A SCHOOL holidays with minimal snowfall and some sub-optimal weather conditions didn't dampen the spirits of a contingent of young athletes participating in Team Hotham’s winter programs last month.

Some 178 athletes participated in training programs for ski and snowboard disciplines including alpine ski racing, snowboard racing, freeride snowboard and freeride ski, along with youth development programs for U12 athletes in each sport to give them a taste of each discipline.

Team Hotham is a not-for-profit organisation which has been a stalwart part of the Hotham community since 1972 when it was established as Mt Hotham Racing Squad.

In 2022 the club transitioned from an Alpine Ski Racing club to a Winter Sports club, expanding to include snowboard racing, freeride, freestyle and freeride ski disciplines in its offering for young athletes.

The change opened further doors for young athletes who weren’t drawn to ski racing but nonetheless wanted to develop their skills and excel in their chosen discipline.

Sport director of the club, Canadian coach Jeff Books, said the mission of the club is to “provide best practice programming at all levels, in all disciplines".

"Our aim is to build a good participation base and balance the space between performance and participation,” he said.

Over the years it has been a fertile breeding ground for young Australian talent coming through the ranks to reach the highest levels of the sport.

Most recently, former Olympians Harry Laidlaw and Louis Muhlen-Schulte have cracked into the top 30 or ‘the flip’ in Giant Slalom on the World Cup, with Louis becoming the first Australian athlete to score points at World Cup level.

Alpine ski racer and three-time Winter Olympian Greta Small also spent her early training years at Team Hotham before pursuing racing in Europe.

Speaking with Louis, he recalls his eight years at the club as equipping him with foundational skills which he has taken into his career as a professional athlete.

“I never knew about racing or alpine skiing I just did it for fun… still did a lot of the rail jams when I was there," he said.

"(The club) taught me a lot of independence, I had to put effort and time in, develop the ability to set and control of my own goals.

"My parents gave me a lot of independence, but if I wanted to pursue it I had to manage it myself, setting my alarms and making my way to training, making my own lunches, maintaining my equipment.

"All these skills that you need as an athlete, or in life or in business… looking back the club gave me a strong foundation on these things.

“Still have a lot of great memories of making friends, powder skiing together, it’s such a small industry here that community to be able to return to each year I value more the further I progress in the sport”

Louis, Greta and Harry all continue to play roles within the community as mentors and guest coaches, helping with both athlete and coach development.

“I really want to try to give back to the community in a mentor role, showing athletes the level they can get to, coming from similar beginnings, it’s not an impossible goal, being a professional athlete," said Louis.

"That club system showed me that was a possibility.”

Snowboard head coach Jaimie Figueroa made the Challenger Series on the Freeride World Tour this season, and works with the development group of young shredders this winter.

“I start on the fundamentals, make sure they can make a good turn, have solid base of skills before they decide what pathway they want to take," he said.

"I try to let them figure out for themselves, this year I have an athlete who wasn’t that excited by the park but was killing it in a race context.

'As soon as it stops being fun the outcomes drop off pretty quickly so we try and make that a priority.

“We don’t force things on our young athletes but try and give them the skills to achieve what they want.”

Talking with other athletes, the life skills developed and the community element of year-on-year participation in the sport is a recurring theme which keeps them all coming back.

Twenty-year-old athlete Pia Bruce still competes in Slalom and Giant Slalom and will race in New Zealand and Europe again this winter after joining the club as a six-year-old.

“I was in kids club at age five the year before I joined," Pia recalled.

"I still ski at Hotham and I ski with Apex Academy out of Pozza Di Fassa in Italy.

“As a young kid, we often learned simple things like manners and learning to be resilient, having a competitive mindset and being able to apply it to other contexts like schooling.

"Goal setting was very big, thinking I want to achieve this, and these are the steps I need to take to get there.

“It's very good to be part of the community, every year I come back to the same people, and I don’t see them all the time but we come back and each year pursue the same outcome and those friendships don’t change and I’ll have them forever.”

Fifteen-year-old Micah McGown is the youngest of five siblings and has been skiing at Hotham since he was five years old, most recently training in Italy in Sud-Tirol.

“Some of my fondest memories are the simple travel things like training last year at Falls and staying with our teammates," he said.

"Having those friendships to return to each year, and battling the sometimes challenging conditions and finding a way to stay positive, even if some days you need to work hard for it.”

Former program director Hugh Brooks once told me that “there’s only five clubs in Australia. If we don’t do a great job, there won’t be a future for winter sports in Australia”. In amongst a challenging start to a winter, it’s great to see good people working hard to better themselves and grow the sport in their communities.

Team Hotham offers programs from ages six and up for young athletes, from participation to performance levels across the disciplines.