At the 54th Annual West Virginia Governor’s Cup at Timberline Four Seasons Resort in Davis, Snowshoe resident Keith Poore won top honors in the competition and his father, Mark, won the Anita and Bob Barton Award.
Keith won first place in the giant slalom and slalom, and those combined scores helped him take first place in the Governor’s Cup.
No stranger to competitions, the younger Poore has been skiing for nearly 30 years, sharing a love for the sport with his parents.
“[I’ve been skiing] probably since I was five-years-old,” Keith said. “It’s just the best sport in the world. There’s a sense of freedom, being outside and being able to basically go wherever there’s snow.”
At one point, Keith was competing in up to 50 events a year, but his competitive spirit has taken second place to his family with wife, Ancha.
“I’ve gradually started to wind things down because of starting a family,” he said. “I’ve been shifting focus to them. I’ve got a daughter, Tanith, who just turned three and I’ve got a son, Deluca, who is one.”
Although skiing has taken a partial backseat to the family, Keith has found a way to combine his two loves.
“I’ve had both of them on skis already,” Keith said of his children. “I tried to get him on skis before he turned one but things kept happening, I couldn’t get him out. He was probably a year and a week old when I got him on skis and he did really well. He’s not doing it on his own or anything but he seemed to like it.
“My daughter, her first time was at around nineteen-months and that was during the Sandy storm two years ago,” he continued. “We skied for a week just in the yard and ever since then, anytime she sees snow and anytime I leave and there’s snow, she’s like ‘are you going skiing?’ She’s really into it.”
Keith’s wife, a former non-skier, was his ski student as well, making the sport a family event for all.
While Mark isn’t a competitor in the skiing circuit, he has continually promoted the sport, especially in West Virginia.
“The award I received is in recognition of my dedication and promotion of the skiing industry in West Virginia,” Mark said. “Anita and Bob were promoting the industry from the beginning and helped pave the way for where we are today.”
Keith owns and operates Alpha Bear Construction at Snowshoe and Mark has Mark Poore Photography, also at Snowshoe.
Suzanne Stewart may be contacted at sastewart@pocahontastimes.com
