By Shannon Lukens. Photos courtesy Darlene Nolting.
Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club has been named as the 2023 U.S. Ski & Snowboard Club of the Year for the fifth time. Also, SSWSC was honored with Alpine Club of the Year, and Freestyle Club of the Year. The banquet was Wednesday night in Utah. Jon Nolting is the Chief Operating Officer of the club. He credits the Steamboat Springs community.
“It’s because of our community in Steamboat… Ski Town USA. The fact that over half the kids in our community participate in one of our ski or snowboard programs. There’s tremendous support from the city, there’s tremendous support from the resort, and that just allows us to do really incredible things with our great coaches for the kids.”
Winter Sports Club Technical Director and U16 Coach Ben Brown is also the Development Coach of the year and Alpine Domestic Coach of the Year.
SSWSC Alumna Jaelin Kauf was awarded the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Freestyle Athlete of the Year.
SSWSC Alumna Annika Belshaw was award the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Ski Jumping Athlete of the Year.
Here is the press release from Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club; May 17, 2023.
SSWSC Named 2023 U.S. Ski & Snowboard Club of the Year
SSWSC has also been selected as U.S. Ski & Snowboard Alpine Club of the Year, U.S. Ski & Snowboard Freestyle Club of the Year, and SSWSC’s Ben Brown was honored with U.S. Ski & Snowboard Development Coach of the Year, and Alpine Domestic Coach of the Year
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club (SSWSC) announced today it received the 2023 U.S. Ski & Snowboard Club of the Year Award, U.S. Ski & Snowboard Alpine Club of the Year Award, and the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Freestyle Club of the Year Award. In addition, SSWSC Alpine Technical Director and U16 Head Coach Ben Brown was honored with two awards, the 2023 U.S. Ski & Snowboard Development Coach of the Year and the 2023 Alpine Domestic Coach of the Year. SSWSC alumna Jaelin Kauf was awarded U.S. Ski & Snowboard Freestyle Athlete of the Year, and alumna Annika Belshaw was awarded U.S. Ski & Snowboard Ski Jumping Athlete of the Year. Awards were presented at the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Awards Banquet Wednesday evening in Park City, Utah.
The U.S. Ski & Snowboard Club of the Year Award and U.S. Ski & Snowboard Development Coach of Year are U.S. Ski & Snowboard Gold Awards. The U.S. Ski & Snowboard Gold Awards represent the single highest honors in the organization. When awarding the Gold Awards, U.S. Ski & Snowboard honors a deserving representative from each sector of its structure: an athlete, a volunteer, a coach, and a club. The U.S. Ski & Snowboard clubs provide the backbone for athletic programs, with coaches and dedicated volunteers providing the direction for athletes to succeed. The recipients represent the vision, mission, and core values of U.S. Ski & Snowboard. The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Development Coach of the Year is chosen among the top candidates in all sports – alpine, freestyle, freeskiing, snowboard, cross country, ski jumping, and Nordic combined.
In selecting SSWSC for the Club of the Year award, U.S. Ski & Snowboard applauded SSWSC’s long-term athlete development-focused philosophy and programming, its high-quality event production such as the innovative U.S. Freestyle Junior National Championships, and its athletic successes, in particular the achievements of the SSWSC U16 alpine team nationally and internationally at the OPA Cup in Germany.
In selecting Brown for the 2023 U.S. Ski & Snowboard Development Coach of the Year award, his leadership of a historically successful team was recognized. In addition, Brown’s team results stood out for the international podiums and the strong performances and improvements from the skiers at all levels in the SSWSC U16 program.
SSWSC has won the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Club of the Year five times in 2023, 2017, 2007, 2004, and 1998. The first year a club was honored with this distinction was 1998. No other club has won this award more than twice. It is the third time SSWSC has been selected as Alpine Club of the Year (2017, 2018) and the third time as Freestyle Club of the Year (2011, 2015). In addition, this is the second time Ben Brown will receive the Alpine Domestic Coach of the Award; the first year he won was in 2020. Only two other coaches have been honored with this award more than once since 1985.
Last week, three alumni and two current SSWSC athletes were nominated to the U.S. Alpine Ski Team, SSWSC’s largest representation on the U.S. Ski Team in decades. Tatum Grosidier and Roman Elvidge are the newest nominees to the Development Team or D Team. Jett Seymour was again nominated to the B Team, and Cooper Puckett and Jay Poulter were nominated to the C Team. Grosdidier is the first woman from SSWSC to be nominated to the U.S. Ski Team since 2009. Ski Team nominations must be accepted, and athletes must pass conditioning protocols. SSWSC alums Jaelin Kauf and Olivia Giaccio were nominated to the 2023-2024 U.S. Freestyle Moguls A Team, and alumni Landon Wendler was nominated to the D Team. In addition, two SSWSC athletes were nominated to the U.S. Alpine National Development Group (NDG), Abby Olson and Jeremy Nolting, and two SSWSC cross country skiers, Trey Jones, and Grey (Benjamin) Barbier, were nominated to the U.S. Cross Country National Training Group (NTG). Both NDG and NTG are considered a pipeline to the U.S. Ski Team.
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