Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club Show

Meet our Ski Jumping & Nordic Combined Program Director Todd Wilson, who just so happens to be a 2-time Olympian who stumbled into coaching as a way to temporarily give back to the sport he loves so much. 30 years later he has given back more than he could have ever imagined. 

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Today we cover the following and so much more:

• Todd's early years growing up on skis in Winter Park, Colorado

For more Todd Wilson:

Todd oversees a professional staff of twenty-five coaches involved in the training of over 150 athletes. He started jumping with the Winter Park jumping program at the age of five and took his first jumps at Howelsen Hill at age eight. In 1984 he was named to the U.S. Nordic Combined Ski Team and competed internationally for nine seasons, which included the Winter Olympic teams of 1988 and 1992 and the World Championship Teams in 1985 and 1987. Todd began coaching with SSWSC in 1993 while he attended college at Colorado Mountain College. His first tour of duty with the SSWSC was as head coach for the U10 Team and then he was named Nordic Combined Head Coach the following year. In 2000 he was promoted to Nordic Program Director to oversee all the club’s Nordic sports of ski jumping, cross country, nordic combined and biathlon. With growth in the club’s nordic sports, in 2010 Todd was named Ski Jumping/Nordic Combined Program Director. This is Todd’s 29th season with SSWSC. Todd served as chairman for the USSA Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined Coaches Subcommittee for 12 years and was a finalist for the 2003, US Olympic Committee’s Development Coach of the Year Award. The SSWSC SJ/NC program has won the US Ski & Snowboard’s SJ/NC Club of the Year Award the last four years. Todd and his wife, Stephanie, live in downtown Steamboat Springs with their two daughters, Maggie and Ella.

As always, please share your questions, comments, feedback and requests. Go to sswsc.org! Now get out there and support, lead or be a champion on and off the mountain!

It's not every day you get to hear from a 4-time Olympian, World Champion Mogul Skier & 6-time National Champion, so when you do, you take your time and get the full story! Ann Battelle is not only a champion on the mountain, she's a champion human off the mountain too as she shares her passion and experience with the next generation of freestyle skiers as our moguls coach for all ages. 

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Today's conversation is a roller coaster - part trip down memory lane and part big picture lessons and insights. 

We cover the following and so much more:

• What the sport of freestyle skiing is & how Ann got into it

For more on Ann Battelle (shown here at the top of the course with her daughter who is a U19 racer!):

Ann is Steamboat’s first four-time Olympian as well as World Champion Mogul Skier. She discovered Freestyle Ski Racing at the end of her college experience & competed for the SSWSC from 1989-2002. She moved to the Front Range and started 5 Circle Fitness, an outdoor ski and sports conditioning fitness business. After a particularly frustrating 9-hour commute (the drive usually takes under 3 hours) from Steamboat back to the Front Range, the Battelle's decided to return to Steamboat in 2014. She joined the SSWSC as a coach this time with two daughters in the freestyle program. Ann has coached at all levels in the program, and is currently working with kids of all ages. 

As always, please share your questions, comments, feedback and requests. Go to sswsc.org! Now get out there and support, lead or be a champion on and off the mountain!

Meet our Athletic Director Dave Stewart! He's one of those guys you wish you had known your entire life. He's fun, honest, open and positive, but he can also dig deep and share openly about the big questions, the ones that help create our value systems.

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This episode is all about the big question, the one we ask every guest who comes on the show - What's the greatest lesson you've learned through sport? We decided Dave would be the perfect guest to dissect this question. Get ready for a fun ride through Dave's athletic history into his current role as Athletic Director for the club. 

In particular:

• Lots of discussion about parenting: how his parents impacted his athletic journey and how he took what he learned forward through his coaching and his own parenting. There are many ideas for parents who are listening to ponder and incorporate into their approaches.

Today we invite you to consider this question:

We want to hear from you! Please reach out on our social media channels or leave a comment here with your greatest lessons.

As always, please share your questions, comments, feedback and requests. Go to sswsc.org! Now get out there and support, lead or be a champion on and off the mountain!

For more on Dave Stewart:

Dave was the nordic skiing head coach for 12 years at the University of Denver.  In that time he led his teams to six NCAA titles, two individual titles, and he coached 21 NCAA All-Americans. Dave was named the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association’s Nordic Coach of the Year six times. He raced cross country through college and later as a pro athlete. He received his Masters of Business Administration from the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver.

Fresh off 6th place at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Olivia first hit the national radar in 2016 when she was the junior national champion followed in 2017 as the dual mogul junior world champion. After that, she turned pro, hit the world cup tour and started racking up results and confidence. In 2018, she was the first alternate for the Winter Olympic Games. Four years later she got retribution, and not only made the team, but made the finals. While we're in awe of her 6th place finish at the games, we may be even more in awe of the fact that she is a brilliant and driven student, currently enrolled at ivy league school, Columbia University in New York City. Olivia was so gracious to spend time with both Nicole and Wilder DeBoom today, openly sharing her journey to Beijing & beyond.

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Notables:

• When things get tough and you wonder if you should keep trying, tap back into why you loved it in the first place

*This episode includes an extra credit bonus feature with 10-year old interviewer Wilder DeBoom (shown below with Olivia when she came to Wilder's SSWSC Alpine practice!) - listen to hear the stuff that REALLY MATTERS like snacks, dogs and overcoming your fears.

As always, please share your questions, comments, feedback and requests. Go to sswsc.org! Now get out there and support, lead or be a champion on and off the mountain!

Meet Kevin & Laura Sankey, parents to three incredibly amazing, incredibly different kids - all of whom have experienced the SSWSC in different ways with their own definitions of happiness and success. Today we seek to explore how to navigate the Club's offerings for multiple children with diverse interests. We couldn't think of a better couple to kick off this conversation than the Sankeys!

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Today we cover:

• The Sankey kids' journeys: How Logan, Nolan and Colton all found their niches

Action item: When your kid starts their sport season, reach out to the coach and ask this question, "What can we as parents do to help you coach our athletes and develop them as much as possible?"

As always, please share your questions, comments, feedback and requests. Go to sswsc.org! Now get out there and support, lead or be a champion on and off the mountain!

Today we hear from Sady Tobin, Director of Strength & Conditioning for the club. Arguably the most important part of any athlete's sport program is the foundation they create outside of the actual sport. Sady's mission is to help kids develop a long-term fitness base that is fun and helps create strength and confidence. All winter programs include conditioning as the kids get older and are ready to add this into their plans.

Today we discuss:

• Sady's background, how she came to the club and what attracted her to kids development

As Sady says at the end, "Never Give Up." Strength and conditioning is a long-term game, so just keep coming back! 

For more on Sady and the SSWSC strength and conditioning program, reach out here. 

As always, please share your questions, comments, feedback and requests. Go to sswsc.org! Now get out there and support, lead or be a champion on and off the mountain!

This episode is about money. Plain and simple - winter sports are not cheap. There's coaching, gear (so much gear!), ski passes, travel, snacks (so many snacks!) and more. When you add it all up, sometimes the finances just don't fit your family's budget. 

Don't walk away yet! Today you hear from Jon Nolting, the Associate Executive Director, about a program the club created to help all families participate in these sports that can change their kids' lives. 

It's called the EZ Scholarship Program. You can find details here. As Jon says, if your kids can't participate in our programs because you can't afford it, then we're doing something wrong!

Today we learn about:

• The actual EZ scholarship program

Jon's greatest lesson learned through sport - Persistence will take you far in life! 

More about Jon Nolting (center):

Jon joined the SSWSC in 2015 as its Athletic Director and took on the position of Associate Executive Director in conjunction with Athletic Director in 2018.  Jon brings 23 years of experience in club and athletic leadership, coaching and education, 9 years with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. He has spearheaded national club and coach education and certification systems in the sports of Alpine, Cross Country and Freestyle skiing, Nordic Combined, and Snowboarding. He has also led significant efforts at the national level implementing best practices in athlete and coach development. Nolting holds a bachelor of science degree in applied mathematics from the University of Colorado, School of Engineering, and a minor in economics. Jon and his wife Darlene have two children who are athletes in the SSWSC.

As always, please share your questions, comments, feedback and requests. Go to sswsc.org! Now get out there and support, lead or be a champion on and off the mountain!

Today we hear from Steamboat's 100th Olympian - Decker Dean! Decker joins us from Norway where he's training and competing after his 2022 Olympic debut in Beijing. Decker grew up in Steamboat, found jumping along the way and at 22, is officially a professional ski jumper, training and competing around the world. 

Today we talk about:

What it was like to grow up in Steamboat

What role SSWSC played in his life

Other sports & shenanigans Decker "participated" in including tourist flipping and unicycle riding :)

The state of ski jumping in the US and globally

How it feels to be a "celebrity" in Europe 

What it means to be a pro ski jumper

The importance of support in this sport: sponsors, parents, girlfriend (she won bronze in Beijing in Mixed Jumping - Abigail Strate of Canada)

2022 Beijing - all the details!

The mental side of jumping

Some really fun rapid fire questions toward the end!

Decker's advice to aspiring ski jumpers, "Remember why you're doing it; why you fell in love with it."

The final question: What's the greatest lesson you've learned through sport? "You get beat up pretty hard before you can succeed. I think that's probably the most valuable and hardest lesson I've had to learn."

As always, please share your questions, comments, feedback and requests. Go to sswsc.org! Now get out there and support, lead or be a champion on and off the mountain!

Today we visit with our Sport Development Director, Blair Seymour. Our goal is to help guide you through the registration process. There are so many programs offered that it can often be confusing and stressful to whittle them down. For the sake of seasonality, we are going to focus on snow sports today and save the summer programs for next spring!

Note: A side effect of our conversation is all of the greater life lessons that bubbled to the surface!

• Today you will hear:

Common questions Blair gets every season (answers in the podcast):

• My kid is really good skier. Can he/she "ski up?"

Finally, Blair's answer to the question we ask every guest - What's the greatest lesson you've learned through sport? - is powerful!

As always, please share your questions, comments, feedback and requests. Go to sswsc.org! Now get out there and support, lead or be a champion on and off the mountain!

Welcome to the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club Show! We kick off the podcast with two guys who are integral to the club's leadership - Jon Nolting and Dave Stewart - as we discuss the goals of the show and more. 

Today you will learn:

• All about the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club

More about Jon and Dave here!

Jon joined the SSWSC in 2015 as its Athletic Director and took on the position of Associate Executive Director in conjunction with Athletic Director in 2018.  Jon brings 23 years of experience in club and athletic leadership, coaching and education, 9 years with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. He has spearheaded national club and coach education and certification systems in the sports of Alpine, Cross Country and Freestyle skiing, Nordic Combined, and Snowboarding. He has also led significant efforts at the national level implementing best practices in athlete and coach development. Nolting holds a bachelor of science degree in applied mathematics from the University of Colorado, School of Engineering, and a minor in economics. Jon and his wife Darlene have two children who are athletes in the SSWSC.

Dave was the nordic skiing head coach for 12 years at the University of Denver.  In that time he led his teams to six NCAA titles, two individual titles, and he coached 21 NCAA All-Americans. Dave was named the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association’s Nordic Coach of the Year six times. He raced cross country through college and later as a pro athlete. He received his Masters of Business Administration from the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver.

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As always, please share your questions, comments, feedback and requests. Go to sswsc.org! Now get out there and support, lead or be a champion on and off the mountain!