Every Friday and Saturday, December through February, eight Lasallian students spend most of their day on Mt. Hood at either Timberline Lodge or Mt. Hood Skibowl training for races.

The team includes captain senior Ryder McCoy-Hansen, sophomores Liam Kean, Zach Mosen, Ana Neito, Henry Perrin, and Aurora Wiedoff, as well as freshmen Oliver Bogya and Evan Doleski. 

Last year was the first time in La Salle history that the ski team qualified for the state races, and going back is one of McCoy-Hansen’s goals for the season.

The La Salle ski team, alongside students from high schools including Ida B.Wells, Riverdale, and Central Catholic, are coached by Willy and Lloyd Scroggins through Willy Camp — a ski racing program that coaches and trains racers. 

McCoy-Hansen, a La Salle ski team member for four years, said that “they’re really, really good at skiing, and they’re also really good coaches.” They have both been coaching for over 30 years, but only started coaching high school skiing when their kids started going to Central Catholic. Lloyd Scroggins was a three-time Olympic ski coach, and Willy Scroggins is a winner of the US Alpine Masters National Championship, which is a nationwide ski competition sponsored in part by A Racer’s Edge.

Bogya’s first impressions of the coaches were that “they’re really going to help me improve,” he said. “I like their energy, their mentality.” 

Bogya discovered the ski team through the club fair and signed up on the spot. “I think it’s going to be a good team,” Bogya said. “I’m excited. It’s my first year doing ski team, so I’m a little nervous, but mostly excited.”  

McCoy-Hansen chose to come to La Salle specifically because of his Falcon For A Day where he shadowed a member of the ski team, and is excited to have more people on the team this year. “I could not recommend it more,” he said. 

The ski team is really close, and share many good memories of them up at the mountain together every weekend. One of those moments for McCoy-Hansen is when on a powder day he, Perrin, and a member from the Central Catholic team, all got lost. “It was really funny,” he said.

McCoy-Hansen said that even though he doesn’t have time for anything other than skiing over the weekend, he prefers it over doing anything else. He makes sure that his homework is done during the week so that his weekend is free.

Starting on Jan. 21 and continuing through Feb. 25, races will be happening up at Skibowl, Mt. Hood Meadows, and even Hoodoo Ski Area.

With feelings of excitement and hope as well as a past of successes, the future seems bright for the La Salle ski team.