John Horsch is a native of Chicago, where he developed a passion for competitive sailing. He has a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was the captain of the Sailing Team. After college, he pursued an Olympic campaign in the Soling class, and was named to the US Sailing Team in 1998. John's work experience includes positions with several education technology companies and a position with Artemis Racing, the Challenger of Record for the 34th America's Cup. John's extensive volunteer experience includes positions on the boards of Aim High, Escuela Bilingüe Internacional, and SBSTA.

Ryan originally hails from Middlebury, Vermont, and grew up in the ski world. He is a graduate of Colby College and the University of Denver Graduate School of Education. Ryan was an Honorable Mention All-American while he was at Colby. In the past 18 years, Ryan has worked at four different independent day and boarding schools on both the east coast and in the west. Over the course of his educational tenure, Ryan has served as a teacher, coach, dorm parent, college counselor, admissions officer, Upper School Director, and Head of School. Skiing and living in mountain communities have been present throughout Ryan's life. Telemark skiing, mountaineering, mountain biking, and camping are some of Ryan's favorite hobbies. Ryan and his family (son and daughter) are thrilled to call Truckee their home.  

Lisa joins Sugar Bowl Ski Team & Academy after taking time off to stay home with her children, two of which are on the ski team. Lisa graduated from Radford University with a degree in Business and worked in the banking industry for many years. She moved out west in the late 1990's with the goal to introduce her children to the love of skiing. One of her favorite aspects of working for the organization is seeing the love of skiing instilled in the kids every day. 

Ursula returned full circle to the Sugar Bowl Ski Team & Academy in 2015. Her career path started with five years in the hospitality industry at the Four Season Hotels in Newport Beach and New York City.  She returned to school at the University of Nevada, Reno for a Journalism degree with an emphasis on advertising and marketing. She previously worked for the Sugar Bowl Ski Team from 2003-2007 assisting with strategic planning and managing the business office.  She continued to hone her skills as Director of Administration for an estate management company in the North Tahoe area, and oversaw the accounting, human resources and customer service channels.  

After eight years she crossed paths with the Sugar Bowl Academy administrative team and rejoined the SBSTA community in her current role. Watching the little 2007 Mighty Mites graduate as Seniors was the highlight of her first year back.  She is grateful to bring her expertise back to the team and watch the next generation of skiers at SBSTA!

Ursula and her family have lived in Truckee, CA since 1996.  She moved here to snowboard and stayed to raise a family in this amazing community.  Always trying to find a way to get into the Bikram yoga studio, she is also an avid movie-goer and stays busy with various community organizations including Board of Directors of the Friends of the Truckee Library.

Teresa joined SBSTA during the memorable winter of 2016/2017. She currently supports our organization as the Accounting Assistant in the business office. Her education is in Business at California State University, Sacramento and Accounting at Sierra College. She considers herself a lifelong student and is currently working towards her degrees at CSU. Her professional experience includes the Resort at Squaw Creek and bookkeeping for several local businesses. Her passion is working for a nonprofit (she has worked for Project MANA) and continues to work with the Truckee Downtown Merchant Association through Truckee Thursdays. Teresa and her husband look forward to watching their son, Dominic, continue to be a part of the Sugar Bowl Ski Team!

Nick is entering his 16th season working for the Sugar Bowl Ski Team and Academy.  He was born and raised in Truckee, and grew up skiing for the Squaw Valley and Truckee High School Ski Teams.  He studied Sociology and Child Development at Chico State while spending his winters coaching at Sugar Bowl.  Nick has over 20 years of experience working with children of all ages, including working in multiple preschools, after-school programs, summer camps, and coaching football for Truckee High.  He has a passion for coaching and believes we can help shape fantastic kids as well as fantastic skiers on the Sugar Bowl Ski Team.

Eric Harlow, former USSA Eastern Region Development Director, joins the Sugar Bowl Ski Team & Academy (SBSTA) in a new role as the Director of Alpine Programs. Harlow joins SBSTA with an extensive background in alpine ski racing having worked for several programs around the country. Harlow grew up in New Hampshire playing baseball, golfing, and skiing before focusing full-time on ski racing at Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire. Recently married, he and his wife Catherine are looking forward to getting acquainted with the Lake Tahoe area.

Brett grew up outside of Seattle in a town now named Sammamish. He spent his weekends as a child skiing at Alpental in Washington state. Brett comes to us most recently from Sun Valley, Idaho where he has been coaching athletes of all ages for the past 10 seasons. He has spent the last three years working closely with the Western Region as a NorAm and RTG camp/project coach. Whenever Brett’s not coaching you can find him exploring bike trails across the Western US. 

Raised in the Sierra's, Brandy returns to Truckee after her successful pursuit of a degree in Athletic Training in Arizona. Prior to that, Brandy coached at the U14 and U16 levels with Ski and Snowboard Club Vail helping SSCV win USSA Alpine Club of the Year in 2014 and 2015. She started her career working with and coaching athletes right here on Donner Summit as a coach at SBSTA. 

Her role of High Performance Coordinator will help us maximize our partnership with USSA as a designated USSA High Performance Center. She will be essential as we bolster our athletic program across all of our performance modules including: athlete performance, strength and conditioning, nutrition, mental training and medical. She will work as a point of contact between USSA and the staff who lead each of those modules at SBSTA. 

As a former ski racer herself, Brandy raced at the Nor-Am level and travelled extensively in Europe with Fritz Vallant and Wolfgang Frandl, both well-known for their coaching exploits in Austria as World Cup coaches with the OSV. As both an athlete and a coach, Brandy brings unique experience to her multiple roles, but it's her ability to combine a fierce pursuit of excellence with a fun and easy-going nature that makes her a perfect fit for our community.

Gladys is originally from Duluth, MN and started her skiing career at Spirit Mountain before heading out to Colorado and joining the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club in high school. She then went to the University of New Mexico and was a part of the Lobo NCAA ski team, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology. After college Gladys moved back to Colorado before heading out west to Sugar Bowl! She spends her summers skiing in Whistler and surfing in Mexico. Gladys enjoys running, loves lifetime movies, but above all lives for boating on the lake. Her most favorite moments in life are when SBA athletes are charging hard and ripping turns and the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. Gladys hopes to instill the love and passion of skiing that she has within the SBA athletes and is excited to be a part of such an incredible community.

Craig started skiing for the Sugar Bowl Ski Team when he was six.  He skied for Sugar Bowl till the age of 13 when he moved to Canada for high school. After returning to Tahoe to attend the University of Nevada, Reno, he returned to Sugar Bowl to start his coaching career.  He has moved from mighty mites through the age groups where he has found a home as the U14 Head Coach.  As well as his coaching duties, Craig is heavily involved with Residential Life as the Head Residential Life Staff.  He spends his summers ski coaching and rowing a raft on the Rogue River in Oregon.

Jon grew up in Northern Virginia and has lived in the Truckee/Tahoe area since 2003.  He attended The University of Vermont and skied for various freeride teams and stared in a few East Coast ski movies.  He has been the head coach for the Snow Rangers program since its inception in 2009.  You can find him backcountry skiing all over the Tahoe Basin on his days off.  He also enjoys nordic skiing, mountain biking, running, filming, and traveling. 

Will is a native of Auburn, Maine, and most recently spent 15 years at the Maine Winter Sports Center in Caribou, Maine as the Community Development Director, Head Cross-Country Coach and Director of Competition. Prior to that he served as the head coach for the Gap Year Program at Mountain Lakes Nordic. He has also coached at Carrabassett Valley Academy, Bates College, Jackson Hole Ski Club and the Auburn Middle School. He has worked as trip leader for the NENSA Junior National Team on three occasions, served as wax technician for both the US Ski Team and the US Biathlon Team, and personally coached five athletes to Olympic Winter Games teams. 

Will graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in English and Creative Writing and is a past Maine State Arts Fellow in Fiction. He spends most of his time off campus with his daughter Aesklyn, his wife Sarah Dominick, and their two springer spaniels, Castor and Pollux. He hopes to find enough time each week to write again.

Sarah is a native of Cody, Wyoming, where she grew up hiking, riding horses and alpine skiing in the rugged Absoroka Mountains. She was a standout track athlete in high school and continued to shine at Bates College, where she set five school records on her way to three NCAA All-American performances. After Bates, she turned her attention to nordic skiing and rapidly worked her way to multiple top 10 finishes at USSA Cross-Country National Championships. Her ski career took her across North America and Europe before she focused on art work and mindfulness while living in northern Maine.

Her coaching experience includes stints as the nordic assistant coach at Bowdoin College, the founding coach at the University of Maine at Presque Isle Ski Team, and U14 Coach at the Jackson Hole Ski Club. Sarah is a registered yoga and yoga nidra instructor and specializes in mindfulness and relaxation techniques.

When she's not at SBA, she's probably at the lakeside or on Donner Summit with her daughter Aesklyn and husband Will Sweetser.

Nick comes to us from China Peak, where he was most recently Director of Marketing for the resort after a very long and successful career in ski racing. Nick grew up skiing right here in Tahoe chasing his dream to ski at the World Cup level. He attended the University of Utah where he was a two time All-American and a team captain from 2010-2012. After his time at the U, Nick pursued his World Cup dreams with increased focus and intensity skiing with two private teams in Colorado culminating in a start at the Soelden World Cup opener in 2015. 

Nick continues to be a fitness enthusiast and is an avid mountain biker looking forward to settling back in Tahoe. His passion and unique experience both in and out of the sport make him a great leader for the group of young men at SBA chasing their own ski racing dreams. 

This may sound like hyperbole, but after over 20 years in ski racing, I can assure you that it isn’t. If you asked experienced coaches across the country to make lists of the best coaches in the US, most of those lists would include Brad Saxe. His experience coaching at the club level, all the way up to the World Cup and everywhere in between is marked with plenty of success along the way. He has been responsible for moving athletes from the USST Europa Cup team to the World Cup team, from both the Western Region Team and the club to the USST.

Of additional value to a program like ours is Brad’s ability to mentor our younger staff while also acting as a sounding board from even our most experienced. He will make a significant impact on our program at every level. By teaming Nick and Brad together, we have formed a staff that will challenge and support the U19 men’s group as they move through the year.

Entering his third year with SBA, Geordie doesn’t need much of an introduction. In 2016-17, Geordie worked as a winter-term, full-time coach with the U16 group and this past season, he coached with the U19 Men. Along the way, Geordie has spent time with some of our best and has also proven to be able to successfully adjust his approach to both the level and the gender of the athlete. He’s been to multiple NPS Projects and to U16 Nationals as a coach with the Western Region, where he’s built strong relationships with the USSA staff. Gladys and I are excited to see how Geordie’s experience and engaging personality will impact the U16 women’s group which returns 3 athletes who qualified for 2018 U16 Nationals.

A four-year alpine team member at Northern Michigan, Andrew graduated with a degree in Sport Science in 2012. He also served as president of the ski team and attended USCSA Nationals in both 2011 and 2012. Immediately after graduation, Andrew began work at Ski and Snowboard Club Vail, first as a human performance intern in 2012, as a U16 coach from 2012-17 and as a U19 Men’s Coach last season. 

The experience Andrew brings to the table as a former collegiate athlete and as ski coach at one of the top ski clubs in the world would have been enough to know that he is ready to lead a group of U16 young men. However, combined with overwhelming endorsements from Scott Houser, Brandy Barna and SSCV COO John Hale, it’s clear that his impact on our program will be significant and immediate.

Mark spent the first 20 years of his career as an engineer and manager at Hitachi.  He grew up working with his father in the garage, woodworking and fixing just about anything.  When he and his family moved to California in 2010, he elected to homeschool his daughter Aspen, now an SBA student, and work full time on his woodworking art.  When she started 7th grade at SBA, he took a job at Mountain Forge to learn the art of metalworking to add to his artistic repertoire.  Mark loves spending time with his wife, kids, and grandkids, but is also passionate about mountains, snow, skiing, wood and metal working arts, and making his family's home and the SBA "home" a beautiful and safe place for all of us.  

John Horsch is a native of Chicago, where he developed a passion for competitive sailing. He has a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was the captain of the Sailing Team. After college, he pursued an Olympic campaign in the Soling class, and was named to the US Sailing Team in 1998. John's work experience includes positions with several education technology companies and a position with Artemis Racing, the Challenger of Record for the 34th America's Cup. John's extensive volunteer experience includes positions on the boards of Aim High, Escuela Bilingüe Internacional, and SBSTA.

Ryan originally hails from Middlebury, Vermont, and grew up in the ski world. He is a graduate of Colby College and the University of Denver Graduate School of Education. Ryan was an Honorable Mention All-American while he was at Colby. In the past 18 years, Ryan has worked at four different independent day and boarding schools on both the east coast and in the west. Over the course of his educational tenure, Ryan has served as a teacher, coach, dorm parent, college counselor, admissions officer, Upper School Director, and Head of School. Skiing and living in mountain communities have been present throughout Ryan's life. Telemark skiing, mountaineering, mountain biking, and camping are some of Ryan's favorite hobbies. Ryan and his family (son and daughter) are thrilled to call Truckee their home.  

Lisa joins Sugar Bowl Ski Team & Academy after taking time off to stay home with her children, two of which are on the ski team. Lisa graduated from Radford University with a degree in Business and worked in the banking industry for many years. She moved out west in the late 1990's with the goal to introduce her children to the love of skiing. One of her favorite aspects of working for the organization is seeing the love of skiing instilled in the kids every day. 

Ursula returned full circle to the Sugar Bowl Ski Team & Academy in 2015. Her career path started with five years in the hospitality industry at the Four Season Hotels in Newport Beach and New York City.  She returned to school at the University of Nevada, Reno for a Journalism degree with an emphasis on advertising and marketing. She previously worked for the Sugar Bowl Ski Team from 2003-2007 assisting with strategic planning and managing the business office.  She continued to hone her skills as Director of Administration for an estate management company in the North Tahoe area, and oversaw the accounting, human resources and customer service channels.  

After eight years she crossed paths with the Sugar Bowl Academy administrative team and rejoined the SBSTA community in her current role. Watching the little 2007 Mighty Mites graduate as Seniors was the highlight of her first year back.  She is grateful to bring her expertise back to the team and watch the next generation of skiers at SBSTA!

Ursula and her family have lived in Truckee, CA since 1996.  She moved here to snowboard and stayed to raise a family in this amazing community.  Always trying to find a way to get into the Bikram yoga studio, she is also an avid movie-goer and stays busy with various community organizations including Board of Directors of the Friends of the Truckee Library.

Teresa joined SBSTA during the memorable winter of 2016/2017. She currently supports our organization as the Accounting Assistant in the business office. Her education is in Business at California State University, Sacramento and Accounting at Sierra College. She considers herself a lifelong student and is currently working towards her degrees at CSU. Her professional experience includes the Resort at Squaw Creek and bookkeeping for several local businesses. Her passion is working for a nonprofit (she has worked for Project MANA) and continues to work with the Truckee Downtown Merchant Association through Truckee Thursdays. Teresa and her husband look forward to watching their son, Dominic, continue to be a part of the Sugar Bowl Ski Team!

Nick is entering his 16th season working for the Sugar Bowl Ski Team and Academy.  He was born and raised in Truckee, and grew up skiing for the Squaw Valley and Truckee High School Ski Teams.  He studied Sociology and Child Development at Chico State while spending his winters coaching at Sugar Bowl.  Nick has over 20 years of experience working with children of all ages, including working in multiple preschools, after-school programs, summer camps, and coaching football for Truckee High.  He has a passion for coaching and believes we can help shape fantastic kids as well as fantastic skiers on the Sugar Bowl Ski Team.

Eric Harlow, former USSA Eastern Region Development Director, joins the Sugar Bowl Ski Team & Academy (SBSTA) in a new role as the Director of Alpine Programs. Harlow joins SBSTA with an extensive background in alpine ski racing having worked for several programs around the country. Harlow grew up in New Hampshire playing baseball, golfing, and skiing before focusing full-time on ski racing at Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire. Recently married, he and his wife Catherine are looking forward to getting acquainted with the Lake Tahoe area.

Brett grew up outside of Seattle in a town now named Sammamish. He spent his weekends as a child skiing at Alpental in Washington state. Brett comes to us most recently from Sun Valley, Idaho where he has been coaching athletes of all ages for the past 10 seasons. He has spent the last three years working closely with the Western Region as a NorAm and RTG camp/project coach. Whenever Brett’s not coaching you can find him exploring bike trails across the Western US. 

Raised in the Sierra's, Brandy returns to Truckee after her successful pursuit of a degree in Athletic Training in Arizona. Prior to that, Brandy coached at the U14 and U16 levels with Ski and Snowboard Club Vail helping SSCV win USSA Alpine Club of the Year in 2014 and 2015. She started her career working with and coaching athletes right here on Donner Summit as a coach at SBSTA. 

Her role of High Performance Coordinator will help us maximize our partnership with USSA as a designated USSA High Performance Center. She will be essential as we bolster our athletic program across all of our performance modules including: athlete performance, strength and conditioning, nutrition, mental training and medical. She will work as a point of contact between USSA and the staff who lead each of those modules at SBSTA. 

As a former ski racer herself, Brandy raced at the Nor-Am level and travelled extensively in Europe with Fritz Vallant and Wolfgang Frandl, both well-known for their coaching exploits in Austria as World Cup coaches with the OSV. As both an athlete and a coach, Brandy brings unique experience to her multiple roles, but it's her ability to combine a fierce pursuit of excellence with a fun and easy-going nature that makes her a perfect fit for our community.

Gladys is originally from Duluth, MN and started her skiing career at Spirit Mountain before heading out to Colorado and joining the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club in high school. She then went to the University of New Mexico and was a part of the Lobo NCAA ski team, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology. After college Gladys moved back to Colorado before heading out west to Sugar Bowl! She spends her summers skiing in Whistler and surfing in Mexico. Gladys enjoys running, loves lifetime movies, but above all lives for boating on the lake. Her most favorite moments in life are when SBA athletes are charging hard and ripping turns and the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. Gladys hopes to instill the love and passion of skiing that she has within the SBA athletes and is excited to be a part of such an incredible community.

Craig started skiing for the Sugar Bowl Ski Team when he was six.  He skied for Sugar Bowl till the age of 13 when he moved to Canada for high school. After returning to Tahoe to attend the University of Nevada, Reno, he returned to Sugar Bowl to start his coaching career.  He has moved from mighty mites through the age groups where he has found a home as the U14 Head Coach.  As well as his coaching duties, Craig is heavily involved with Residential Life as the Head Residential Life Staff.  He spends his summers ski coaching and rowing a raft on the Rogue River in Oregon.

Jon grew up in Northern Virginia and has lived in the Truckee/Tahoe area since 2003.  He attended The University of Vermont and skied for various freeride teams and stared in a few East Coast ski movies.  He has been the head coach for the Snow Rangers program since its inception in 2009.  You can find him backcountry skiing all over the Tahoe Basin on his days off.  He also enjoys nordic skiing, mountain biking, running, filming, and traveling. 

Will is a native of Auburn, Maine, and most recently spent 15 years at the Maine Winter Sports Center in Caribou, Maine as the Community Development Director, Head Cross-Country Coach and Director of Competition. Prior to that he served as the head coach for the Gap Year Program at Mountain Lakes Nordic. He has also coached at Carrabassett Valley Academy, Bates College, Jackson Hole Ski Club and the Auburn Middle School. He has worked as trip leader for the NENSA Junior National Team on three occasions, served as wax technician for both the US Ski Team and the US Biathlon Team, and personally coached five athletes to Olympic Winter Games teams. 

Will graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in English and Creative Writing and is a past Maine State Arts Fellow in Fiction. He spends most of his time off campus with his daughter Aesklyn, his wife Sarah Dominick, and their two springer spaniels, Castor and Pollux. He hopes to find enough time each week to write again.

Sarah is a native of Cody, Wyoming, where she grew up hiking, riding horses and alpine skiing in the rugged Absoroka Mountains. She was a standout track athlete in high school and continued to shine at Bates College, where she set five school records on her way to three NCAA All-American performances. After Bates, she turned her attention to nordic skiing and rapidly worked her way to multiple top 10 finishes at USSA Cross-Country National Championships. Her ski career took her across North America and Europe before she focused on art work and mindfulness while living in northern Maine.

Her coaching experience includes stints as the nordic assistant coach at Bowdoin College, the founding coach at the University of Maine at Presque Isle Ski Team, and U14 Coach at the Jackson Hole Ski Club. Sarah is a registered yoga and yoga nidra instructor and specializes in mindfulness and relaxation techniques.

When she's not at SBA, she's probably at the lakeside or on Donner Summit with her daughter Aesklyn and husband Will Sweetser.

Nick comes to us from China Peak, where he was most recently Director of Marketing for the resort after a very long and successful career in ski racing. Nick grew up skiing right here in Tahoe chasing his dream to ski at the World Cup level. He attended the University of Utah where he was a two time All-American and a team captain from 2010-2012. After his time at the U, Nick pursued his World Cup dreams with increased focus and intensity skiing with two private teams in Colorado culminating in a start at the Soelden World Cup opener in 2015. 

Nick continues to be a fitness enthusiast and is an avid mountain biker looking forward to settling back in Tahoe. His passion and unique experience both in and out of the sport make him a great leader for the group of young men at SBA chasing their own ski racing dreams. 

This may sound like hyperbole, but after over 20 years in ski racing, I can assure you that it isn’t. If you asked experienced coaches across the country to make lists of the best coaches in the US, most of those lists would include Brad Saxe. His experience coaching at the club level, all the way up to the World Cup and everywhere in between is marked with plenty of success along the way. He has been responsible for moving athletes from the USST Europa Cup team to the World Cup team, from both the Western Region Team and the club to the USST.

Of additional value to a program like ours is Brad’s ability to mentor our younger staff while also acting as a sounding board from even our most experienced. He will make a significant impact on our program at every level. By teaming Nick and Brad together, we have formed a staff that will challenge and support the U19 men’s group as they move through the year.

Entering his third year with SBA, Geordie doesn’t need much of an introduction. In 2016-17, Geordie worked as a winter-term, full-time coach with the U16 group and this past season, he coached with the U19 Men. Along the way, Geordie has spent time with some of our best and has also proven to be able to successfully adjust his approach to both the level and the gender of the athlete. He’s been to multiple NPS Projects and to U16 Nationals as a coach with the Western Region, where he’s built strong relationships with the USSA staff. Gladys and I are excited to see how Geordie’s experience and engaging personality will impact the U16 women’s group which returns 3 athletes who qualified for 2018 U16 Nationals.

A four-year alpine team member at Northern Michigan, Andrew graduated with a degree in Sport Science in 2012. He also served as president of the ski team and attended USCSA Nationals in both 2011 and 2012. Immediately after graduation, Andrew began work at Ski and Snowboard Club Vail, first as a human performance intern in 2012, as a U16 coach from 2012-17 and as a U19 Men’s Coach last season. 

The experience Andrew brings to the table as a former collegiate athlete and as ski coach at one of the top ski clubs in the world would have been enough to know that he is ready to lead a group of U16 young men. However, combined with overwhelming endorsements from Scott Houser, Brandy Barna and SSCV COO John Hale, it’s clear that his impact on our program will be significant and immediate.

Mark spent the first 20 years of his career as an engineer and manager at Hitachi.  He grew up working with his father in the garage, woodworking and fixing just about anything.  When he and his family moved to California in 2010, he elected to homeschool his daughter Aspen, now an SBA student, and work full time on his woodworking art.  When she started 7th grade at SBA, he took a job at Mountain Forge to learn the art of metalworking to add to his artistic repertoire.  Mark loves spending time with his wife, kids, and grandkids, but is also passionate about mountains, snow, skiing, wood and metal working arts, and making his family's home and the SBA "home" a beautiful and safe place for all of us.