Did you know Franklin High School has a snowboarding team? Their season is just starting up this January. Here are some things you should know if you’re considering joining next year, or even want to learn more about the team.
First of all, the Franklin snowboarding team is relatively small, with only around fifteen people on it. It is a combined team with the other southeast high schools, especially Cleveland High School. The team competes in competitions like half pipe, banked slalom, boardercross and slopestyle against Westside and Eastside schools. The competitions are held on the weekends and are usually early in the morning from about six a.m. to around five p.m. There are around six or seven regular weekend competitions as well and one Monday competition this year. There is a Mt. Hood Meadows season pass required for anybody on the team, because you must have one in order to go to practice and competitions. There is also a fee for participating in the sport which covers the bus, insurance, jerseys and a team hoodie, and the racing fee. Anybody who would like to join also has to have their own equipment, (including a helmet for safety.)
The coaches for the Southeast Snowboarding Team are very experienced and talented.
Many of them have professional experience from training with national coaches and coaching kids to the national level, so their team is in very good hands. They strive to have one coach to every ten team members so they can receive feedback and advice more frequently and easily. Ian Irvine, a coach for the Southeast Snowboarding Team, has been coaching since 2019 and really enjoys it; he works with five others who’ve been coaching the team together for a few years. “I’ve been intentional with snowboarding since I started in the 90’s, and coaching has shown to be the ultimate avenue to continue riding and sharing that experience with the next generation,” Irvine says.
Harriet Levi, a Franklin senior, has been on the team since her sophomore year and has been snowboarding since she was in the fourth grade. Although Levi herself was already a talented snowboarder before she joined the team, she explains, “It’s recommended that you know the basics but it isn’t required and lots of people join with no experience.” The team practices on Wednesdays at Mt. Hood Meadows, which is around an hour and a half drive from the Southeast Portland area, depending on traffic. “We leave school at 2:15 and drive up to the mountain on a school bus,” Levi says, which can be positive or negative depending on the student and their class schedule. The team meets their coaches (Ian Irvine and others) at Meadows and they practice until around eight p.m. and then ride on the bus back to Portland. “My favorite part is getting to snowboard with all my friends,” Levi says. “It’s very fun and easy to meet people from other schools, or make new friends all while having fun competing and practicing.”
Snowboarding as a high school sport has not always been an option for students and the Southeast Snowboarding Team has only been part of Oregon’s Interscholastic Snowboarding Association (OISA) for approximately 15 years. “Competing in snowboarding wasn’t an option when I was in high school, so it’s special to be a part of it now,” says Irvine. His favorite part about coaching the Southeast team is the energy of the competition, as well as the chance to help students improve their skills.
“The coach’s main goal is to get everybody to compete in events so everybody has a greater chance of making it to state,” Irvine says. State is held over around five days and lasts through the entire day. It seems to be one of the highlights of the season. As Levi says, “state is super fun.” Not only is it fun for the team members, it is fun for the coaches as well. “Everyone on the team gets to skip school to ride and hang out at the mountain. It’s the best celebration,” Irvine says.
