Trevor Wagner named head coach of SL/GS for U.S. women

By Published On: July 8th, 2005Comments Off on Trevor Wagner named head coach of SL/GS for U.S. women

Trevor Wagner named head coach of SL/GS for U.S. womenTrevor Wagner, a member of the U.S. Ski Team women’s alpine coaching staff since 1998, has been named women’s slalom and giant slalom head coach, Alpine Director Jesse Hunt announced.

Wagner, 36, a Seattle native who raced for and graduated from Sierra Nevada College, has been Head Coach Patrick Riml’s key lieutenant with the women’s World Cup tech team program last season.

“This was an easy choice to be tech head coach,” Hunt said. “Trevor’s shown he’s an outstanding coach and this recognizes what he’s been doing in revitalizing the women’s slalom and GS program, which now has tremendous depth as we head into the Olympic season.

“Trevor’s got experience on both the tech and speed side from the Europa Cup, and has built up his credibility and relationships. He’s one of the top young coaches in the country,” Hunt said.

Wagner was born in Seattle but spent his early years in Jackson Hole, WY, and then at The Big Mountain near Whitefish, MT, when his stepfather became general manager at Big and later at Idaho’s Schweitzer Ski Area. He raced for Central Oregon Community College, a two-year school in Bend, OR, and then enrolled in Sierra Nevada. After he graduated in 1994, he moved to Lake Tahoe and coached for four winters with the Squaw Valley Ski Team.

“Ski racing has been everything to me,” Wagner said. “Greg Jones [1976 World Championships bronze medalist in combined] was coaching at Alpine Meadows, and he didn’t have an opening, so he pointed me to ‘Sully’ [Squaw’s renowned coach, Mark Sullivan]…and that couldn’t have worked out better. I coached great athletes, worked on an outstanding staff, and there’s such a supportive community at Squaw…and in Tahoe. And now at the Ski Team since ’98 – again, such a good situation.”

He joined the Ski Team staff for the ’99 season, coaching the Europa Cup tech group and, in 2002, working with Riml when he took over as Europa Cup head coach. As Riml moved up to women’s head coach for the 2003 season, Wagner moved up to the World Cup level; Riml has held dual responsibilities for the last two seasons as head coach and SL/GS head coach.

Wagner lives in Seattle when he’s not at training camps or on the World Cup circuit.

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