Climbing a mountain of adversity takes the right people.
Going down the mountain does, too, something the state champion girls’ skiing team at Detroit Country Day School knows all about.
“It’s a team sport at the end of the day,” said head coach Geoff Becker. “Having that compassion for your fellow team members is really, really special.”
DCDS won its first title in program history at the MHSAA Division II Finals in February, posting a team score of 91 at Schuss Mountain in Mancelona.
“The night before state, coach was asking us what everyone’s goal was,” said junior Coco Lowman. “I was like, ‘we’re going to win.’ I believed in us, and I really thought we could do it.”
Lowman and her teammates had to overcome more than stout competition to pull off the upset.
The 2026 season and more than four decades of competition at DCDS all trace back to the influence of Patty Costigan, who launched the program with her late husband, Dan.
“Coach Patty was always there for us and really supportive,” said junior Eve Tice. “She cared about teaching people to love to ski and really wanted people to have fun skiing. It was her number one thing: have fun.”
Costigan instilled Becker’s passion for the sport, too, during good times and unthinkable challenges.
Poised to take over the head coaching role from Costigan in 2024, Becker was met with a medical setback.
“I was up north at Otsego and had a seizure at a race camp,” Becker said. “I got airlifted down to the hospital in southeast Michigan. They conducted a full craniotomy, saw a mass in my head. It turned out to be grade three astrocytoma—cancerous.”
After a hospital stay, Becker participated in speech and occupational therapy, while coach Patty and the kids did all they could to support him.
“They didn’t ever rush me,” Becker said. “They didn’t talk over me. They waited for me to finish what I had to say. I just knew right then, and there I was with the right program.”
Becker took over the team from Costigan the following season, but nothing could prepare them for New Year’s Day 2025, when their mentor unexpectedly passed away.
“We just had a candlelight vigil and just told stories about Patty,” Becker said. “I think that was bonding for the team to share that experience. Having a loss like that, the silver lining is it brings the team together.”
“We really had to be there for each other,” junior Avery Siudara agreed. “Also, I think patience was a big thing.”
All the hard work that followed was a testament to Coach Patty’s final lesson: with patience and perseverance, they could accomplish anything.
“We knew we wanted to honor her legacy and finally get that state championship that she never had when she was coaching,” Lowman said.
DCDS doesn’t have access to the same sweeping slopes or practice time as its northern competitors, but it stayed the course all the way to state.
“That was kind of scary,” Siudara said of the finals runs to the state crown. The team skied undeterred anyway. “I was like, ‘I’m telling you all, I’m going to cry.’ And I did.”
Once slalom and giant slalom runs are tallied up, final scores are kept secret from athletes until a group reveal. Becker knew before everyone else.
“It was just overwhelming,” the head coach said. “A waterfall of thank yous.”
“The thought that we actually would do it was just unfathomable,” Siudara added. “I just never thought it would happen. It’s just like a dream come true.”
Blood, sweat, and tears aren’t a cliché on this championship journey.
Through it all, there was never a doubt about who believed and empowered them most.
“It really pushed us to want to win for her,” Lowman said. “We know that she’s celebrating in heaven and so happy for us.”