Friday, April 29, 2005

Baseball is a numbers game put into motion by physical action.


By MICHAEL AMES
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The Sun Valley Snowboard team officially closed its 2004-2005 season with, as program director and head coach Andy Gilbert called it, a "homespun" awards ceremony Tuesday.

Held at Ketchum's American Legion Hall, the ceremony brought together roughly 130 members of the snowboarding community with an Italian pot luck dinner, trophies, and a travel team video edited by A Team coach AJ Grabos.

With homemade awards, the snowboard team awarded some of its most outstanding and most dubious accomplishments:

The Dark Horse Trophy is given to the rider who produced a surprising and exceptional result during the season. For qualifying for National Championships in his first year as an "A-Teamer," Scott Fairfax is this year's dark horse. The trophy, built by former team racer Nate Galpin, featured a cowboy boot in a snowboard binding welded to a trophy stand.

The Switch Hitter Award is given to the rider who exhibits outstanding performance in both alpine racing and freestyle riding. Spencer Cordovano has been the team's switch hitter for three of the past four years. At Nationals in Copper Mt., Co, Cordovano earned first place in the combined overall, National's official version of the Switch Hitter Award.

The Road Warrior Award is given to the team member who exhibited great travel stamina, never missing a travel invitation and basically "never staying home." Jeremy Black was this year's road warrior and one of the team's most promising future riders.

MVP is the team member who "not only performed well on the snow, but behind the scenes and off the snow as well," said Gilbert of this year's winner, Bobby Flanigan.

In his last year with the team, Flanigan turned it on in the second half of the season to win the combined freestyle gold at Nationals. In addition to weeks of solid, podium-ascending results, Flanigan "stepped up in terms of inspiring and motivating the young guys," said Gilbert.

The Eggbeater Award is for the rider took the best beating in the year's best crash. For landing flat on his back from 30 feet in the air at nationals, "a crash that would have put any other kid in the hospital," Houston Shaw earned this season's eggbeater.

The Martha Stewart Good Housekeeping Award is the dubious prize given to the rider(s) who exhibited the worst housekeeping skills while traveling. For their miserable neatness, the entire house of messy riders staying next to their coaches at Western Regionals in Jackson Hole emerged as this year's winner.

Billy Olson, B Team coach, gave three awards to this home team.

B Team MVP—Kenny Ballou.

Shredding all competitors Award: Kaitlyn Farrington for winning nearly every event she entered and generally shredding her competition all season long.

The Golden Prybar was awarded to Scott Pike, as "you had to pry him off the mountain," explained Olson of Pike's passion for snowboarding.




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