Mt. Hood Ski Education Foundation
Ryan Barnes, better known as “Barney”, returns to our team after taking a few years off from direct athlete coaching, although never far from a race course. Barney, a native of Portland and a graduate of Mt. Hood Academy and University of Oregon, was a very successful Junior and collegiate racer. He returned to coach at Mt. Hood Academy in 1999 and over the next 5 years coached the team to two or its eight Northwest Cup team titles, as well as numerous individual Northwest Cup and Junior Olympic titles. More recently, Barney has been respected as a hard working, conscientious racing rep for Salomon, taking good care of athletes from the Mitey Mite levels to the World Cup. Barney brings a championship attitude, a wealth of equipment knowledge, and the right stuff to take our Mitey Mite racers even further this year. We are excited to have Barney on the staff.
Shelley began racing for Mt. Hood Race Team at 6 years of age, and went on to be one of the first student-athletes to attend Mt. Hood Academy in its inaugural year. She raced competitively at the NW Cup, Junior Olympics, and regional level. Once her ski racing career came to an end, she coached for Mt. Hood Race Team for two years. Then, she took time away from the hill to start her career and a family. Shelley now has two children actively participating on the Mt. Hood Race Team, and she is currently coaching J6/J7 racers. She spends her weekdays at USI Northwest, an insurance brokerage company specializing in workers’ compensation, where she services existing clients and assists in new business sales.
During his 30 years of experience Bill has coached every level of skiing from Mitey Mites through the World Cup. As a Program Director on Mt. Hood, Bill founded the Mt. Hood Ski Education Foundation in 1983 in order to establish Mt. Hood as one of this country's premier sites for competitive skiing. From 1986-1988 Bill was a World Cup and Olympic Coach with the U.S. Ski Team. Bill has been awarded U.S. Ski Team's "National Coach of the Year," and he is an Internationally Certified coach. Bill is also a F.I.S. Technical Delegate (T.D.), the highest official in the Federation Internationale de Ski and has served as T.D. at the Canadian National Championships and the South American Cup in Chile. Bill has a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and has been a board member of the Pacific Northwest Ski Association and the USSA Western Region.
Mary is a graduate of the University of Wyoming where she received an honors degree in Natural Sciences while attending school on a full-ride skiing scholarship. Her academic honors include the Wyoming Scholar/Athlete Award as well as induction into the college honor society, Phi Beta Kappa. As a USSA competitor, Mary won the Junior National Championships; in college she earned NCAA All-Conference honors. After graduating, Mary returned to Oregon to develop Mt. Hood Academy’s academic program. She has a Master’s Degree from Lewis & Clark College, and holds an Oregon Teaching License and Oregon School Administrator’s License. Mary is MHA’s Education Director, teaches Science, and coaches J3’s.
If you ask Raelene how long she’s been skiing, her reply will be “forever!” She grew up in a very avid skiing family, and began skiing on Mt. Hood at a very early age. She also started teaching skiing at a young age while still in high school. Rae has been coaching and teaching children to ski all her life, and has worked at Vail, Hoodoo, Timberline, Meadows and Mt. Hood Skibowl. One of her favorite memories is of a child who complained that his boot hurt, and when they removed the boot, out fell his yo-yo! Rae attended University of Oregon and later graduated from Western Oregon with a degree in Elementary Education and a minor in Physical Education. Like skiing, she has been a teacher at Welches Elementary School “forever”. She has two teenage girls. Keree has been racing since age 7, is a Junior at Sandy High School, and competes at the FIS level. Kim has also raced since age 7, is an 8th grader at Welches Middle School, and is training for the high school team. Rae is a soccer mom, a ski racing mom and a track mom. She likes to river raft, dance and participate in theater. She is also trying to run 5K races with her girls.
Chelsea began racing when she was 8 years old and competed actively for 14 years. After racing for Mt. Hood Academy during high school, Chelsea competed for College of Idaho where she was an Academic All-American and a member of the National Championship team. She was also an assistant coach at College of Idaho, and later coached the WSU and the UofO ski teams, taking both those programs to their first national championships in 15 years. A native of the Mt. Hood area, Chelsea grew up in a very active, outdoor family in the Welches area. Her family also traveled extensively, having visited and explored six continents. Chelsea has degrees from the College of Idaho and from University of Oregon. She is currently the Advertising/Marketing Manager for JVNW, Inc., in Portland. Chelsea's hobbies include traveling, Cheerios, kickball, dodge ball and drawing. She has also been told her late afternoon dancing rivals Michael Jackson.
Brad and his family relocated to West Linn from Wisconsin in 2007. A priority was to find a ski team for his children and we were lucky to have him select MHRT. Brad has 15 years of coaching, and is in his 2nd year of coaching our J-6 squad. Brad is also a USSA licensed referee for our MHRT sponsored races. Brad began racing as a 13 year old and went on to become a J1 champion just five years later. He also claims 2 NCSA Slalom titles. His favorite place to ski is Alta, Utah where the chief of police once proclaimed, “The cheesehead can really ski!” Outside of skiing Brad is a mechanical engineering consultant, is married to a wonderful lady-Brenda, and is a father of 4. Two of his children, Anabela and Connor, race for MHRT and his son Stephan races for MHA. His eldest, Carlos, recently retired from racing, bequeathing his race skis to Brad for which he is extremely grateful. His family enjoys camping, coaster parks and are big Green Bay Packer fans.
Lori Vranizan is a mother of three grown children. She grew up skiing on Mt. Hood, raced competitively in high school, and later competed for Southern Oregon University. After graduating from Portland State University with a degree in foreign languages, she lived and worked in Austria. Returning from Europe, Lori began ski instructing at Mt. Hood Meadows. The urge to travel kept tugging at her and she began her ten year career as a flight attendant with Pan American Airways. Marriage and three children brought her back to Portland and she returned to teaching skiing. Lori is a Level 2 PSIA certified instructor with the Advanced Children’s Endorsement. She taught many years for Mogul Busters before joining the MHRT staff in 2000. Lori’s daughter, Annie, competed for Mt. Hood Race Team and attended Mt. Hood Academy. Annie just finished four years of NCAA racing, graduating from the University of Nevada-Reno. Lori currently resides in Portland with her husband and youngest son. When she is not skiing, you will find her on the tennis court where she competes on several recreational teams.