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It was no surprise that Jake Miter chose to be Jesus at a parish presentation of the Stations of the Cross a few years back. He's good at staying perfectly still.

The 18-year-old Grafton native needs that patience when he rushes head-first down an ice track in a single-seat sled, competing in skeleton, a winter sport that made an Olympic comeback in 2002. In the luge, by contrast, one sleds feet-first and face up.

Steering meticulously is important to skeleton sliders.

Today, Jake is balancing college courses in sports management in Vermont, a defensive back position on the school football team and, four days a week, a spot on the Eastern Regional Development Team of the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federa-tion in Lake Placid.

His goal is to become an Olympic athlete. He appealed to parishioners for financial support in a talk last fall at Our Lady of the Snow parish in Grafton, where he was confirmed.

Full of surprises
His public speaking feat, as well as his athletic accomplishments, came as a surprise to those who describe him as quiet and shy; he often chose to be a greeter or take up collections in church instead of being a lector.

"I had seen this growth from a boy to a man taking on this dangerous role," said Julie Darling, a catechist and trustee at Our Lady of the Snow.

She had known Jake skied with his family as a child, but she didn't know he'd moved on to Olympic-level skeleton competitions.

Throughout his life, coaches had discouraged Jake, who stands five-foot-eight and weighs 160 pounds, from playing football. Middle school coaches said he wouldn't play in high school; high school coaches said he wouldn't play in college.

Moreover, skeleton is usually a sport for 25- to 30-year-olds. But Jake continues to beat the odds in both sports by lifting weights three days a week, sprinting for over an hour twice a week and passing up parties.

Full speed ahead
He eats as much as he can to build up muscle mass; his start times often suffer when he's forced to add weight to his sled.

"I'm not one of those people who are going to listen to what other people say," explained Jake, who was forced to sit out from football last fall when he had surgery on a broken thumb.

The Olympic rings in his room at home show he's a goal-setter. He started bobsledding when he was 10, winning three bronze medals and placing fifth twice in the Empire State Games.

But the once-weekly practices weren't often enough and bobsledding not "serious" enough for him, so he tried skeleton at 16.

When Jake first started competing at a high level, his bruises were so deep they turned brown, said Sheri Miter, his mother. He reached the point where they were only black and blue last season.

His skeleton coach, Don Hass, says he has potential to make it to a national training program that leads to the Olympics. After college, Jake will decide whether he will pursue the world team for the 2018 Winter Games.

"We'll keep him going as long as he can," said Mr. Hass, noting that Jake reminds him of John Daly, a skeleton athlete in his mid-20s competing in the Vancouver Olympics now.

Jake knows he cannot make a career out of skeleton; he will need to find a job that allows for training time. But, he said, "Unless something catastrophic happens, I want to pursue this."

Balancing budget
The program at Lake Placid provides Jake with lodging and meals, as well as access to sports medicine facilities. When he was still in high school, his parents drove him there once a week.

An annual December camp cost $550, and coaching and mileage cost close to $750 a year. His parents spent at least $2,000 in 2009.

Parishioners' donations - about $300 - will cover gas and equipment. The drive from Grafton takes about three hours; the drive from Castelon, Ver-mont, about two and a half.

When big races approach, Jake stays at Lake Placid for two weeks at a time. His professors at Castleton State College have been supportive and allow him to email assignments.

The dangers of the sport have weighed heavily on the minds of those who know Jake lately: An Olympic luger died in a training accident Feb. 12. Jake and other Lake Placid athletes took a week off from training after the incident.

"The sliding community is pretty small, so it's sad if we lost one of our own," Jake said.

There is always potential for crashing, but family and parishioners pray for his safety, Mrs. Miter said. Jake himself reasons that skeleton is less dangerous than luge.

"There's definitely always a little bit of a fear factor," Jake said. "The key to skeleton is relaxing. That's the most challenging thing - relaxing in this minute of chaos."

(02/25/10) [[In-content Ad]]

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