This season, the high school snowboarding team shredded their way to success. Many students at Wilsonville High School chose to participate in the snowboarding team. These athletes have worked on perfecting their skills and ripping down the mountain.
Junior Vivian Williams, an alternate for the slopestyle competition, stated, “Our training has been practice every Saturday and some Wednesdays.” She has been working on trying to hit more tricks and get her technique down.
Williams explains, “We have two features which is like a rail, or like a jump, and then we have two jumps after that.” She worked on training to hit her jumps as clean as she could.
For Elliott Mast, a sophomore on the team, training has been, “Going up to practice and having fun with friends.” Mast’s goal for the season was to make state and see where it takes him. “I wanna do well but also just have fun and learn with my friends.”
These drowsy students have been waking up at 6 every Saturday morning to get on the bus and head to the mountain. There they were free to work on anything they wanted to improve. Williams reports “Overall, we were just doing our own things.”
Not only has this season been filled with fun practices, competitions, and early mornings, but the players have learned important lessons about life and how to succeed. Williams described a scary moment she had while on the team and how she overcame it.
“The first competitions were racing and I was first in the lineup of all the girls and that was definitely scary but I just went nice and steady. I overcome my fear by being there and having a good time and trying to not put too much pressure on myself.”
Head coach, Mr. Jared Alvarez says, “Anybody has a shot to go out there and make state.”
He explains that some students who qualified for state didn’t even know how to snowboard at the beginning of the season. Alvarez believes that you shouldn’t let any worries stop you from joining the team.
The team has been a great experience, filled with many memorable moments. For Blake Doughtery, a senior on the team, a memorable experience for him was “hanging out with everybody at the house and at the mountain.” Blake planned to “celebrate at the house and have a good time.”
Coach Alvarez shares that his favorite memory with the team was “definitely just hanging out with a new group of kids.”
He enjoyed watching students who didn’t know how to snowboard at the beginning of the season turn into state competitors. “Seeing them progress from essentially nothing to, you know, a state competitor is super cool to watch.”
So many students loved being on the snowboarding team and all improved over the season.