All in the Family
2007 Water Ski Nationals

Article from West Marine

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By John Gregg Watsonville, CA. (August 20, 2007) — All the victors had been presented their medals at the 65th GOODE Water Ski National Championships in Ski West Village in Arvin, California, however, the biggest winners may well have been the skiing families. 

There were a number of different storylines to emerge from the 65th Tourney but none more compelling than the amount of families and in some cases three generations that took part in the annual event.  That meant everyone from Grandma and Grandpa to the grand kids.

The thing to remember about Dottie Troeger is that she first started skiing competitively when Dwight Eisenhower was President of the United States.  The matriarch of the Troeger family, 69-year-old Dottie, pulled down top honors in Women’s 7 Tricks was joined on the water with her daughter Libby Van Treese, who captured the top spot in Women’s 4 Tricks along with three of her children all skiing at the Nationals.  Factoring in that Dottie’s husband Ron is a former National Tricks winner and also one the very best senior  drivers in the sport and you soon begin to realize just how important water skiing is to the entire family.

“Ron and I were married in 1957 and we bought my father’s little boat with a 35 Johnson on it and we started skiing on the Ohio River and we saw someone skiing backwards and thought that was pretty neat and we figured we could do it,” Dottie Troeger recalled.  “We formed a ski club and built a ski jump put it on the Ohio River and learned to jump.  Now we have a real nice place to ski in Walton, Kentucky, just the other side of the Ohio River.”

The Trogers live in North Bend, Ohio and for Dottie the Nationals were the opportunity to ski with three of her grandchildren, 18-year-old Chris, his younger brother Ben, age 17 and Emily the youngest at 15. 

“I can’t tell you how neat it is.  Luckily I got to see all of them and I get really nervous with the kids and I think we all do.  You want them to do well and you support them the best way that you can,” Dottie Troeger said.  “I get to see them and they live out of town, they live in Sydney, Ohio, so that’s a couple of hours away.  They come down to practice with us because we have the ski jump.  We were all together at Regionals and then Nationals.   To have all your family together is really lucky because there aren’t a whole lot of families that get that opportunity.”

Dottie’s daughter Libby pulled down another national title but she was just happy that the entire family got a chance to compete.

“It’s lots of fun that’s for sure.  It is neat to see the kids follow in kind of a family tradition,” Van Treese explained.  “It has been tough for them once they got into high school because there are a lot of sports and other demands come on their time.  They pretty much go to their coaches and the Band Director and say ‘look this is a third generation deal and we are a part of it.  It is something we are going to do, what can we work out?’  My son Ben is going to be a senior on the varsity soccer team and even though two-a-day practices started a week before Nationals the coaches gave him an exception and said, ‘we know you are training and we’ll take you.  We know you are training hard for a national level sport and you come when you get back from the Nationals.’  That was kind of neat.”

Libby has been skiing just about as long as she can remember and she has had a great deal of success on the water winning national titles, however, she takes extra pride on what it means to ski in her family.  Winning is wonderful but taking part and always trying to do you best is what really important for all of the Van Treese kids.

“I was very proud.  Chris took 8th in the nation with very little practice and a shoulder injury and he skied great,” Van Treese confided.  “Ben skied in all three events and he had his longest jump ever at the Nationals and you can’t ask much more than that.  He also tricks very well and the two of us have been in constant competition with each other, which keeps me skiing really hard.  He pushes me to do everything.  It’s like, ‘oh, come on mom, you can do it, you can do it try this.’  I think it is that type of competition that keeps all of us skiing really hard and doing well.  My daughter is a dancer and she does ballet and tap, point and jazz, so she has a wonderful body position.  She came to me this summer and said, ‘I want your toe run.’  So, I said, ‘let’s get busy because you can have it.’  She has a great position on the water and it is fun.  My older son Chris works but Emily, Ben and I all still train together.”

The Trogers and the Van Treese clan were not alone on the water.  Former U.S. Team member Brenda Baldwin captured her first career Nationals overall title in Women 3, while her dad and husband both skied and medaled and also her two daughters were both on the podium in Girls 1 tricks.  Longtime U.S. Ski Team member Cory Pickos along with his two gifted kids, Adam and Alexis each won their respective trick events.

The Greenwood family out of Little Rock, Arkansas was also well represented on the water.  The dad Scott along with his wife Jane and both of their children 13-year-old Brittany and 11-year-old Sam all managed to pull down medals. 

“All four of us took part in all three events.  It was pretty awesome.  Scott and I grew up in separate parts of the United States skiing with our families,” Jane Greenwood said.  “We met in college at the University of Louisiana-Monroe and then we had kids and they started skiing because we skied as a married couple, so they’ve been kind of in the boat since birth.” 

Brittany captured the 13 and under overall championship in addition to setting a pending Girls 2 national jumping record on her winning third and final attempt; Sam finished 4th in tricks and 7th overall in his division. 

“We get to spend time together.  We all have a common interest and we all drive to the lake together,” Jane Greenwood explained.  “We spend a lot of time as a family; husband and wife and children together [it] is awesome.  We are all on track on who is where and who is doing what and it’s great.  Scott is the main coach and I do the boat driving and coach when he isn’t there.  I’m the fill-in coach.”

Florida was also well represented at the 65th annual tournament held in California by the Gay family. Russell Gay along with his wife Jane and then seven-year-old daughter Anna, who took second place in Girl’s 1 Tricks all took part in the tourney.

“I skied in the Women’s Tricks 3 division and I won that division and I skied well and my husband Russell skied in the Open Men’s and took second,” Jane Gay said. “He has stress fractures in his foot and a torn chest muscle and just started skiing before the Nationals and he pulled it together and he was great but it wasn’t his best performance.  It was really nice to go to the tournament and not just go for yourself.   It was nice not to just drag your kids so you could compete.  My son Ryan didn’t ski but he does ski and he’s four and he loved it.  It was just nice that the three of us could participate and we hope that next year Ryan can be part of it.”

There is yet another long tradition of skiing in Russell’s family and his father Gordon Gay is a very accomplished skier and a member on a number of U. S Senior teams.  Russell and Jane met in school when they were both members of the Rollins College Ski Team and they have never lost their passion for the sport. 

“When you are training and practicing it is great because you go out in the evening, or whenever you ski and Anna skies and everybody is focused on Anna,” Jane Gay said.  “Then it is Ryan’s turn and we are all focused on Ryan, it is just a great family sport.  You can go along if you are two weeks old, or 90-years-old.  Everybody can be a part of it.”

For so many families water skiing is just one more family bond that holds them together, at least that’s the way it is for the Trogers and the Van Treese brood.  It is difficult to imagine a sport in which so many different generations can still spend time together practicing. 

“I look forward to end of school so we can just go to the lake,” Libby Van Treese explained.  “My kids will go down and stay at Grandpa and Grandma’s for a week at a time to train with them so they can water ski.  My mom is skiing and they’re skiing and they are coaching each other and they are pulling each other.  I don’t think they don’t realize that most grandparents don’t do all this [laughter].  It is not normal.”

What’s the attraction, what’s the reason why so many families continue to ski together over the generations, well, Dottie Troeger thinks she just might have a pretty good idea.

“It is almost addictive, I mean I go skiing every day and in fact I’ll be going to the lake later today.  I like all the people that are involved,” Troeger believes.  “It is a family sport so when you go, I just love for our young people to be with those young people and even if they are competitors they are still friends.  My granddaughter [Emily] E-mails a couple of the other girls and they stay in contact during the winter even if they are scattered all over the country.  I think that’s just good for families.  It is just good for our kids.  I think the water skiing is the cohesive thing that keeps us together.”