GRANT
TYLER MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP SILVER RUN SKI EDUCATION FOUNDATION
Grant Tyler
started racing for Silver Run in 1984 at the age of five. At the time,
he was the youngest skier in the program. He remained dedicated to ski
racing through his senior year in high school and to Silver Run for
his entire life. Grant may not have been the most talented skier on
the team, but he worked harder than anyone else. He was first on the
hill in the morning and the last one to leave at night. Skiing was the
center of his life.
Between
1992 and 1997, Grant went to Junior Olympics four times. He won Silver
Run's Outstanding Competitor Award twice, the Bruce Anderson Sportsmanship
Award Most Dedicated, Northern Division Bill Kenney Series, and The
Northern Division Gold Cup. He was a natural leader, and was team captain
during his last two years, where his concern for others and his dedication
to family and friends were constantly on display. During his last year
of competition, Grant won the Gold Cup, awarded to the outstanding male
racer in the Northern Division of the USSA, and was ranked among the
top 200 junior men in the US.
Grant was
also an outstanding student. He was a valedictorian at Billings West
High School and was a National Merit Scholar. He chose to attend the
University of Washington, where he was a philosophy major and was involved
in a project investigating liberation education. At the end of his junior
year, his overall GPA at UW was 3.78.
After
racing for UW in his freshman year, Grant decided to pursue a career
in Big Mountain Freeskiing. Competing during the winter quarter and
returning to school in the spring, he completed the 2000 season ranked
third on the International Free Skiing Association's North American
Tour. He was preparing to start his senior year at UW and had secured
full sponsorship for the World Tour in 2001 when he tragically lost
his life in a sea kayaking accident in the San Juan Islands on September
21, 2000.
The Grant
Tyler Memorial Scholarship is intended to help Silver Run athletes with
the expense of advanced opportunities such as Junior Olympics, FIS Tech
Series, and USSA Development Camps. This scholarship embodies the characteristics
for which we as his parents, as well as many others, admired and respected
Grant. These characteristics include his dedication to ski racing and
his team, his dedication to education, his leadership qualities, and,
his highest priority, the importance of family. It is our hope that
these funds will help other Silver Run athletes achieve the same level
of success that Grant did.
David
and Sandee Tyler
The Grant Tyler
Memorial Scholarship is intended to help Silver Run athletes with the
expense of advanced opportunities such as Junior Olympics, FIS Tech
Series, and USSA Development Camps. Recipients should show the same
dedication to ski racing and education, and the same leadership qualities,
that Grant did. It is our hope that these funds will help other Silver
Run athletes achieve the same level of success that Grant did. The application
process is a competitive one, designed to prepare the student-athlete
for the college and other applications they will be facing in the future.
An application form must be filled out by the athlete and letters of
recommendation must be sought from coaches and others. An interview
with the scholarship committee is the final stage of the process.
The amounts of the
awards and their number are adjusted from year to year based on the
quality of the applicant pool and the financial success of the fund.
We hope to keep the foundation growing so that we can help all of Silver
Run's athletes reach their full potential.