Park City, UT – A ski racing coach in various capacities for over a decade, Mike Day is making his way back to the U.S. Ski Team as the men’s alpine technical head coach. The announcement was made Tuesday by U.S. Men’s Alpine Head Coach Sasha Rearick.n”Mike has shown great leadership in his past coaching positions and will also bring in a strong knowledge of the ski industry from his recent years at Fisher,” said Rearick.
Day began coaching 12 years ago at Carrabassett Valley Academy (CVA) in Maine, where he was also once a student. Following six years of work at CVA, Day moved to Utah where he worked with the Park City Ski Team.
In 2002 he worked with the U.S. Ski Team as a coach through the Salt Lake Winter Olympics, returning after the season’s end to the Park City Ski Team. Six years ago, Day made the switch to working within the equipment industry, serving as U.S. racing director for Fischer USA.
Day moves in for Rudi Soulard, who took a position as women’s head tech coach for Sweden.
Now, Day is happy to make a return to the coaching department where he feels he has the opportunity to do great things.
“I’m passionate about ski racing, but coaching and the athletic side of the sport is what I am most passionate about,” Day said. “I’ve been missing it a lot and this was a fantastic opportunity to not only get back to the athletic side of it, but to get back to it at the highest level.”
Day is also looking forward to working with athletes whom he built a great coaching relationship with during his time with the Park City Ski Team.
“In Park City I was able to work with Ted [Ligety; Park City, Utah], Steven [Nyman; Heber City, Utah], Tim [Jitloff; Reno, Nev.], and TJ [Lanning; Park City, Utah] as juniors, so it’s great consistency for me that I’ve known these guys and worked with them for a long time,” Day said.
Day is equally as excited to connect with a coaching staff that he feels he will integrate very well with.
“I think I’m coming into it from a great spot. I’ve been somewhat removed from the athletic side so I think it’s a clean slate,” Day said. “The guys I’ll be working together with – Josh Applegate and Ben Black – I’m excited about the three of us because we’ll work extremely well together.”
Looking ahead to the 2011 season, Day said that he wants to be able to build all the athletes up to recognize their potential in competition.
“Hopefully we can work hard to bring the younger guys up to a level of competition that is similar to Ted’s and Bode’s. There are guys with huge potential and we need to help them move to the next level and be consistently competitive,” Day said. “Hopefully I can provide an enjoyable, fun and professional work atmosphere that the guys have a good time and a lot of success in as well.”
Day lives in Sunapee, N.H., with his wife Sarah Towslee and two children, a 3-year-old son Rudd, who will be 4 in July, and his daughter Tess who will be 2 in July.