The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
219 athletes and more than 30 coaches
[ by Than Acuff ]
Once again, the Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team (CBMST) numbers are up throughout all programs from the alpine race team, to the freeride team and all of the devo programs they offer. Last year they had 201 athletes and this year numbers jumped to 219 total with 106 in the competitive freeride program, 34 on the alpine race team and the remainder in youth programming to continue to create a solid pipeline to the competitive teams.
Eddy Cohn has taken over the reins of the CBMST this year after starting out as a freeride coach during the 2017/2018 winter. Training for CBMST athletes started prior to the snow falling with dry land as well as some time in the gym. Once the mountain opened, they switched gears to setting the athletes up for success on their skis with focus on the basics.
“A lot of athletes have been working out at Synergy Athlete in town. Doing the Synergy dry land training has been super beneficial for the athletes and is a great way for us to support a business in town at the same time,” says Cohn. “We are also focusing on the fundamentals this preseason! We like to start every season with a strong focus on the foundational skills of the sport: stance and balance, flexion and extension, edge pressure, turn shape and rotary movements.”
While Cohn’s background is in freeride, he has called on Quin Glaess to coach the alpine team.
“Quin grew up racing in upstate New York and has been a dedicated Mountain Sports Team coach for the past five years,” says Cohn. “We’re really lucky to have him leading the team this year.”
Among the 34 athletes on the alpine race team, seven will be competing in the u16 age group and above with their racing schedule starting with a Super G in Aspen on January 10. The 27 younger alpine racers have a robust season ahead of them as well keeping the pipeline for the older age race classes intact and gaining ground.
The CBMST program has a staggering 106 athletes in the freeride program this year and Cohn has a strong coaching staff working to get the athletes training and having fun at the same time.
“We have about 30 amazing freeride coaches across the competition and Junior Devo programs,” says Cohn. “Mark Robbins is the head coach of the freeride program. He has done tremendous work this season helping families navigate the logistics of the IFSA/RMFS world. He also worked with our more senior coaches, Grant Spear, Evan Marcus, Dylan Brown, Polly Mcgrane, to name a few, to create some really awesome structure to our training plan this year.”
Out of the 109 athletes on the team, 13 of whom are snowboarders, two snowboarders and 24 skiers will compete in the high school age classes. It’s a big jump from last year making for an even stronger CBMST presence at a slew of events scheduled for them throughout the season starting with a competition at Grand Targhee on February 2.
“The older kids that are really committed to the program will compete in six events this winter,” says Cohn.
Meanwhile, 58 younger athletes kick into gear on the freeride competition circuit with a u12 event at Ski Cooper January 29 and the 12-14-year-olds start their competition season at Wolf Creek on January 21.
The CBMST looks to defend their home hill when CBMR hosts an IFSA Freeride Junior Regional event February 17-19 for ages u12 and up.
Until then, they will continue their focus on “stance and balance, flexion and extension, edge pressure, turn shape and rotary movements” as they wait for more snow and more terrain to open.
