Dec. 7, 2006

by Sam Miller, Illinois Athletic Media Relations

1. How long have you been snowmobiling and who introduced you to it?

My dad introduced my entire family to it about 20 years ago. My grandpa has a house in Northern Wisconsin (St. Germain, Wisc.) and my dad bought a 1988 Yahmaha, I think. Seeing how much we all loved it, he bought a "snowscoot" which was a modified snowmobile that my sister and I could drive. I started riding that when I was seven or eight years old.

2. Where do you go to snowmobile?

My family built a house close to my grandpa's in St. Germain, Wisc. There are public trails that you can ride on that go pretty much all over the state.

3. How much snow has to be on the ground?

Snow has been an issue the past couple years. As much snow as possible is wonderful. You can ride on about three to five inches, but having more lets the sled grip a bit better. If there is not enough, some people ride anyway because they love it. If you do, you risk damaging the skies on the sled and the belt if you ride on gravel.

4. What do you do with a snowmobile? Is it a means of transportation or something to do tricks on?

Both really. If we have to go to the store for something small, sometimes we just hop onto the sleds and go. Most of the time we use them for riding purposes. We would take the sleds out on day-trips and travel 100 or so miles and come back later in the evening. We also use them when we ice fish. We attach a sled the back of the snowmobile and take all of the equipment onto the lake.

5. It sounds like you like the cold. Do you want to live up North after graduation?

I would love to live up North forever, but I think that I would have to stay close to Chicago for career purposes. I do plan on retiring there.