Chad grew up in the small town of Dresbach, Minnesota, and began skiing on the slopes of Mt. Lacrosse, Wisconsin, when he was two and a half years old. He spent his younger years at Mt. Lacrosse skiing and racing and later attended and graduated from Burke Mountain Academy. After some post-high school years racing nationally and internationally, he earned a spot on the U.S. Ski Team.

In 1998, Chad was recruited to the University of Colorado and was a five-time All-American from 1998-2001. He was part of the NCAA Championship teams in 1998 and 1999 and team captain his senior year in 2001. He received a degree in business administration from the University of Colorado in 2003.

Chad began coaching with Team Summit as an athlete mentor. Seeing the athletes discover breakthrough moments through simple conversations and feeling incredibly lucky to have had many people help him along the way in his skiing led him to realize that coaching could be a career. In 2004, Chad returned to his roots in the Midwest, coaching at Buck Hill, Minnesota. There, he began developing his coaching style through the mentorship of the legendary coach Erich Sailer.

In 2006, he coached at Burke Mountain Academy, working with athletes who aspired to be on the U.S. Ski Team. Chad moved on to the Park City Ski Team, where he coached for seven years in multiple positions within the FIS programs. He then took a new position as U.S. Ski & Snowboard Assistant Men’s National Training Group (NTG) Coach from 2013-2015, identifying talent and helping athletes like River Radamus develop the skills to have continued success and advancement through the U.S. Ski Team pipeline. In 2015-2016, Chad was named Head Coach for the NTG. He transitioned to be assistant coach of the Europa Cup Team, helping Team USA pick up gold and silver medals at the World Junior Championships.

After taking a break from coaching for a few seasons, Chad returned to Burke Mountain Academy from 2019-2020 and was the lead coach for the Elite Team postgraduate and top FIS athletes. He executed all duties necessary for an elite ski racing program, including equipment acquisition, physical conditioning, video analysis, venue preparation, course setting, and athlete guidance.

Chad returned to his alma mater as the alpine assistant coach in 2022, tasked with helping the University of Colorado win another National Championship. He served as the interim alpine head coach for the 2023 season, appointed after the start of the season, helping the team to a second-place finish at the NCAA Championships. In 2023, Chad coached the Scandinavian alpine skiers at the World University Games in Lake Placid, the most successful trip for CU in the history of the event, including medals from Emma Hammergaard and Jacob Dilling. This year, he helped lead the team to the NCAA National Championship title in Steamboat, the program’s first championship in nine years, with Magdalena Luczak and Filip Wahlqvist sweeping the slalom individual National Championships.

“Skiing has filled my life with so many opportunities to continue to learn and grow as an athlete, a student, and most importantly, as a person,” Chad reflected. “With all of the success across multiple age ranges and ability levels, the thing that keeps me going is inspiring people to believe in themselves and develop the skills required to keep getting better.”