Cokeville High School senior, Matt Floyd, is working hard in his final year to start a high school ski team for Lincoln County School Districts #1 and #2.

He says he has talked with previous students who wish they had this experience and believes Star Valley has a great resort in Pine Creek.

“It’s like a gold mine in our backyard,” Floyd said. “There’s all these ski teams and stuff around us. I don’t understand why we don’t have a ski team here.”

He says in elementary school you get ski classes to learn those skills. However, that stops when a student gets to junior high and high school.

“You know, everyone just goes to your more original sports,” Floyd said. “And I feel like we should continue that and continue the skiing and have a ski team.”

He says this year the LCSD2 superintendent, Matt Erickson, is having those interested participate in teams in surrounding areas. That is because the team, right now, is not big enough to have one in Lincoln County and so interest will have to grow. Floyd is with the Pinedale team right now.

Erickson says there needs to be at least eight students who wish to be on the team. This is so it can be sanctioned with the Wyoming High School Activities Association.

“We’ve been involved in several meetings,” Erickson said. “Tim Teichert, Athletic Director in Cokeville, Rob Erickson, Athletic Director at Star Valley High and then myself have been working with some folks that are very interested.”

Floyd says once they have enough team members they will just need to receive an endorsement from Erickson. Another issue that a potential team will face is funding.

“We’re doing all we can to find fundraisers and things like that to raise up some money,” Floyd said. “As far as I know the school district doesn’t quite have the money to fund us in any way.”

They have held fundraisers at the Lincoln County Fair and continue to work to find ways to get funding. Floyd says the biggest thing the community can do is raise awareness as more interest will bring more people.