Killington, VT – Killington Mountain School (KMS) recently announced that former U.S. Grand Prix Slopestyle competitor and former Vermont State Trooper Cassandra Herbes has been appointed to the post of head freestyle snowboard coach at the Vermont ski and snowboard academy.
A Castleton State College graduate and the only female member of the Killington Resort Snowboard Team in 2009, Herbes is a former competitor focused on slopestyle, rail jams and halfpipe training and competition. She has several top-15 Grand Prix slopestyle finishes and has competed in national invitational events like the Killington Rails to Riches and Forum Youngblood series.
“She’s super organized and has great, positive energy,” said KC Gandee, snowboard program director at KMS. “We’re stoked to have her and her perfect blend of competitive and coaching experience will benefit both full-time student-athletes at KMS as well as those athletes in our Weekend Competition Programs.”
A former community soccer coach and personal trainer at Vermont Sport and Fitness, Herbes will head up the coaching for athletes that compete in Slopestyle and Rail Jam venues as well as assisting in physical conditioning, lesson planning and overall direction of the program. Approximately 85 percent of her role will consist of coaching on the hill in terrain parks and working on fundamentals with the riders on trails.
For more than 10 years, student-athletes have been training and competing with the KMS Snowboard Team. Repeating the same moves on the same terrain is repetitive and can slow real progress. KMS and KSC student-athletes train using a multidimensional approach—not just riding rails, jumps and halfpipe. Riders explore movements for effective riding all over the mountain and bring those movements back to the target venue. By practicing these movements in safe and varied terrain, student-athletes master them before committing to metal or air, leading to greater success. This approach is used both on and off snow. Skateboarding, climbing, yoga, trampolining, core training, and other movement-based activities help to improve the strength and balance skills necessary to propel riders to the next level.