Clubhouse Chronicles: Celebrating a successful season at AVSC

This week marked a change at the AVSC clubhouse: for the first time in months, things started to slow down. While the alpine team is busy hosting an FIS spring series, and others are on the road with competitions, operations are certainly winding down.

There are fewer kids filling the clubhouse with their after-school excitement. Fewer backpacks tucked in the nooks and crannies of the clubhouse. Fewer lifts loaded on the Five Trees lift. We’re officially transitioning to spring, looking toward hitting the reset button and preparing for winter 2019-20 through our summer programs, events and, yes, even some rest.

Before we make the transition, we are excited to celebrate the success our athletes experienced this winter. Across all programs, we saw immense growth in our athletes ­— hard work paid off in the form of increased confidence, grit and technical skills. We saw some great results, and thanks to a variety of factors, from a passionate and outstanding coaching staff to a phenomenal snow year, we also had a lot of fun!

We are gathering April 12 for an awards banquet to celebrate another successful season, AVSC’s 82nd. Among many other athletes, we’ll be celebrating the following four athletes as our Pursuit of Excellence winners. AVSC encourages athletes to expect excellence from themselves; this award goes to an athlete from each discipline who has demonstrated the drive to excel in their sport, while at the same time embodying the club’s core values of commitment, teamwork and integrity.

One of these four athletes will receive the Andy Mill Award, AVSC’s most prestigious athlete award, given to an athlete who has achieved outstanding National and/or International results. The award is named in honor of Andy Mill, an Aspen local and AVSC alumnus who was America’s premier downhill racer throughout the 1970s.

2019 AVSC Pursuit of Excellence Winners

Hanna Faulhaber, Freestyle

Hanna has had an incredible season in halfpipe, highlighted by a pair of podiums in February at the Copper Rev Tour (1st) and Aspen Freeskiing Open (3rd). She is currently ranked 6th for U.S. Women in halfpipe (that ranking includes the U.S. Women’s Freeskiing Team)!

Kate Oldham, Nordic

Coming off two top-10 results at Junior Nationals last year, Kate’s hard work (and performance at U.S. National Championships) earned her a spot on the US U18 Scando Cup team in Estonia. Kate placed 20th in the 5km skate race and qualified 23rd in the classic sprint.

Jack Bowers, Alpine

Jack had an impressive season despite coming back from a serious injury. With a lot of PT, strength training and patience, he was racing by January and back on the podium by February. He qualified for both 2019 US Nationals and Junior Nationals.

Shane Serrano, Snowboard

Shane has had one of his best, and most successful, seasons yet. His list of accomplishments in halfpipe include four top 30s in Revolution Tour competitions (including two top 10s) and two top 30s in Grand Prix (World Cup) competitions!

Congrats to Hanna, Kate, Jack and Shane. We are proud of your hard work and can’t wait to see where your athletic career takes you next!

If you would like to join us to celebrate the growth and success these athletes and their peers experienced this season, join us at Bumps on April 12 at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are free for enrolled Team (competitive) AVSC athletes; tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for kids and include a taco dinner. Purchase tickets at http://www.teamavsc.org/events.

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Clubhouse Chronicles is a twice-a-month, behind-the-scenes column written by the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club during the winter months. It runs in the Friday Outdoors section.

via:: The Aspen Times