Sydney mikkelson Koop

Founder

Skiing has been a passion for Sydney since she first jumped on skis before the age of two. Sydney grew up in La Crosse, Wisconsin and ski raced at the USSA (now US Ski) level starting at the age of nine. Her love for skiing quickly grew into a passion for ski racing with dreams of skiing at the highest level. In her sophomore year of High School, Sydney decided to take her training to the next level by moving away from home to attend Stratton Mountain School in Stratton, Vermont. SMS offered an environment that catered to athletic and academic performance. During her time at Stratton, Sydney was able to travel the world where she trained with and raced against some of the best skiers in the world at FIS races, NorAM’s and U.S. National Championships. After High School, Sydney went on to ski for the University of New Hampshire, a Division 1 NCAA Ski Team. During her time at UNH, she was consistently one of the top slalom skiers in the country. During her tenure at UNH, Sydney consistently placed in the top 10 in both disciplines (including 26 top 10 finishes and one win). Sydney was a Team Captain at UNH, a 4-time Academic All-American and a 2-time Athletic All-American who attended NCAA Championships all four years.

After college, Sydney and her husband David moved to Madison, Wisconsin where they both worked and helped coach for MART (Madison Alpine Race Team). After many years as a successful sales and marketing professional, Sydney decided to once again focus her energy on the ski racing community to make an impact on the lives of young skiers. Sydney started Mad Alpine in 2014, which is the premier ski racing program in the greater Madison, Wisconsin area. Her experience, coupled with her love for the sport and enthusiasm, is a great combination to help athletes reach their potential.

Sydney is level 200 certified and is a board member for US Ski Central Region 2 and Midwest Alpine Racing.

alice gardner

Program Director

Coming Soon

Eric Cates

U14-U18 Coach

Eric “Cates” cut his teeth at the Wintergreen Ski Area in his backyard of Spring Green, WI for one year before it unfortunately closed its doors for good. Luckily for him, Tyrol Basin was not too far away. He then spent the rest of his formative years skiing, training, and racing out of Tyrol Basin, going through the Tyrol Basin Ski Team and racing the WIJARA circuit as a young lad, moving on to the MART (Madison Alpine Race Team) under Pat Slattery to race USSA and FIS. Through those years, Eric became a strong competitor in the Midwest on the FIS circuit as well as being crowned the High School State Overall Champion in 2003.

After High School, with collegiate skiing on his mind, Eric took a PG year in Austria to experience the real Tyrol mountains and gain some valuable experience as a full-time skiing athlete. After a long and tough, but rewarding year in Europe, Eric matriculated and skied for Dartmouth College, a NCAA Division I ski team. During his time there, he was fortunate to be a member of the team during their undefeated 2007 season, where Dartmouth walked away as the NCAA Div I National Champions…an unforgettable experience.

After graduating in 2008, and knowing that financially, a push to continue ski racing just didn’t make sense, but not ready to let go; he turned to coaching. His first job out of college was working as a FIS Coach with the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club (SSWSC), always a favorite place for Eric to race in the past. At SSWSC, Eric quickly felt at home and had a lot of success and fun with his coaching. Leading trips to Austria, coaching kids to podiums at U18(19) National Championships, to US Championships, working with the US Women’s World Cup Tech Team in New Zealand; he fell in love with it.

After 5 years in Steamboat, the chance to coach at the collegiate level came and Eric moved to Bozeman, MT to coach for Montana State University’s Div I Ski Team. Working with collegiate athletes was a natural progression and he loved everything about it. His plan was to stay in Bozeman for a few years, but SSWSC called him after a year away and enticed him back to be the Head FIS Coach. Eric spent the last 2 years in Steamboat, loving being in Steamboat even more than then before.

Recently though, Eric and his wife Kiley decided it was time to move back to Wisconsin and set some roots and are now taking over their family farm after 8 years of coaching. In 2017, Eric coached as the head WJR coach for Mad Alpine and in the summer of 2017 took a job with US Ski & Snowboard as the Central Division Manager. We are excited for him and his new journey and look forward to having in drop in to practice when his schedule allows. 

Blair Birkett

High School & College Coach

Blair embraced an early passion for the sport of skiing at the age of 3. Growing up as the general manager’s son at Chestnut Mountain, Blair was granted opportunities such as room on the hill, catching the school bus from the mountain and skiing rope tows well past closing dates. He probably logged as much snow time in his youth as anyone in the country! Blair started racing locally around age 6 , progressed into USSA and FIS racing and eventually competed in pro peugot races. After high school, he settled in as high tech rental tune repair guru as well as a Nastar pacesetter and race director until the early/mid 90’s. Blair’s’ first of 4 ski racing children (Alex, Derek, Sid & Reilly) was born in 1991, which brought him to youth coaching at Chestnut for the Wijara team until 2009. Blair then progressed into coaching J1/J2/J3 athletes for the Tyrol Basin Ski Team. Blair has also coached high school co-op teams in the Whsara Madison league for the past 6 seasons. Blair looks forward to joining the Mad Alpine program with his son Derek as coach and daughter Reilly who skis for the program. Blair says that he has always lived and skied with the motto to have fun, whether playing in the park, hanging some good air, poofing some pow, mashing moguls or slicing the narliest GS carves. He encourages athletes to try as much as you can on a pair of skis because he believes that nothing teaches you more than play and fun.

KEVIN HOULIHAN

Coach & Mad Alpine Board Vice President

Kevin grew up in LaCrosse, WI, and started racing at Mt. LaCrosse. He attended UW- Madison for undergrad and earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering. During his time at the UW Kevin was an athlete on the UW Alpine Race team from 1998 - 2003, leading the management of the team for 2 years as Director.

After graduating and spending a year in Montana and Costa Rica, Kevin returned to Madison and coached the UW Alpine Team, a part of the Superior Division in the Midwest, for 6 years, from 2004 - 2010. Kevin also coached the Blackhawk race team the first two years the race program started at Blackhawk, in 2004 and 2005, and instructed at Blackhawk for a few years again in 2013.

In 2010 Kevin and his lovely wife, Laura, gave birth to their daughter, and he transitioned away from Coaching at UW to become the Chicago Division Coordinator in the Midwest Region of USCSA (United States Collegiate Ski Association). He held this position for 8 years.Kevin started coaching with Mad Alpine in 2017 and has loved seeing athletes develop their racing and live skills through their experiences with the program. He has a passion for being outside and always thinking about improving ski technique in and out of ski courses.

Seth Hynes

Coach

Seth’s love of skiing started when he was three. He grew up skiing at Granite Peak and was often found skiing with his father who was on the ski patrol. Growing up, from November through March, if he wasn’t in school or sleeping, chances are you’d find him hitting the slopes. Seth was introduced to ski racing in high school where he joined Wausau West Ski Team and was quickly promoted onto the varsity team. Seth’s skiing and dedication to the team helped them to go on and win the Wisconsin High School State Meet in 1995, 1996, and 1997. In addition, Seth skied with the Rib Mountain Ski Team as a Central Division USSA racer for several years. Seth took a break from racing in college and now that his daughters are active in ski racing, he’s motivated to share his knowledge and passion of the sport with them and the athletes of Mad Alpine. He started with Mad Alpine in 2018 helping with his daughters in Mountain Explorers. As a Mad Alpine Coach, he will be working with the younger Junior Race athletes to create a solid racing foundation and grow their excitement for the sport. When he is not skiing or with family, Seth is a software Engineer at Epic and has a U.S. Ski & Snowboard Coach Level 100 certification.

Mike Stiller

Coach

Mike began skiing at an early age but really caught the ski bug on a trip to Winter Park, CO when he was 5. After some tears because the hills were too big, he didn’t want to leave. He spent his early years skiing as much as he could when he wasn’t playing competitive hockey. In high school, he transitioned to the dark side of snowboarding. Always competitive, he even took 2nd place overall in a Boardercross event at Buck Hill. In college at UW-Madison he participated in the Freestyle Snowboard club. After teaching his wife Jill to ski, they knew their kids would learn to ski at an early age. A couple weeks each year out West wasn’t enough so they found Mad Alpine. Mike began by helping get his daughter and other Mountain Explorers safely up the lifts during practice and filling in with support wherever needed. In 2021, he began coaching on the staff working with many groups from Mountain Explorers to MWAR and USSA. At the end of the 2022 season he was able to complete his USSA level 100 certification. Mike currently works for WPS as a Data Scientist when he is not dreaming of hiking and skiing backcountry powder.

Amanda Cranney

Coach

Amanda started skiing at the age of 8 when her parents took her skiing in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Her Dad took her on a trip shortly thereafter to Summit County Colorado and she quickly fell in love with the sport. She went on to race for the Rhinelander High School Ski Team and they made it to the state meet all four years from 1995-1998, where the girls team took 2nd and 3rd place their Junior and Senior years. Skiing is a life-long sport and she is thrilled to be helping out with Mad Alpine as she watches her 3 kids come up through the program. Amanda coached Mountain Explorers last year for the 1st time and has loved watching the kids grow throughout the season. She will be coaching Mountain Explorers again this year.

Elena Bird

Coach

Elena learned to ski on the slopes of Wildcat Mountain (NH) at 2 years old. She raced USSA/FIS for Holderness School throughout high school and then with Sugarbowl Academy for a post-grad season. Elena went to Dartmouth College, where she hung up the race skis for a while, but got to fall in love with the sport all over again as a free-skier on the heels of her “big mountain” comp friends - and after college exploring the backcountry in Utah and Washington. She is now a grad student at UW-Madison and excited to be back on the race hill ushering young folks into ski racing and all the joy that it holds!

Lawson Ludwig

Coach

Lawson started skiing at the very young age of 2 years old, but he did not get into racing until he was introduced to it by a friend at the age of 8. He immediately fell in love with every aspect of the sport such as the amazing places you get the travel, the beautiful views, the great friendships you make and the competition of course. Lawson started racing in WIJARA at Cascade Mountain and after a few years switched over to doing some USSA and traveling more to compete. In 8th grade he left Wisconsin to go train and compete at Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy to sharpen his skills and compete in the Rocky Division of USSA. After just 1 year there he moved back home and joined MAD Alpine where he got the chance to meet all the other great coaches here and improve my racing abilities tremendously. Throughout high school Lawson competed in the Wisconsin High School Ski Racing along with FIS and USSA. Lawson got the chance to go to Nationals all 4 years of high school and ski at some amazing resorts. After High School he attended UW La Crosse and got the chance to start my coaching career there and had a great time coaching a few different groups of athletes. He split his time on the mountain coaching younger athletes just getting into the sport along with coaching the U14-U16 USSA athletes and traveling around the Midwest to coach them at races. Now that he have moved back to Madison and am attending UW Madison, he am excited to get the chance to work with the rest of these great coaches to help all the MAD Alpine racers improve to achieve their goals and have a great time doing it!

Alie Grundahl

Coach

Alie got her first pair of skies around two years old, she grew up skiing with her dad all over the United States but has always called Tyrol Basin home. Alie started skiing competitively around the age of 5, she was shy and didn’t like competing. She was so shy that when she came down the race course she asked them announce her as "racer” or “anonymous.” While this gave everyone watching a good laugh Alie eventually grew out of her shell and let the announcers use her real name. Alie raced for team Tyrol Basin until she was nine, then she got a call from an old coach who gave her the opportunity to ski for Mad Alpine. Alie felt at home immediately, she loves to help teammates and is always looking for a way to make the team better. Alie loves to travel and always strives to make everyone smile. Her first year she won the “most supportive teammate award” and then the year after that too, this streak continued for the next 4 years until she started coaching. Alie skiing grew tremendously upon joining the team and gave her many amazing opportunities.

Alie says “I went to my first ski camp in 2018 located Mount Hood. That is where I first learned the phrase “positive mental attitude”. I can say that after leaning that one simple phrase, my life changed in the best way possible.”

Alie has competed at many levels and has won many awards including first in the region for MWAR and most improved for Mad Alpine. Alie loves to coach and can’t wait to get on the snow.