Davis High Snowboard Team

PHOTO: Sophomore Nico Dwyer walks across the Boreal parking lot to get on the slopes.

By Nico Dwyer,

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

On early Tuesday, Dec. 3 the Davis High snowboard team is practicing in the stadium, running up and down the stairs until they can no longer.

DHS is one of six teams in the Central 2 league that includes Placer, Colfax, Nevada Union, Tahoe and Truckee high schools. Out of all of the teams, Davis has the lowest elevation of 59 feet with the closest being Colfax at close to 2,500 feet of elevation.

The higher the elevation the closer the city is to snow, which means more time to practice.

Truckee High School is a 13-minute drive to Boreal mountain ski resort. On the other hand, Davis is a two-hour drive from Boreal. 

Snowboarding is an expensive sport. To participate you need complete gear, lift passes and pay for the bus. All of these purchases are what usually drive away most students who find an interest in the sport.

The snowboard team at DHS consists of around 25 people, which requires the team to take a bus to get to the slopes. The cost of the bus for each border is anywhere around $1,000 to $2,000.

The average day for a player on the team on a mountain day is to get up around 5:30 a.m. to go to Davis high at 6:45 a.m.

At seven a.m. the bus leaves and then you sit on the bus for two hours until you get to Boreal.

The team rides from nine a.m. to three p.m. on practice days. All of the time the team spends in the mountains is preparing them for race days.

On race days, races are divided by open, varsity, and boys and girls and there are two different types of races slalom and giant slalom.

The current coach of the snowboarding team is history teacher Bill Williams. Williams took the job last year after being an assistant coach for one year. 

Williams’ goal this year for the team is to “compete well in the league and qualify 10 athletes for states.”

Sophomore Tyler Steenbergen is one student who decided to join this expensive sport.

Steenbergen is an avid snowboarder and feels like the team pushes him to be a better snowboarder. “The competition with the races determines me to practice more and get better,” he said.

Steenbergen’s main goal this year is to make the states race at the end of the season.

Junior Molly Mahoney’s main goal this year on the team is a little different. This year is Mahoney’s first year on the team and also her first year snowboarding.

For Mahoney, her main goal is to learn how to snowboard. “This season I’m excited to spend time with my friends on the team and learn how to snowboard.”

The DHS snowboard team is very welcoming and accepts any level of competition. College sophomore Siena Dwyer is a DHS snowboard team alumni. Dwyer participated in the state championship race in 2017 representing DHS.

Dwyer thinks that joining the team taught her how to snowboard much better and also kept her in shape.

The team is yet to have their first race on Jan 6 at Alpine Meadows resort and the first practice was on Dec. 16.