Skier of the Week: Cowboy Chase February 13 & 14

Taylor charging the last hill of the 21km!

This week’s skier of the week is the heart and soul of the team and the coaches. 

Not only did he had his best college race of the season but he is an amazing leader who always finds something that needs to be done and helps in every way imaginable.

Taylor is the current President of the team and as such does tons of organization, fills out tons of forms, supports the entire team and is an amazing help to the coaches. He does all this with a smile and a willing heart. Never complaining about the extra load. He simply keeps the team running in the background with little to no recognition!

This weekend is the perfect example of the thoughtfulness and dedication to skiing, racing, his teammates and the coaches.

Thursday night was the beginning of the madness we have names the Laramie Nordic Festival. It encompasses High School races on Friday. High School, College, Citizen and Junior High races on Saturday and College and Citizen on Sunday. This is a TON of work for our team in addition to the usual activities of waxing and preparing to race.

Taylor’s weekend started as he was trying to wax his skis for his own race. Always aware of all the work that needs to be done he was sure to check multiple times to see if anyone needed help with anything and assisted with multiple activities.

He then did all he could to help with the High School race, despite classes, visitors and race prep. It was a hard afternoon that left everyone tired.

When we arrived at the High School dinner we suddenly decided that we needed an athlete to speak to the high school athletes about the team. We gave Taylor about 30 minutes to pull something together, no small feat since there were over 200 people in the room! He stepped up and did great. Despite obvious nervousness and having had no chance for preparation he was able to help paint a picture of the team and we hope, convinced some young athletes to join us.

The next morning he should have been nothing but an athlete but he continued to try to find ways to help up to and after his own race. Despite not focusing on his own race he had a great race, placing 6th, the 4th UW man!

The next day was another opportunity to help and ski fast and he did both. He placed 11th, just a few seconds out of the top 10 and could be seen all over the venue supporting, helping, talking and generally making everyone feel happy!

Always finding ways to help and support his teammates and coaches, skiing fast, setting an amazing example as a leader and making people happy are all reasons that Taylor Vignaroli is our skier of the week.

YOU ROCK OUR WORLD!