Branko Zagar is a hard worker.

Sierra Nevada College's ski coach is constantly working toward the next season. That means watching video of his athletes for three to four hours a day, doing one-on-one rehab with an injured SNC skier every day and holding team-wide workouts four days a week.

"To be successful at this sport you have to be dedicated 24/7. You have to be willing to put in eight hours a day toward working out," Zagar said.

His work ethic, though, didn't really manifest until his skiing days were over.

"I used to be lazy," Zagar said. The Slovenian native competed in the 1989 World Cup for slalom ski racing as the world's No. 1, but he said his talent made him nonchalant about the sport. "You see it a lot with talented kids, they don't have to work so hard to get to the top. But, once they reach a certain level, the kids who work hard catch up with them and it is tough for them, that's what happened to me. I was known as a talented kid who sort of didn't want to work hard."

Since his competitive skiing days are over, Zagar turned his attention to coaching, something he says was the plan all along.

"I just kind of knew, from growing up skiing as a little boy, that someday I would get into coaching," Zagar said.

He is now in his second year of coaching the SNC team and says that his favorite part is nurturing talent in the athletes.

"Bad coaches maybe don't help a kid get to the very highest level they can get to, and what I want to do is get them to that level," Zagar said. "I love to see them improve and to help them with things that challenge them."

Zagar came to Lake Tahoe in 2000 when he was offered a ski instructor position at Heavenly Ski Resort. He moved from Slovenia with his wife and two children.

"We wanted to get our green cards to come here, so that after some time our kids could become American citizens and do whatever they wanted when they grew up," Zagar said of his children, who are now 8 and 9.

Another perk Zagar enjoyed about America was the shortened ski season and improved weather.

"In Europe, you train and ski all year round. European skiers are on the mountains five days a week. Skiing is very serious. When I left Slovenia it was the national sport and is still the No. 1 sport in the country, but being a coach there is very hard. You have to set up for three and four hour workouts in the freezing cold," Zagar said. "Whereas here, you only ski in the winter when there is snow. It also doesn't get very cold here, so that's nice. I don't have to worry about setting up gates for the racers in the blowing cold."

Skiers in America are a slightly different matter though.

"In Europe, the skiers are training all year round and in America sometimes they sit around until the snow falls. If you are doing that while a European racer is skiing everyday, he will be better. That is why the team here has to do dryland workouts all through the summer, so they can keep up with kids who have access to snow every day," Zagar said.

He is optimistic about coaching SNC's team and sees potential for greatness. In addition to ability, he says that athletes now have such an advantage because of improvements in skiing technology that could help them reach a high level.

"There are a few kids, maybe now, maybe in a couple of years, that could be really good. It comes down to how hard they want to work, but maybe one of them could go to the World Cup," Zagar said.