Bare-bones financing

BREMERTON, Wash. – The donations kept coming, some with little notes attached. Some of the donations weren’t so little. “Good luck in Nagano – make Kitsap County prouder than we already are!”

Those were the words on a card signed by Debbie, Lynn and Kay Hill. The mother and two daughters own DLK Moving in Poulsbo, a sister company to Hill Moving.

They sent along a $3,000 check to help a hometown athlete, Bree Schaaf-Boyer, in her quest to succeed in the obscure sport of skeleton.

After three World Cup races, Schaaf-Boyer is the eighth-ranked slider in the world but was going to have to pay her way to the fourth World Cup race – which took place Saturday in Nagano, Japan – because the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation only had enough funds to send the top two Americans (male and female). Schaaf-Boyer of Bremerton is No. 3.

“You’re going to max out your credit card to represent your country,” said Kay Hill Cook of DLK when asked what prompted the generous donation. “It just wasn’t right. We just decided to do something.”

Her mother, Debbie Hill, coached Little League and umpired for years on Bainbridge Island. She grew up at a time when women didn’t have a lot of opportunities to succeed in athletics.

“Women the last 20-30 years have really come into their own,” Debbie Hill said. “Bree’s determination to go was a real inspiration for us. And we really wish her a lot of luck.”

There were 35 others, at last count, who also felt compelled to give to the “Bree Fund,” which was established on Dec. 18 by the Kitsap County Bremerton Athletic Roundtable after reading in these pages that Schaaf-Boyer had spent most of the last off-season working off a $9,000 debt to cover expenses for four races in the Europa Cup, where she placed second in the series. That circuit was a stepping stone to make the U.S. World Cup team this season.

To maintain a top-12 ranking in the world, which will ensure a spot in the World Championships, Jan. 25-26, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Schaaf-Boyer was preparing to break out her credit card again.

Now, she won’t have to do that.

Recently a check for $6,225 – the total on the final day of the drive – was handed over to Schaaf-Boyer, who left for Nagano, by way of Chicago (it’s a long story).

The money will cover her expenses to Japan and for a portion of her travels to Europe, where four more World Cup races and the world championships await. This is all preparation for her ultimate goal – the 2010 Olympics at Whistler, British Columbia.

“I picked the sport because it was just a really exciting opportunity,” said Schaaf-Boyer, who first got interested while watching the 2002 Olympics on television with her brother, Tim Schaaf, a former Olympic High athlete and American slider whose promising skeleton career was cut short by injuries. “At first it was all about sliding: ‘Wow, this is incredible.’ Sliding face-down an icy track is not something many people get to do.

“Once I took to it, it became, ‘Wow, I can do this. I’ve got the size and the speed to be good.’ And so from there it became, ‘I can go to the Games.’ “

Here are her thoughts on what’s transpired the last few weeks:

“This is unreal,” she said. “I came home exhausted from the first half of the World Cup tour, wondering how on earth I was going to pay for Nagano in order to get to the World Championships. But coming home to an article in the Kitsap Sun asking people to join my effort brought tears to my eyes, and many more to my mom’s.

“I knew when I made World Cup that the expense of the Nagano trip would be looming, but I was so focused on my initial season goals (first making the World Cup team, then performing on World Cup to keep my spot) that I wouldn’t have time until after the race in Lake Placid to begin figuring out a way to get to Japan. The federation needed a verbal commitment from me, and since competing in a World Championships has also been a long time goal of mine, I threw my hat in the proverbial ring. I figured if I had to work all off-season to pay for this one trip, it would be worth it.”

Sponsorships are difficult to come by in non-Olympics years, especially when you compete in a sport that is difficult to see or relate to (she paid $3,500 for a state-of-the-art-sled this year, and she rides it face-first down an icy course, reaching speeds as high as 70-80 mph at times).

“I truly can’t thank the community enough for the amazing kindness and generosity in helping my endeavor. Having the community that I grew up in band together to help me realize a dream is the greatest, most unexpected gift I could receive. … it’s just an amazing feeling knowing that there are so many people out there rooting for me, wanting me to succeed.”

She said there’s nothing like traveling the world and mingling with athletes from different countries. Yet skeleton can be a lonely sport at times.

“At times you feel like you are the only person that wants you to succeed,” Schaaf-Boyer said. “I’ll never have that feeling. Even when I’m standing on the start line by myself waiting to go, I’ll know that I’m not alone, that I’ve got an entire community half a world away supporting me.”