sun Meet Rob Cla ton Hailey
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s t a n l e y • F a i r f i e l d • S h o sh o n e • P i c a b o
Flying Kites Against a Sawtooth Backdrop
Bergdahl’s to Speak at Bring Back Bowe Bash this Saturday
the weekly
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Find Something to Do With Our Calendar PageS 12 & 13
Every Meal Counts, So Does The Lunch Connection Page 16
J u n e 1 9 , 2 0 1 3 • V o l . 6 • N o . 2 5 • w w w .T h e W e e k l y S u n . c o m
read about it on PaGe 17
Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation’s New Executive Director
STORY & PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
After a two-year hiatus, The Kim Stocking Band will take the stage July 11. FILE PHOTO
Mahoney’s Kicks Off Its Summer Concert Series BY KAREN BOSSICK
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he newly remodeled Mahoney’s Bar and Grill in Bellevue is kicking off its Thursday night Summer Concert Series with the upbeat local band Up A Creek. Concerts start at 6:30 p.m. Up A Creek is a Bellevue-based shed-bred group of guys playing Southern Idaho folk ’n’ roll with plenty of stories about lovers and losers, sinners and fools. The rest of the lineup: June 27—Johnny Shoes and the Rhythm Rangers from Boise play Jerry Jeff Walker and originals. July 4—George Devore of Austin, Texas, exudes a stage presence and so-called “positive rock” that prompted “Playboy” to name him a “pop powerhouse.” He has won the “Best Tape” award in the Austin Music Awards and been recognized in such other categories as rock, pop and male vocalist. July 11—The Kim Stocking Band, of Bellevue, is back after a two-year hiatus. They play a variety of musical styles, including old country songs and folk tunes. July 18—StoneSeed, of Boise, plays blues, folk, gypsy jazz, American and funk country. Aug. 1—Johnny Valenzuela, Chip Booth, Johnny Zarkos, Lee Chubb and Cory Ballentine will present their Deadshow—a tribute to The Grateful Dead. Aug. 6—Shawn and the Marauders of Pocatello will present a special Tuesday show. Aug. 8—Hoodwink, of Hailey, plays rock music you can dance to. Aug. 15—George Devore returns. Aug. 11—Kip Attaway, America’s premier cowboy comedian, stops in from Jackson, Wyo., to strut his unique take on The Rolling Stones and Willie Nelson tunes. Aug. 29—Old Death Whisper and Up a Creek present an old-fashioned hootenanny. tws Information: 208-788-4449.
More Free Vibes are in Store for This Summer! Head over to Page 11 and See the Summer Lineup for Ketch’em Alive, Town Square Tunes and Jazz in the Park!
R
ob Clayton’s face turns as red as the T-shirt he’s wearing, the veins in his neck bulging as he struggles to lift a 300-pound upright piano with the help of his new neighbor—mountain climber Ed Viesturs—and a mover named Eric. “I couldn’t be a flute player. I had to be a piano player,” quips Rob’s wife Krista as she and the couple’s three girls rush over to lend a hand. Rob seems nonplussed as the moving van rocks under the weight of the piano movers, flashing the grin that seems permanently etched into his craggy face. He knows that once this piano is in its place in the new family home on Hillside Drive, that his family can begin their new Sun Valley life in earnest and he can get about the business of taking over as executive director of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation. “We love Sun Valley,” says 9-year-old Bel, who celebrates the removal of the piano by doing a cartwheel in the U-Haul. “Park City is a big town and if someone waved, the others wouldn’t smile and wave back. Here, everybody smiles and waves.” “Park City is like a miniature Salt Lake City,” adds 11-year-old Kew. “My parents are from small towns and they thought it would be better for us if we grew up in a small town, too.” The kids clamber aboard the U-Haul, which is beginning to empty out. Out come antique school desks—a testament to a family that sports a bunch of teachers, including Rob and Krista’s mother. Krista herself is an early childhood specialist who just received the Educator of the Year Award at the school where she taught kindergarten, Rob points out with pride. Out come boxes full of Barbie dolls and Hallowe’en and Easter decorations. Out come antiquish-looking dressers and other furniture the family bought at yard
sales. “Used furniture. Used cars. That’s the way I deal with depreciation,” says Rob. Out come Rob’s New York pinstripes, a yellow bicycle jersey, the kids’ teddy bears. And out come boxes of books on the Kennedys mixed up with such books as Mother Goose nursery rhymes. “I have every book ever written about the Kennedys,” acknowledges Krista. She pauses as she looks at the boxes stacking up in the garage. “There’s gonna be a big yard sale Saturday. Can you put that in your paper?
Coaching Picabo and Ted
The Clayton clan broadcasts their passions on a license plate that says “Ski Pup.” They spell out their tight-knit enthusiasm for one another on a family business card that says, “The Clayton Family— Rob, Krista, M, Kew and Bel.” (The kids’ given names are Rebecca, Sara and Elizabeth.) The move to Sun Valley is like turning back a page in time for Rob. Rob grew up in Manchester, Vt., a small summer resort town where Jake Burton Carpenter built his first snowboard in his garage. Rob’s father was the town’s Episcopal minister. “He received an honorable doctorate from the General Theological Seminary in New York for being the consummate small-town priest—33 years in a town of 3,000 people,” Rob says proudly. Preacher’s kid or not, Rob had a few shenanigans up his sleeve—his most notable being throwing eggs from the belfry on unsuspecting trick-or-treaters when he was 13. “No one could get us because we were safe in the belfry,” he recalls. “But I only did it that one time.” Instead, Rob channeled his energy into ski racing at nearby Bromley Mountain Ski Resort, which the founders of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer
built in the mid-1930s—about the time Union Pacific was introducing Sun Valley to the world. When Stratton Mountain opened 20 miles up the road in 1961, Rob skied there, as well. He worked his way through the University of Vermont, where he got a degree in zoology, by teaching at Stratton. After graduating, he returned to become a biology teacher and ski coach at the Stratton Mountain School, which caters to student-skiers. Rob met his wife, a smalltown Maine gal, during one year of coaching at Crested Butte, Colo. “She had a twinkle in her eye and a laugh and smile,” he recalls. “She’s the most outgoing person I know.” In 1988 he became head alpine coach for the B, C and Development women’s teams of the U.S. Ski Team, a position he held through 1994. There, he coached Picabo Street, Julie Parisien, Megan Garrity and Wendy Fisher. I was the first coach to bring bigger racers to camp to mentor the younger racers. I brought in Tamara McKinney and I said, ‘Tamara, who’s got it in this group?’ She told me, ‘Picabo Street has the fire.’ That was the former best one saying, ‘Here comes the next best one,’ ” Rob recalls. Later, Clayton coached an up-and-coming group at Park City that included Ted Ligety, who has an Olympic gold medal in the combined and four World Cup giant slalom championships. Rob recalls watching Ligety try to outrun a Nordic racer in a dryland medals competition. Ligety not only donned spiked shoes for the 440, showing how serious he was, but gave it all he had “Fifty-four seconds in a 440—that’s fast for someone who’s not a track star,” he says. “The box jump was next and Ted stumbled off the box four times. That showed me he’d left it all on the track, that he had no legs left—he’s
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Rob Clayton says he’d love to give local kids the opportunity to travel the world with the top U.S. ski teams. “That’s why I’m here– I’m not here for retirement.”
Rob Clayton unloads the family piano, knowing that his family can begin their new Sun Valley life in earnest once the piano’s in place.
“Ski Pup” will get a new look when the Clayton family trades in their Utah license plate for one sporting “Scenic Idaho” and “Famous Potatoes.”
Tom Crais, M.D., F.A.C.S. The Valley’s Only Full-Time, Board Certified Plastic Surgeon
SEE PAGE 3 FOR OUR JUNE SPECIALS