Growing up, Will Hadden played every sport. Soccer, lacrosse; road biking, mountain biking. He was in junior golf tournaments. No football, only because his school had no team.
“I would’ve if I could’ve!” he said. He has been ski racing for 30 years.
Hadden, age 38, is the new alpine director at Aspen Valley Ski & Snowboard Club (AVSC). Most recently coaching in Vail, he will be in charge of 200 athletes, children through college-age, and 30-plus staff, at AVSC. He moved to Basalt in July.
As a teen, Hadden was a U.S. Ski Team hopeful, but put away that dream as a high-school senior. Instead he skied at the Division I level all four years at Williams College, Massachusetts, often ranked number-one — vying with Amherst — among national liberal-arts colleges.
After college, Hadden, who is from Manchester, Vermont, coached two winters at Stratton Mountain School, the ski academy he’d attended from eighth grade on; coached the U.S. Ski Team development team for a year; and worked with elite alpine FIS/NorAm skiers over seven years at Ski & Snowboard Club Vail.
While college athletes can burn out on their sports, Hadden seems to have transitioned naturally into coaching. “I thought for a long time that I would like to teach school,” he said; his mother did, and he likes the idea of mentorship. “We spend a huge chunk of our days with the athletes, and this can have a huge impact on a person.
“I don’t know if it’s inherently about skiing,” he added, “but helping people to become the best versions of themselves. That could have been anywhere. It happens to be skiing, and I do like coaching.”
Similarly, the move from Vail to Aspen seems logical because the boys he mostly worked with have launched, becoming successful on the NorAm circuit. Alex Krupka, 20, secured a spot on the Stifel U.S. Ski Team C Team. Julian Arthur, 21, of Middlebury College was second in slalom at the 2026 NCAA National Collegiate Skiing Championship.
Hadden calls skiing a “volume-based game,” and pushes playing on the slopes.
“You need to ski the whole mountain, pole plant, do the bumps. The really good [skiers] are going to be good at everything, and that’s what you’re trying to teach, and the biggest thing is love for it.
“Some of them love powder skiing, some love gates,” he said, but variety “will just remind them how much fun it is.
“I had a kid on ski team in Vail who loved to hit the jumps. The only rule was, he couldn’t do a backflip on the first run.”
Ian Lochhead, a Vail colleague now coaching at the University of Colorado, said via text from Europe, “Will is one of the most dedicated coaches I’ve worked with. He believes deeply in the athletes.”
Sylvan Kaufman of Eagle coached with Hadden at Stratton Mountain School, and, in leaving to work at the Vail ski club, hired him there. He called Hadden “very committed to the long and challenging process it takes to develop athletes.”
The Sopris Sun interviewed Hadden at AVSC headquarters. This interview has been edited for brevity.
What was your home mountain?
Bromley. I was with the Bromley Outing Club [race program]. It was cheaper than daycare, so that’s why my mom signed me up. She’ll tell you that. [Later] my sisters raced too.
I was 6 or 7, might have been 8. When you’re that young, you’re mostly just skiing. Same with the U8 program here. Make sure they are warm enough, eating candy and having a blast, and making friends.
When did you become dedicated?
I was going five days a week in sixth grade, pretty much from that time on was a full-time skier. Always at Bromley.
What moments stand out?
I had a lot of awesome experiences, got to race in Europe a few times when I was older.
I had a great group … a lot of local kids, [like a] kid of a ski patroller or parent who had ski raced. Our whole group ended up skiing at UVM, Dartmouth, Bates, UNH, etc.
[Some] had bigger goals in high school. If we didn’t make the U.S. team, then we got to ski race in college. The level is not the Europa Cup. It was fun, it was great.
A handful from the college era went on to the World Cup. It was a really strong group.
I was hypercompetitive when I was in high school. [College] was a more fun environment. The great thing is you have automatic friends.
Anything to add?
Alpine skiing is an incredible activity … You can choose your own adventure. It’s a lifelong activity. [Kids] can choose the trails, the friends to ski with … At the end of the day it’s about the community.