Tailored from a press launch by Colorado Mountain Faculty: CMC Ski Workforce 24/25 Picture courtesy of CMC
CMC ski group faces unsure future$150K matching pledge boosts effort to boost $300K by Nov. 30
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS July 31, 2025 – Colorado Mountain Faculty’s Alpine ski group — one of many few collegiate packages rooted within the coronary heart of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains — could also be going through its last season until a $300,000 fundraising purpose is met by Nov. 30.
Faculty leaders say ongoing monetary pressures and lowered state and federal assist have pressured robust selections throughout the establishment. With out sustainable funding, the school will likely be pressured to discontinue the group.
For CMC ski group member Everett Dooley, the doable loss feels private.
“I used to be actually in shock,” he mentioned. “I felt just like the ski group saved lots of people from falling out of the game. It’s been a stepping stone for me and so a lot of my teammates.”
Initially from Avon, Colorado, Dooley skied with Ski & Snowboard Membership Vail and the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports activities Membership earlier than becoming a member of the group. He’s earned prime finishes in nationwide and worldwide FIS races and sees CMC as his launchpad.
Searching for options
Based greater than 40 years in the past, CMC’s group trains at Howelsen Hill and Steamboat Resort — each simply minutes from the school’s Steamboat Springs campus. The school district spans 17 lift-served ski areas throughout the Colorado Rockies, making it a pure house for alpine racing. CMC has at all times totally funded the group, not like many collegiate ski packages that depend on donor bases or endowments.
CMC President Matt Gianneschi mentioned the choice to doubtlessly discontinue the group comes from the school’s incapability to assist many precious packages amid present funds pressures.
“The group’s success lies within the a whole bunch of lives it has remodeled,” Gianneschi mentioned. “As a former student-athlete, I perceive the profound classes sports activities provide. However we’re having to make exhausting choices throughout the school attributable to extreme funding cuts coming from federal and state funds modifications. We’re searching for options wherever we are able to discover them. It’s our honest hope that CMC’s group can defend itself from these cuts by philanthropic assist, and I thank donors becoming a member of us on this effort to ‘Save the Skigles.’”
CMC’s scenario isn’t distinctive. Collegiate ski packages throughout the nation have lengthy relied on donor assist. The College of Nevada, Reno reinstated its group in 2024-25 due to a $400,000 endowment. A neighborhood marketing campaign saved the College of Alaska Anchorage’s group. Nonetheless, the College of Wyoming, Western Colorado College, and the College of New Mexico all eradicated their packages completely.
“It’s a tragedy to maintain shedding these groups,” mentioned Scott Tanner, head coach of CMC’s group. “With fewer school packages, the game loses children at youthful ages.”
Matching $150,000 pledge sparks momentum
To keep away from that destiny, CMC and its supporters have launched a marketing campaign to boost $1.5 million by June 2027. The primary benchmark — $300,000 by Nov. 30 — is gaining momentum due to a $150,000, dollar-for-dollar matching pledge from a regional household who needs to stay nameless. The marketing campaign seeks one-time presents and multi-year pledges. All presents are tax-deductible by the CMC Basis.
The purpose is to create a fund that may present $150,000 yearly for not less than 10 extra years. Within the meantime, present group dad and mom and student-athletes have supported a mannequin that requires every athlete to contribute $10,000 yearly, beginning within the 2026-27 season. Even with this participation price, CMC’s low-cost tuition will proceed to make it one of the vital reasonably priced packages in collegiate ski racing.
Brian Olson, a Steamboat actual property developer and CMC ski group alum, is amongst these rallying assist.
“Many years in the past, CU and DU have been out of my league financially and athletically,” he mentioned. “CMC was an enormous alternative for me to proceed my targets and goals.”
Olson later transferred to the College of Nevada, Reno, completed his enterprise diploma and returned to Steamboat.
“With out the ski group, I most likely by no means would’ve come right here,” he mentioned. “I take all of it the way in which again to CMC ski racing.”
Greater than a group
For Dooley, who’s learning motion sports activities at CMC, the group is about greater than ski racing.
“This diploma and the group introduced what I’ve lived and breathed into the classroom,” he mentioned. “I’ve traveled, marketed myself for sponsors, spoken to model reps — it’s all a part of understanding the ski trade.”
He additionally credit the group with constructing his psychological power by mindfulness and visualization inspired by his mom, Christine.
“My greatest profession snowboarding has been at CMC, and that was no coincidence. The assist helped me consider in myself — and that perception carries into the remainder of life.”
Olson sees the identical resilience in at this time’s student-athletes.
“It’s not nearly snowboarding. I realized life expertise — setting targets, staying disciplined — and that exhibits up in the actual world.”
Supporters say the ski group connects CMC to Colorado’s snow sports activities economic system. For college students like Dooley, whose dad and mom labored a number of jobs to assist his ski goals, CMC was a uncommon lifeline.
“This group makes it doable for individuals like me to maintain racing,” Dooley mentioned. “With out it, numerous ski careers can be over earlier than they even began.”
A second probability

Former CMC student-athlete Nicola Rountree-Williams is among the group’s most vocal advocates. Now a standout skier and 4.0 pupil on the College of Denver, she credit CMC with serving to her rebuild her tutorial and athletic path.
“I got here to CMC after I had simply misplaced my spot on the U.S. Ski Workforce. I didn’t have a highschool diploma and felt like ski racing had failed me,” she mentioned. “CMC was one of many solely locations that accepted me — and it modified every little thing.”
With small class sizes, supportive college and top-tier coaching, she discovered her footing.
“I used to be instructed I didn’t have to carry out straight away — simply deal with getting again on my toes. CMC’s group is among the solely constantly reasonably priced methods to race in school. And it’s a secure place for individuals like me — recognized with autism and ADHD — who wanted time to bloom.”
After reaching her first school podium this previous season, she added, “None of this is able to be doable with out CMC.”
Because the November deadline nears, Dooley hopes the ski neighborhood understands what’s at stake.
“If we lose the CMC ski group,” he mentioned, “we’re shedding a means for teenagers to remain within the sport, to remain at school and to develop — as racers and as individuals.”
To be taught extra and make a pledge, contact Olivia Goldsworthy on the CMC Basis at [email protected], 970-870-4407 or go to coloradomtn.edu/basis/ski-team-fund.