Telluride Ski & Snowboard Club : Coaches & Directors

Bennett Hrabovsky

FreeStyle Park Head Coach

Bennett grew up skiing in Colorado- Aspen Mountain to be exact, before moving to Upstate New York, where he began his ski racing career. On the icy and unforgiving slopes of the Northeast Bennett picked up a lot of fundamentals and skills which greatly helped and influenced his personal skiing style. Although he began competing as a ski racer, he has always been a freeskier first and transitioned from ski racing to competing in freeride and big mountain events.

"I'm glad to be back in Colorado after my stint in the Northeast, and I look forward to coaching and mentoring TSSC athletes to the highest level of excellence!"

Abbott Smith

FreeRide All Mountain Head Coach

Born in Wisconsin, Abbott spent his youth ski racing.

In college, he earned his USSA, WFR, and Avy certs while coaching USSA and high school ski race teams. After graduating college he jumped back into the competition scene, by entering the Freeskiing and Freeride World Tours, resulting in podiums, a sickbird and world ranking.

Abbott's goals are to give his athletes their best opportunity at success in tough big mountain terrain by teaching solid fundamentals, navigation and safety.

Larry Gianatti

Alpine Head Coach

Larry Gianatti Alpine Program Director/Head Alpine Coach

Larry is a former Olympic and World Cup ski coach. He has directed programs from the Club, University and International level in four different countries. He is a certified Instructor/Trainer, Coach and Alpine Official in Chile, France, Great Britain and the United States. He has trained alpine coaches and athletes for almost four decades, and has been successful at every stop on his Alpine journey. Larry was the first Executive Director for the Telluride Ski and Snowboard Club. Before returning to Telluride in 2015, he spent the last decade coaching college athletes and was named the Eastern Collegiate Coach of the Year in 2014 and was the USCSA MacConnell Division Coach of the Year in 2013 and 2015. During his career Larry appeared in over a dozen ski movies. Larry attended the University of Connecticut with a major in English Literature.

Jeff Yingling

Freestyle Moguls Head Coach

Jeff has a life time of experience in Freestyle mogul skiing and more than 11 years of experience as a Freestyle Program Director at Gould Academy, Bethel Maine. He is a former member of the United States Freestyle Development Team, two time Jr World Championships Coach and has coached in six different countries.

He lives in Telluride with his wife Erika and daughters Eloise and Portia. He is passionate about coaching mogul skiing and consider himself a life long student of the sport.

Jeff is a USSA certified level 2 Aerial coach and also holds certification with American Sports Education Program (ASEP).

Justin Chandler

Alpine Coach, Executive Director

Emma Christensen

Telemark Head Coach

Emma Christensen is new head coach of the Telemark team. She is a graduate of Green Mountain College with a degree in Adventure Education and a minor in Education. She has grown up in the mountains of Maine exploring the lakes, rivers and mountains she calls home. In the past years, Emma has coached the backcountry ski team for Carrabassett Valley Academy (a ski academy based in Maine). She has also coached in Northern Idaho at Schweitzer Ski Resort. Emma is a passionate skier of all disciplines, and loves leading in the outdoors and inspiring others to get outside and lead a healthy life. She comes to us with a myriad experience coaching and teaching telemark and alpine skiing. Emma is a certified PSIA Level II Telemark instructor and likewise has an avalanche level 1 education. Emma is excited to be working with both the Telemark team and all- mountain programs as well as getting to know the athletes and exploring the mountain together.

Maggie McNally

Gravity Head Coach

Maggie has lived in Telluride for over 25 years, drawn to the region by the mountains and open space.

She grew up in Northern California, skiing in the Sierras as a youth. A lifelong love of skiing was instilled in her at a young age by her father. She hopes to pass that passion along to all the children who participate in Team Gravity.

Maggie is a USSA certified Level 100 mogul coach and has an ASEP certification in Sports First Aid.

She is happily married and has a beautiful daughter who shares in the love of the mountains and skiing.
When not skiing, she is an avid equestrian that follows her passion of endurance riding.

Lance Waring

Head Nordic Coach

Lance Waring is a longtime nordic skier. For the past decade, has been nordic skiing with Telluride kids.

His programs focus on technique, fitness, and fun on skinny skis. Waring's youth coaching philosophy is "I don't care how fast you ski; I care how hard you try

Jake McTigue

Alpine Age Class Travel Coach

Part-Time Gravity Coach & Alpine Age Class Travel Coach

Jake ski raced for the Telluride Alpine Race Team. He also ski raced for the University of Puget Sound. He taught English in California and South America before returning to the United States. Jake has been successful in the real estate business in California and Telluride. This is Jake’s second stint coaching, having coached the FIS group in the 1990’s for the Telluride Ski and Snowboard Club. Jake studied English Literature in college.

Sean Mahoney

Alpine U-10 Coach

Sean Mahoney U-10 Coach

Sean grew up in North Conway, NH, where his late father Tom cut the trails and was the head of the race department in the 60's and early 70's and later the head of the ski school at Mt. Attitash. He started his teaching and coaching career there in high school and returned to 'The Valley' after graduating from UNH to coach HS Alpine racing for The Mount Washington Valley Ski Team under the mentorship of Dave Gregory. He continued to coach for MWVST part-time while taking over the boys' and girls' Alpine programs at The Middlesex School in Concord, MA, where his girls were New England Prep School Division Champions in 2001. He chased his now-wife Emily out to San Francisco, CA in 2003 and they moved to New York City in 2006, where he received an MFA in Musical Theater Writing from NYU, and he continues to write and develop musicals and rock operas remotely. He re-located to Telluride in August, 2015 with his wife and kids (Tee, 6, and Jaye, 3) and he is very excited to be back on skis working with the 3rd Grade Gravity grommets this winter.

Zak Watkins

Freestyle Moguls Coach

Zak is from Durango and grew up skiing Purgatory. After highschool Zak moved to Telluride to pursue a competitive mogul career. He trained with Caleb Martin and competed

Molly Cooney

snowboard@tssc.org

I am thrilled to be back running the club. I have grown up as a competitive snowboarder through TSSC, and I am happy to give back to the kids by coaching. I have competed in such events as Burton Opens, Grand Prix, USASA Nationals, World Cup events, etc. I was a member of the USSA snowboard team in my younger years, and rode for companies such as Burton and Roxy. I have worked for High Cascade Snowboard Camp for five years in the past. I have been coaching TSSC for eight years now. I enjoy sharing my knowledge of snowboarding and the industry through coaching.

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