FALMOUTH — In an age of increasing specialization, Ben Adey is a generalist. He changes sports with the seasons.

The one thing that doesn’t seem to change, however, is that at the end of each season, Adey has a medal around his neck from yet another team championship.

A junior at Waynflete School in Portland, Adey is preparing for the Alpine skiing season with the Falmouth/Waynflete co-op team. In February at Shawnee Peak, Adey finished sixth in giant slalom and ninth in slalom to help Falmouth win its third straight Class A Alpine state title.

Last month in Falmouth, Adey played left back for the Waynflete soccer team that beat Mt. View, 4-0, in the Class C state championship game. A year earlier, Waynflete defeated Fort Kent, 3-1, for the title.

Last June, Adey won 6-0, 6-0 at second singles as Waynflete beat Orono 4-1 to claim a record 12th straight Class C boys’ tennis state championship. The year before, Adey capped an undefeated doubles season with classmate Aidan Kieffer as the Flyers shut out Mattanawcook, 5-0.

That’s six team titles in seven athletic seasons. Only his first fall of high school, when Adey swung between varsity and JV soccer, did his team fall short of its ultimate goal; Waynflete lost, 2-1, to eventual state champ Maranacook in the regional semifinals. That was October 2017 and Adey has run the table ever since.

“I’ve been pretty fortunate to have a good supporting cast of athletes around me,” he said. “Also, the three coaches that I’ve had (Brandon Salway for soccer, Tip Kimball for skiing and Jeff Madore for tennis), I think are the three best coaches in the state for their individual sport.”

On none of the teams has the 6-foot, 160-pound Adey been top dog, which is fine with him. He doesn’t seek out attention, “but I do like to win,” he said, “so I’m definitely OK with not standing out.”

He even played two other sports, basketball and lacrosse, in middle school. He got his start in skiing at age 3 and began racing in the Gould Academy weekend program at Sunday River (where his family owns a condominium) at 8.

His mom Lauren played two sports in college (field hockey and Alpine skiing) and his dad played three in high school (football, basketball and baseball). Adey has two younger brothers. Matthew is a Waynflete freshman who plays soccer, basketball and tennis. Jeffrey is in seventh grade. Scattergories is the family game of choice and either Ben or Matt generally emerges victorious.

“He’s very quiet, but has a great sense of humor,” Kimball said. “We’ve had kids in the past from Waynflete ski with us but they skied as individuals. Ben is the first one who has scored with us.”

At the state meet, a team’s four fastest skiers contribute to the overall score. Adey finished sixth in giant slalom as a freshman, behind Falmouth teammates A.J. Noyes (third) and Nicky Shapiro (fifth).

Adey and Shapiro attended elementary school together in Falmouth and have remained friends despite attending different middle and high schools. Their friendship also endures even though Adey roots for teams from Philadelphia (near where his dad grew up) and Shapiro is more Boston-centric.

“He’s one of those kids who’s good at everything,” Shapiro said. “He’s insane at basketball and really good at lacrosse. So I wasn’t really surprised that he was good on every team he’s playing on.”

As for skiing, Shapiro said Adey is particularly adept in conditions that might give other skiers pause. In Maine, this generally means ice.

In a race at Shawnee Peak two years ago, Shapiro remembers plenty of skiers backing off because of icy conditions that eventually prompted organizers to cancel the event after one run.

“Everyone fell,” Shapiro said. “But Ben comes down and wins. He knows how to attack, how to get in the front of the boot. Some of the courses we ski can be pretty rough, but he doesn’t get bucked around or anything.”

All of this flies in the face of Adey’s everyday demeanor, which Shapiro describes as super shy. None of those championship medals is on display at home. Adey had to dig them out of a desk drawer.

“It’s funny,” Shapiro said. “He doesn’t strike you as somebody who would be very aggressive, but he is on the course. He’s pretty competitive.”

If there’s a secret to Adey’s success, he said it lies in always feeling refreshed. By using the different muscle groups required of such disparate sports, he also has avoided repetitive-use injuries that may befall others who opt to specialize at an early age, before their bodies mature.

“I’m a big fan of playing different sports and not focusing on one,” Adey said. “When the time comes for the new season – like right now, I’m really excited to ski. But if I had to play another couple months of soccer I wouldn’t be so excited.”

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