Steamboat Pilot & Today

It's obvious that Todd Wilson doesn't like to toot his own horn.

Just ask Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club coach Gary Crawford, a good friend of Wilson's who has worked alongside him for the past eight winters.

"No he didn't tell me," Crawford said Tuesday, when he learned, two days after the fact, that Wilson was named the Development Coach of the Year and the Nordic Combined Domestic Coach of the Year by the United States Skiing and Snowboard Association.

"I'm not surprised. He really deserves it. I think he is the hardest working coach on the hill," Crawford said. "But he's also very modest."

The Winter Sports Club hired Wilson 12 years ago as a development coach.

Since then, he has moved up the chain and now acts as the club's Nordic director.

In his role, he oversees one of the most talented coaching staffs in the country, which includes Crawford, Chris Gilbertson, Brian Tate, Ben Barbier and Deb Rose.

His program has helped produce several recent Olympians and World Cup stars including Johnny Spillane and Alan Alborn.

Off the hill, Wilson also has played a key role in organizing last year's World Cup B Nordic combined event here in Steamboat.

"It feels great," Wilson said of the honor. "It's nice to be appreciated and recognized. I think it speaks well for our entire program."

Wilson said he isn't used to winning awards for his work and thinks that winning these honors was kind of a fluke.

"It's kind of funny, but I really owe this to the fact that Chris Gilbertson's wife had a baby last winter," he said.

While filling in for Gilbertson, Wilson traveled to the National Junior Championships and the Junior Olympic Championships.

He thinks it was his exposure at those two events that caught the attention of the U.S. Team.

The awards were presented at the final banquet for the USSA's 2003 Congress at the Yarrow Resort in Park City this past Saturday.

Wilson managed to stay out of the spotlight once again.

The coach was at a wedding that was also held in Park City.