John Rust is the Program Director for the Meadows Race & Big Mtn Team and a USSS Sports Education National Faculty member.  John came to skiing later at age 9 and joined SARS (Schweitzer Alpine Racing) at age 10.  John’s passion for skiing was cultivated through a positive club culture and coaches focused on teaching athletes the fundamentals of the sport.  As the oldest of 8 children, he took a college scholarship/free school where he played football at Washington State and the University of Idaho. After getting his Juris Doctorate at the U of Idaho he chose a coaching career in Ski Racing and has not looked back since.  John received his Level 500 at the first national Coaches Academy in Mammoth in 1994 and says that only sparked his learning and passion for coaching.  When he is not coaching you might find him scaling peaks around the world, such as Lhoste, and El Capitan, and he is especially fond of the mountaineering in the Alps!  John has been serving as a USSS clinician for over 30 years, ran Mt Hood Summer Ski Camps 2003-2011, Hood River Community Education 2011-2019, and has been the program director of MRT since 2019.  John is also a SAR volunteer with the Hood River Crag Rats, the US's oldest Mt. SAR Organization.