By Annie O’Neill STAFF WRITER
John Horsch is the first executive director in the history of the Big Sky Ski Education Foundation. The board created the position as part of a strategic plan to guide the organization’s growth.
“It’s really exciting to know that the strategic plan isn’t just a binder of paper that’s going to sit on someone’s desk,” Horsch said in an interview. “They’re actually starting to take action on it.”
Horsch comes to Big Sky from California, where he was executive director of the Sugar Bowl Ski Team and Academy at Sugar Bowl Resort near Lake Tahoe. He joined the organization as a board member in 2017 before becoming executive director later that year.
Earlier in his career, Horsch worked in the education technology sector and was involved with a San Francisco nonprofit that offers summer programs for middle school students.
In the 1990s, he sailed competitively at the University of California, Berkeley, and later mounted a 2006 Olympic campaign, but fell short of making the team. He said that experience, along with leading Sugar Bowl’s racing team, informs how he sees the new executive director role.
“I couldn’t do the job of really anyone who worked for me when I was there,” he said of his time at Sugar Bowl. At the time, he oversaw a staff who provided services like tutoring and fueled the young athletes on the team. “I can’t teach algebra, and I couldn’t cook breakfast for 150 kids.” His role, he said, is making sure “the right people are there” and have the resources to succeed, then letting them do what they do well.
Supporting the coaches
BSSEF runs alpine, freeride and Nordic programs. Horsch said he plans to lean on its three program directors, so he can focus on fundraising, strategic planning and organizational development. With athletic development “really well covered,” he said, the goal is to give coaches the support they need to be as good as they can be, and in turn, to benefit the kids.
“Everything comes back to the kids,” he said.
Horsch’s top goal for his first year is strengthening BSSEF’s relationship with Big Sky Resort. He said the two groups are “paddling in the same direction” most of the time. At Sugar Bowl, he said, he helped renegotiate the team’s operating agreement with the resort, covering training space, workout facilities and grooming schedules. The process helped both sides understand each other’s priorities, he said.
Having an executive director who isn’t on the hill with athletes every day, he said, means someone is available to attend meetings and serve as the point of contact.
Growing participation
Horsch also wants to grow enrollment. He said the program has the capacity to take on more athletes, including those with no aspirations of reaching the sport’s elite level.
“Many youth sports struggle with keeping kids in the sport,” he said. Once they reach 15 or 16, other interests, like friends and time demands pull them away. He said BSSEF can offer a team sport and time outdoors for those athletes, too.
Asked what he wants young athletes to take from the program, Horsch said that win or lose, the goal is character.
“We were just in the business of making good human beings,” he said, recalling how he described his work at Sugar Bowl to parents, “and we just happen to think skiing is a really good way to do it.”
Horsch has been working with staff and board members for several weeks and is eager to get on the mountain with athletes. He and his wife are house hunting and his two adult sons are “totally psyched” about the move.
He said his advice to families who want to get involved is simple: sign up kids for programs, which span ages and disciplines, and “talk it up” to friends. Community support, including business names on team jackets and events such as the Turkey Trot and the annual Ski Ball, are all encouraging signs of BSSEF’s connection with Big Sky. He also invited community members to introduce themselves.
“I want to meet everybody,” he said.
On the question of a favorite Big Sky run, he said he doesn’t have one yet, but that could change soon. “More to come,” Horsch concluded.
