enter.
Teachers also noted that academic excellence extended across disciplines, reflecting on the school’s motto, “Competitors for Life,” which encourages students to take on challenges in multiple directions. Eight students this year were recognized for their academic strength, leadership and contributions to the school community.
Seniors were recognized for achievements, including advanced math and physics, standout work in Spanish or English and visual art.
Sell received the Stein Eriksen High School Merit Scholarship, presented by the Youth Sports Alliance, to put toward her first year of college as well as the Kay Wright Award, which honors the senior who most fully represents the mission and spirit of the school.
Ella Dressen earned two academic honors: the Dave Sieger Award, given each year to the outstanding senior in the study of mathematics and science, and the school’s award for excellence in art.
The Sam Jackenthal Citizenship Award went to senior Luc Brand. The honor recognizes the student who best reflects the school’s core values of leadership, integrity, teamwork, tolerance, trust and personal growth. Ron Jackenthal, the founder of Live Like Sam, presented the award and thanked the community for continuing to carry on his son’s legacy ten years after his passing.
The school presented two math awards this year, recognizing Eden and Ethan Campbell. The science award was given to Oliver Sanders, and the English award also went to Eden. The school honored Kieran Gabrielson with the Spanish award, and the social studies award went to Joe Lennon.
