By Brooke Geery
Rocco Jones, a fixture at Killington for mountain biking and snowboarding, was chosen as a Flyin’ Ryan adventure scholar. The scholarship is provided by the Flyin’ Ryan Foundation, named for skier Ryan Hawks who died in 2011. The foundation offers scholarships to kids 12 and older with a dream, a goal or an adventure that they are passionate about and need financial help to accomplish.
Jones, 12, lives in Wallingford and attends Mill River Union High School. Thanks to the scholarship he will attending KMS for the entire winter term, beginning on Nov. 30.
Jones is proud to be the youngest and the smallest caddie at the Ekwanok in Manchester. He likes snowboarding, skiing, mountain biking, wrestling, soccer, rock climbing and running 5Ks and Spartan races. In 2019 he won the Kids’ 2-mile competitive Spartan Race as well as the Killington Triathlon (during a snow storm). He won the Woodward Fastest Ninja Challenge in his age group both for Killington Mountain and across the country.
After suffering a few snowboarding accidents he has become a strong advocate of wearing a helmet and will be using his award to advance his education in competitive snowboarding and safety by attending the Killington Mountain School Boost Snowboard program. His dream is to become a competitive snowboarder and compete in the X Games.
