It was a chaotic week at Copper Mountain, Colorado as the Sun Valley Snowboard A-Team competed at USASA National Championships from April 3-9.
With 1,365 competitors, the week's events marks the largest snowboarding competition of the year, drawing riders, amateur and professional alike, from all over the U.S.
As the mountain hosted five events a day for five straight days, the week became a boarding marathon, particularly for Sun Valley coaches AJ Grabos, Ciam Parten, and Jacob Tyler, all of whom were "running the show," according to head coach Andy Gilbert. Gilbert arrived in Copper on Wednesday, April 6, to oversee epic competition days, often starting at 7 a.m. and not finishing until 9 p.m.
Spencer Cordovano was Sun Valley's only junior man to compete in all five events: slalom and giant slalom alpine racing, halfpipe, slopestyle, and boardercross.
"He's going to sleep for a week," said Gilbert of Cordovano's restless week that earned him a 1st place in the Combined Overall (alpine and freestyle) and 2nd place in the decathlon of snow boarding, the Triple Overall, measuring alpine, freestyle, and boardercross events. The combined medals are a reflection of high finishes in several events, including a Giant Slalom silver medal, as Cordovano proved versatility and skill across the wide spectrum of boarding skills.
But the team's top performer, or "The Man," as Gilbert calls him, was Bobby Flanigan, whose late season streak has seen him mount podium after podium for four consecutive weeks.
Flanigan left Copper Mt. with a silver in halfpipe and a bronze in slopestyle, the combination of which earned him the Combined Freestyle Overall gold medal.
For Flanigan, a senior whose season began with a broken wrist and a case of Mono—"it didn't even look like he was going to have a year," recalls Gilbert—this final performance at Nationals was also his final as a member of the Sun Valley team. He ended his home career with style, however, earning gold medals at Sun Valley's home event in early march, Western Regional Championships, the Smith Limo Rail Jam, and now the combined gold at Nationals.
At Nationals, Flanigan was the only junior man to podium on two separate days, but was also something of a dark horse, surprising the competition and placing himself squarely amongst the nation's best riders.
Flanigan deferred his acceptance to University of Colorado at Boulder for one year and plans to train in Park City next winter before heading to college in the fall of 2006.
The team's third impresario was nine-year old Chase Josey who, after a year taking first place at literally every Intermountain Divisional event, finally brought his precocious skills to the national stage. Josey, competing in the Grommet Boys class, took gold in the halfpipe and, like Cordovano, overall awards for versatility in all five events.
Other Sun Valley riders such as Jeremy Black, Jens Peterson, Scott Fairfax, Ryan Roemer and Houston Shaw had strong rides at Copper, turning in top 20 finishes in a very competitive field. Fairfax, 15, was competing in his first National event and finished a respectable 17th in slopestyle.
Peterson took a fall in slopestyle that gave him "a sweet black eye," according to Gilbert, adding that the junior is looking a bit like Rocky Balboa.
Shaw has been described as the team's "all or nothing" guy and at Nationals, while truly laying his own safety on the line, took a hard crash in the slopestyle event. Shaw was uninjured, though, and "is determined" to return next year for more high-intensity competition.
With Nationals behind him, Andy Gilbert has time, though not much (see sports summary) for reflection. This was "the most labor intensive year I can remember," he said, referring to the influx of new blood in a young and thriving team program.
In particular, though, Gilbert cannot stress enough that he is blessed with "a phenomenal coaching staff," that is fully dedicated to youth snowboarding. Many coaches are getting calls for year-round opportunities; Grabos will be traveling to New Zealand this summer for some late summer training.
Along with coaches who design rail courses and literally fix the halfpipe with shovels, Gilbert credits both the community of parents and the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation for his team's ongoing success and the respect with which they are treated.
"We are very lucky," he says, noting that despite a lack of training facilities, his team "wouldn't be as strong without the support from community."
For next year, Gilbert is sanguine about his "whole crew coming back, some of whom are only sophomores competing on a very high level already."
With more and more riders seeming to appear each fall, Gilbert is at the helm of one of the nation's largest snowboarding programs that, at least for now, looks to be a perpetual rider-producing machine.
Results from Nationals, Copper Mt., Colorado:
Grommet Boys (8-9): Halfpipe: 1—Josey. 14—Roemer. SS: 9—Josey. BX: 12—Josey. GS: 7—Josey. SL: 7—Josey.
Youth Men (14-15): SS: 17—Fairfax.
Junior Men (16-18): Halfpipe: 2—Flanigan. 13—Peterson. 14—Cordovano. SS: 3—Flanigan. 13—Black. 62—Cordovano. BX: 9—Cordovano. GS: 2—Cordovano. SL: 5—Cordovano. Freestyle Combined: 1—Flanigan. 4—Josey. Overall Combined: 1—Cordovano. 2—Josey. Triple Combined: 2—Cordovano. 3—Josey.
from left to right, multiple medal winners Bobby Flanigan, Chase Josey, Spencer Cordovano.
