Is this lacrosse player the best skier in the world?

By Winston Chodnicki

Last month I was given the opportunity to film a unique project about lacrosse players who happen to also be world-class skiers. Check out the video today and read my recap here: 

How many skier lacrosse players do we get out there? Growing up as a lacrosse player in states that saw skiing as a popular winter activity, I was constantly warned by my coaches to not go skiing during the lacrosse season.

Getting injured on a ski trip is usually a sure fire way to end up in the coach's dog house, however, that does not seem to be the case out in Bozeman, Montana! I met up with two lacrosse players out in Bozeman a few weeks back who showed me how Montana locals spend their free time. The players' names were Casey Rose and Aiden Thesing, both are a part of the Bozeman High School lacrosse program where Casey coaches and Aiden plays. These two dudes were gnarly skiers!

Casey on the left, Aiden on the Right

So, here’s how I met these guys: I am a big skier and planned a vacation in January to visit my college roommate in Bozeman. When telling a coworker about my vacation, he asked me if I remembered a lacrosse player on Rutgers from 4-5 years ago who was an accomplished big mountain skier, a guy by the name of Casey Rose. I did remember Casey and his knack for lacrosse plus skiing. I looked him up on LinkedIn to see what happened and saw that he now worked in Bozeman, where I was headed for vacation in a little over a week. I messaged Casey on LinkedIn and asked if he wanted to get in front of our camera for a little bit and tell us what he’s been up to and he was more than down. In fact, Casey had the idea to bring in Aiden, a player on the lacrosse team he coaches who also is a very good skier.

A media piece made on Casey in 2018 that gave him fame

So, Casey shot me his number and I gave him once I got out to Bozeman. We planned to meet on a Friday. Casey said that he should get off work around 11:00 AM and that he’ll track me down on the slopes. The meet up was hilariously casual, it was a Powder day at the resort so Aiden and Casey immediately suggested we start skiing and start filming later. The two dudes were super cool, we started trading stories about lacrosse, college, and skiing. Aiden and Casey painted a great picture of what lacrosse is like in Montana. Understandably, the sport is still very new in the Treasure State. Aiden and Casey’s team is made of players from 4-5 high schools in the area, they conjoin into one team and then go take on high schools in neighboring counties and states. That being said, there is an infrastructure for lacrosse out there, a program named Treasure State Lax has been getting young college lacrosse alums to move out to Montana and run camps for a couple of years now. I know two people from my hometown here in Baltimore who are now out coaching for Treasure State Lax!

Aiden and Casey told stories about their usual practice routine in the early season of lacrosse, frequenting “potato barns” for practice. Potato bars seem to be very skinny structures that are usually used to grow potatoes, but it looks like one has been relined with turf to house the Bozeman HS lacrosse team in the winter months. When I was in Bozeman, the average temperature was between -7°F and 0°F.

The “potato barn”

The skiing with Aiden and Casey was unreal, it was cool to watch their player/coach relationship translate to the slopes. Casey would try something crazy and show Aiden how to safely try the same trick. It was hard to keep up with these two. They showed me the gnarliest day of skiing I’ve ever had. I recommend watching the video tape on these two as my words will not accurately capture how rad these dudes were.

Lastly, someone left this comment on the final video… I thought there was some sound logic. Are there any lacrosse action sport crossovers we should check out next?