USASA North Tahoe Series rider Cole Valles joins SNU's Snowboard Team making it one of the largest in SNU history. 

Sierra Nevada University is gearing up for winter with one of its largest ski and snowboard teams in the university’s history. Twenty-six athletes will make up the 2020/21 SNU Snowboard and Freeski teams with sixteen snowboarders and ten Freeskiers. SNU’s alpine team has seventeen athletes, fourteen of whom are international students. “We are a well-known school in Europe,” SNU Head Alpine Coach and Slovenian native Mihalea Kosi said. “SNU offers athletes from all over the world an amazing opportunity to study while also continuing their competitive careers,” Mihaela, an SNU alumni who graduated in 2018 with a degree in environmental science and global resource management, speaks from experience. SNU is a well-known supporter of student-athletes in the World Cup ski and snowboard communities. 2014 Olympic gold medalist Maddie Bowman is a recent SNU graduate.Current US Ski Team member Lila Lapanja is pursuing her Global Business Management degree at SNU while balancing the FIS World Cup circuit's demands. 

SNU Head Alpine Coach Mihaela Kosi (left) and her SNU Eagles are looking forward to another successful season. 

Due to COVID-19, student-athletes are getting ready for the season in the safety of solitude, participating in dry-land activities and other pre-season training alone, but once the lifts start spinning, athletes will be able to return to a more normal on-hill routine. Lake Tahoe’s Diamond Peak resort is a stone’s throw away from SNU giving athletes an opportunity to train within five miles of campus.  “We’re lucky to be up here in the mountains and to be supported by SNU’s president and athletic director,” Mihaela explained, “we pretty much have it the best given the COVID situation.” SNU has a close relationship with Diamond Peak and SNU Alpine Team athletes train 7 am to 9 am most mornings before the resort opens to the public and snowboard and Freeski athletes will be on the hill masked up and socially distanced for safety. As for the event season, Mihaela and her team are looking forward to Nationals to add some more USCSA National titles to SNU’s impressive collection.

A five minute drive from SNU campus, Diamond Peak, will be the main training hub for SNU ski and snowboard teams.

To learn more about Sierra Nevada University and its educational and athletic opportunities, click here.