USC hits the slopes with poise

Although snow and freezing temperatures are not characteristic of Los Angeles, the warm climate presents no challenge for students who desire to ski.

Airborne · USC Ski and Snowboard club member Abe Kislevitz, who graduated from USC in 2009, created the club’s website on which followers can watch club-produced videos and keep up with the team. - Photo courtesy of Nicole Kucera

Every weekend about 30 to 40 members of the USC Ski and Snowboard club travel to Mammoth Mountain to hit the slopes.

Club President and ski club coach senior Chris Nelson, heads a group of 107 members that has been making a name for itself. The USC freestyle ski team, which is a part of the club, competed in its first nationals last year and won the event. It then narrowly defeated University of Colorado at Boulder to defend its national championship title March 6.

The USC freestyle ski team is composed of Nelson, along with juniors Ben Gunton, Chris Farro, Caleb Farro and freshman Matt Cook, who all traveled to Sunday River, Maine for the five-day competition.

With more than 500 competitors at nationals, the USC freestyle ski team made its mark in the freestyle skiing competition — that includes slope style, half pipe and skier cross, by sweeping the event. Junior Caleb Farro, placed first overall in freestyle skiing, followed by Cook in second place and Gunton in third.

Because he tore his anterior cruciate ligament and broke his wrist last year, Caleb Farro was only planning to support the team and have fun skiing at the competition. Without much preparation for nationals, he still claimed first place.

“I was stoked to be back. But my doctor doesn’t even know I’m skiing right now. I’m definitely not cleared,” he said.

Along with Caleb Farro, Cook was able to set the stage for the USC ski team when he won the half pipe during the opening ceremony.

“[Cook] was the only kid from USC to make the finals, and he went against five kids from Colorado,” Chris Farro said. “When he won, we all went nuts.”

According to Nelson, Cook’s win was crucial to prove that, despite being from sunny Los Angeles, the USC ski team was legitimate competition.

“A lot of people don’t associate SoCal with skiing, and this entire competition was a way to show more people what we’re all about,” Gunton said.

Not only did the USC ski team prove that it belongs among the top ski teams in the nation, but it also did so funding.

“Most schools like University of California at Santa Barbara sent their teams to Maine, but we had to pay $4,400 out of pocket,” Caleb Farro said.

The Recreation Club Council at USC provided the ski club with $3,000, and clubs can also earn up to an additional $1,000 if they present the RCC with a valid reason for why they need the funds.

“After winning nationals in Boulder last year, we thought we could get some more funding, but [RCC] only gave us an extra $375, which was kind of like a slap in the face,” Nelson said.

According to Chris Farro, not many students even know that the ski team competed at nationals, let alone won nationals two years in a row.

Chris Farro and Cook, however, chose to attend USC over schools like University of Colorado at Boulder specifically because of the ski club’s website.

Abe Kislevitz, a fall 2009 graduate, created the team website, USCSnowSports.org, four years ago to highlight the club’s activities.

“I wanted to get people to realize what we’re doing in Los Angeles and get the word out about our ski team winning,” Kislevitz said.

The highly interactive website has videos of the team, including a recently created 3-D video. Last year, these videos had 250,000 views on YouTube and 187,000 views since January 2010 alone.

“A lot of kids from the East Coast even follow our videos,” Kislevitz said. “I’ve had people come up to me and tell me that they’ve seen the videos and want to come to USC to ski on our team.”

For the ski club, it’s not the weather that presents the obstacle; it’s demonstrating to the public that Southern California schools can shred.