Pius Rogers – Freestyling and Riding the Rail

Pius is excited and honored to be a member of the 2022-2023 Team NBS. He is a NBS Rocky Mountain Region – Ski Noir ski club member. Pius is a Freestyle competitor. He attended his first NBS Summit in Vail for the NBS 50th Anniversary.

Pius is a 16-year-old Ugandan American competitive skier with big dreams and goals. He was born in Uganda but moved to the United States with his family when he was 9 years old. Despite coming from a country with no snow, Pius developed a passion for skiing at a young age after trying the sport in Boise, ID. For the past 7 years, Pius has pursued skiing with dedication and determination with the goal of becoming the first Ugandan skier to compete in the Winter Olympics.

Pius attends Boise High School in Boise, Idaho. He is part of the Bogus Basin Ski Education Foundation. BBSEF was founded in 1967 to provide training and competition programs for aspiring young ski racers.

During the winter season, his Winter program trains 4 days a week. He also participates in a Fall dryland training program once a week starting in the month of October.

During the 2021-2022 ski season, Pius participated in several competitions:

• 1st place in a Rail Jam
• 2nd place in Slopestyle
• 8th place Futures Tour in Copper Mountain, Colorado

Pius has qualified for the USASA nationals for the past 3 years where he competes in Slopestyle and Rail Jam. He is skiing on the Futures tour and intends to start skiing abroad with the goal of competing in World Cup events within the next year.

In the words of Pius, the NBS Scholarship will help to pay for his travel costs and coach fees, which have allowed him to attend competitions. Thanks to the NBS, Pius has been able to compete in skiing events across the US and continue to improve his skills with the hope of qualifying for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

For the 2022-2023 season, Pius has 3 goals:

• Learn new tricks
• Compete in more Futures Tour races
• Be more consistent with the tricks he learned in the past season

Pius' long-term goal is to be the first Black Freestyle Skier in the Olympics.