{"id":2459001,"date":"2020-05-29T21:36:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-30T03:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/former-avsc-coach-nichole-mason-recognized-with-two-big-awards\/"},"modified":"2020-05-29T21:36:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-30T03:36:00","slug":"former-avsc-coach-nichole-mason-recognized-with-two-big-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/former-avsc-coach-nichole-mason-recognized-with-two-big-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Former AVSC coach Nichole Mason recognized with two big awards"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/snowboardcoach-atd-052720-1-1024x1024.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/snowboardcoach-atd-052720-1-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/snowboardcoach-atd-052720-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/snowboardcoach-atd-052720-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/snowboardcoach-atd-052720-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/snowboardcoach-atd-052720-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/snowboardcoach-atd-052720-1-2048x2048.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><\/p><figcaption><strong>U.S. rookie team coach Nichole Mason, center, poses with slopestyle snowboarders Ty Schnorrbusch, left, and Courtney Rummel during the 2020 Youth Olympic Games in Leysin, Switzerland. Mason, who formerly coached at AVSC, was recently recognized as the coach of the year for U.S. Ski and Snowboard.<\/strong><br \/><em>Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The news was so surprising and overwhelming that Nichole Mason forgot what Ellen Adams told her she had won. Adams, the club development manager for U.S. Ski and Snowboard, had to reiterate the news later via text.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cRight when she said that I just blacked out and started crying. So she told me and I told her I was crying, and she said, \u2018I\u2019m crying, too!\u2019 It was the cutest moment. It was really special,\u201d Mason said of that initial phone call. \u201cComing from her was a really cool thing. I had to text her later because I didn\u2019t remember what she had told me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Mason, who spent five years as a snowboard coach with the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club, had been recognized by U.S. Ski and Snowboard in the biggest way. On top of recently being named its 2020 Snowboarding International Coach of the Year, she was named the 2020 U.S. Ski and Snowboard Coach of the Year, an award that goes to the top coach across all of its disciplines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">She is only the second female to be named the overall coach of the year by U.S. Ski and Snowboard since the award\u2019s inception in 1998. Freestyle coach Liz McIntyre won the award in 2004. Current AVSC alpine director and former U.S. ski team coach Johno McBride is the only two-time winner of the award (2003, 2005), having worked closely with American ski racing great Bode Miller.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cNichole is such a passionate and talented coach who has had a huge impact at every level she has coached,\u201d said Jeremy Forster, U.S. snowboard and freeski director. \u201cShe is an amazing ambassador for the sport and athletes as well as a great representative for the Aspen Ski and Snowboard Club, and the high level program they have developed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Mason recently completed her second season as the U.S. snowboard slopestyle rookie team coach, where she is in charge of developing the country\u2019s top young male and female slopestyle and big air snowboard athletes. She made a name for herself in Aspen, where she helped develop current pro team member Chris Corning into a bona fide star.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Following the 2016-17 season with AVSC, Mason was named the 2017 USSA Snowboarding Domestic Coach of the Year and the 2017 Development Coach of the Year, which typically goes to the top club coach in the country. A year later, Mason would accept her current role with the national team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt\u2019s a lot. You are on the road constantly. But there is a reason I signed up for it,\u201d Mason said. \u201cI love to instill that love and passion in the kids, and really U.S. Ski and Snowboard is kind of the pinnacle for that. Just being able to even work at that level is an honor and honestly the last two seasons have kind of been a blur.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Among her breakthrough athletes this past season was California\u2019s Dusty Henricksen. The 17-year-old who trains out of Mammoth won slopestyle gold at the Youth Olympic Games before winning the Mammoth Grand Prix not even two weeks later in what was only his second career World Cup start. He also finished second at the Burton U.S. Open in Vail after he landed the first-ever backside quad cork 1800 in a slopestyle competition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI owe my season to her,\u201d Henricksen said of Mason. \u201cShe is rad for sure. I like the way she coaches. Her style, she just kind of watches you snowboard and if you\u2019re in your own vibe she doesn\u2019t really try and talk too much or get in your head. If you need some help, she\u2019s always there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Henricksen\u2019s success has led to him being promoted to the U.S. pro team for the upcoming season. For Mason, it\u2019s bittersweet as it means they met their goals but also means she\u2019ll no longer work directly with Henricksen going forward. Among the athletes she still has on her rookie team for the 2020-21 season is former AVSC athlete Jake Canter, who has competed in knuckle huck at X Games the past two years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThat\u2019s also part of the job, is moving those athletes up to the pro team and knowing that book isn\u2019t necessarily done, it\u2019s just started a new chapter,\u201d Mason said. \u201cJust to be part of their journey and to see them hitting their own personal benchmarks along the way is kind of why we do what we do. For Dusty, he put so much hard work into training over the summer and was just so dedicated to the program and really went above and beyond and it paid off for him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Not only has Mason become one of the country\u2019s top coaches, but she\u2019s helping lead the way forward for women in the snowsports world. She\u2019s been at the forefront of all-girls\u2019 camps and all-women\u2019s coaching clinics, and it was through this she met Adams. Adams leads a task force on gender equity in coaching and took Mason and two other women with her to Norway this past fall for a women in leadership symposium put on by the Norwegian Ski Federation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cAs far as coaches go at the grassroots level, at the club levels like in Aspen, the average is 24% of all coaches are women. And as you rise up through from the development to the elite level, that drops dramatically,\u201d Adams said. \u201cNichole is one of the very few women coaching at the elite level. We are committed as an organization to bringing more balance to that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Mason, who currently lives with her brother in Arvada when she is not traveling, plans to remain in her role as rookie team coach heading into the next two seasons, which include the 2021 world championships and the 2022 Winter Olympics, barring any scheduling changes or cancellations related to the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Her trips back to Aspen are few and far between these days, but the impact the town and the local club had on her career is always at the forefront.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt came as a surprise. It was very unexpected,\u201d Mason said of her recent awards. She especially wanted to thank AVSC, notably former snowboard program director Miah Wheeler, for bringing her on board in the first place. \u201cI just feel like these awards most definitely are dedicated back to that club and I wouldn\u2019t be where I am today without what they did for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:acolbert@aspentimes.com\">acolbert@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/former-avsc-coach-nichole-mason-recognized-with-two-big-awards\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. rookie team coach Nichole Mason, center, poses with slopestyle snowboarders Ty Schnorrbusch, left, and Courtney Rummel during the 2020 Youth Olympic Games in Leysin, Switzerland. Mason, who formerly coached at AVSC, was recently recognized as the coach of the year for U.S. Ski and Snowboard.Courtesy photo The news was so surprising and overwhelming that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2459001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-17 00:29:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2459001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2459001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2459001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2459001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}