The Diamond Peak Ski Team (DPST) members are a busy group in the community months before the snow starts flying.

The team gave back to Diamond Peak Resort this fall with 400 hours of service, providing clean-up work around the resort. Ski team members and their parents picked up garbage, cleared wooded areas of debris, dug and seeded, and gave the DPST Ski Chalet a needed coat of paint.

The ski team also contributes to community activities like raising money for the Special Olympics through participation in the Polar Plunge and the Viking-themed float in the 4th of July parade. DPST's signature event, the Ullr Fest, is a celebration of all things winter and snow. This event is fun for the whole community, but also needed support for the ski team. This year's Ullr Fest is Jan. 21-23.

Incline residents may have also seen ski team kids around Aspen Grove, Incline Beach or the Recreation Center pool getting themselves ready for the ski season with dry-land training activities. Kids are joining their coaches and teammates several times a week for running, Yoga, water exercises and family hikes on the weekends, creating a team atmosphere for an individual sport.

This season Diamond Peak Ski Team is fortunate to have Jernej (Nejc) Plajbes in town. He is the father of Petra Plajbes, the Tahoe League Team lead coach. Nejc, who is newly "retired" from his 24-year coaching career with Slovenian national ski team, will be lending a hand and sharing his vast expertise.

Petra said of her father: "Having him here is a great example of life coming to a full circle. It seems like not too long ago I was a kid skiing under his direction and now we'll be standing on the hill together coaching our young athletes among which are two of his granddaughters!"

Thanks to the amazing coaching staff, this little team has big results. DPST is proud to call itself home to alpine ski racers who are bringing top finishes home — from elite athletes receiving invitations to U.S. Ski Team training events to the 6-under set placing at Kinder Kup races and everything in between.

DPST offers other programs in addition to alpine racing. In recent years they have added two new teams to round out their offerings. The All Mountain Adventure skiing team works developing ski techniques to ski the whole mountain in varied terrain in all conditions. This team trains not only at Diamond Peak, but also takes advantage of surrounding resorts to build skills. And finally, the acrobats of the mountain, the Freeride Team works on tricks and jumps in the terrain park while simultaneously working on improving all-mountain skiing skills. This team also competes in freeride competitions.

For more information about the programs and coaches, go to to the DPST website at www.dpsef.org.

— This article was e-mailed to Sports Editor Sylas Wright at swright@sierrasun.com.