Noah Bindas enjoyed putting on pads and playing football at Muskego High School.
What big-boned, athletic sophomore – if he were to play – wouldn’t want to be a part of such a notable program?
He also liked baseball.
But life is made of choices, sometimes complex ones, and Bindas, now a senior, made his.
If he sticks to football, no one will invite him to an NFL playoff game to test the field for turf snags, regardless of his high school success. He had no intention of running the bases before the first pitch in the All-Star Game.
Bindas’ first love was alpine skiing. Six-time Olympic medalist Bode Miller he was his idol.
So skiing would be the sport Bindas devoted himself to. A sport where he would do it win a state title. The sport that gave him the greatest chance to further develop and realize his dreams. A sport in which – already as a high school student – he had the opportunity to compete with the best.
“I’ve always been pretty fast, right from the start,” said Bindas, the individual champion last month at the Wisconsin State Alpine Ski Championships in La Crosse. “I started racing when I was 4 or 5 and I was always pretty good at it.
“I think I was probably 13 or 14 when we started going to Colorado. Then we decided: OK, Wisconsin gave me – the competition, the hills and everything it has to offer gave me what I needed. … We thought, OK, if you’re going to make this change, you’re going to be very committed to it.”
The time that had passed since then was a bit of a blur.
The youngest of six children in a family that Mark Bindas calls “his, hers and ours,” Noah benefited from the lessons learned while competing on the slopes with his three older brothers and two sisters.
“It looked like a ski shop in the basement,” said Mark, whose work as a ski patroller, instructor and coach helped the family make regular trips to Alpine Valley and then Granite Peak. “It still looks like a ski shop in the basement, but now it’s all his skis.”
Noah became a remote student in Muskego, earning straight-A’s during nearly a year of training in Aspen, Colorado, traveling to competitions across the U.S. and Canada, and taking virtual classes at UW-Milwaukee.
“I definitely want to make the Olympic team,” he said. “There are four levels of the U.S. Ski Team. There are A, B, C and D teams. You make a team, and most of the time you make the D team and rise up, and then the A team is the Olympic team. So I definitely want to have a chance to ski in the Olympics.
After winning the state title, Bindas left the U.S. National High School Championships to compete in U.S. Ski and Snowboard Competitions Eastern U18 Championship. Last extended weekend he raced in North American Cup at Whistler Mountain in British Columbia.
The next step towards achieving his 2026 Olympic goal is to start racking up top-10s, top-fives and then Nor-Ams victories. Then there will be the Junior World Championships, the Under-21 Championships and the European Cup, and the most important stage will be the World Cup.
Between the state and under-18 championships, Bindas had the opportunity to ski as a precursor, testing the course, at the Men’s World Cup downhill competition at Aspen Mountain, where speeds exceeded 80 miles per hour.
“It was the best and most amazing experience of my life,” said Bindas, who was contacted through the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club, where he belongs.
“My biggest surprise was how many people contributed. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people lined up the racing hill, stands, grandstands and everything around the entire event.
“I was at the starting gate and I was nervous. It seemed quite real to me. It was just cool to be around these guys and just see what the best athletes in the sport look like.
Given the experiences and opportunities Bindas has had, the high school competition in Wisconsin may seem like a failure.
But it was a rare, direct connection to Muskego that allowed him to “feel like a normal high school student.” Bindas won the slalom AND super-G, slalom and finished second place in giant slalomand Muskego finished sixth in Division 2.
“I thought it was cool, one of the coolest moments of my life,” Bindas said. “I didn’t miss it and it was really cool to be there and be with my team.
“It just took some of the pressure off us (it’s a team event). But I was still at the starting gate (thinking) “yes, I have to go.” And my goal was to win. I wanted to win the overall state title and that’s what I did and I was very cheerful about it.
“I approached it like it was the World Cup.”
