3 weeks ago I was asked by the USSA Snowboard Program Director, Abbi Nyberg, to coach a US development camp called USSA Jr. Project gold at Mammoth Mountain. I blurted out a quick responce, YES!
The USSA has a couple of different snowboard ranking teams within their organization; US Team, Project Gold, and Jr. Project Gold. The Jr. Project Gold focuses attention on young athletes between the ages of 9 and 14. Listed below are the athletes that are attending the camp: Ty WalkerLindsea Lumpkin
Kirby Kelly
Makayla Tierney
Ben Ferguson Rainey Pogue
Grady MeCay
Chase Josey
Gabe Ferguson
Cody Warble Brock Crouch
Megan Tierney The conditions are perfect, there isn’t another 22′ pipe in North America right now that compares to Mammoth’s. The team is treated like kings at the Mammoth Mountain Inn where we are straying. The lift is only a few steps way. My daily schedule is composed of… 7:00AM Breakfast 7:30AM On snow salting pipe 8:00AM Freeride Drills 8:30AM Freestyle Pipe Drills 9:30AM Individual Process & Outcome Goal Achievement 1:00PM Lunch 2:15PM Video Review 3:00PM Skate Volcom’s Skatepark 5:00PM Group Stretch 7:00PM Dinner 8:00PM Coach Meeting 8:30PM Watch Lakers destroy the Nuggets 10:00PM Sleepy Time It may seem like a pretty easy day, but when the weight of future Olympians progressions are on your back, you must clearly think through every training process. When I mean future Olympians, I mean it. A majority of these athletes are shooting for the 2018 Olympics. That gives them 9 years to train. If you think the snowboarding progression rate is at it’s end, well, your wrong, it’s only beginning. There are a lot of national teams training here; Canada, New Zealand, and Sweden all come to mind. Every single one of them awestruck by the level of riding US Jr. athletes are at. Have you ever seen an 11 year old girl do a Front 720 Crippler? I have, her name is Ty Walker. 3 groms name Cody, Brock, and Gabe all have Front 720 to Cab 720 combos…and they’re only 10 years old. It’s been a great week thus far. I cannot wait to see what happens next. -Guf
So what happened to the athletes? Any follow up years later?
I only recognize one name out of all the athletes.
Unfortunately not all riders end up going super far in snowboarding professionally but the good news is Chase Josey, Ben Ferguson, Gabe Ferguson, Cody Warble, Brock Crouch and
Megan Tierney all made name for themselves in the industry and a few like Josey, Warble, Crouch and Ben are all still ripping! Over half the list.