Mike Rougeux, the new executive director of the Bend Endurance Academy, spots Kai Brennan during a rock climbing outing with a group of students at Meadow Camp on Thursday.

Mike Rougeux stepped in as the interim executive director of the Bend Endurance Academy the first week of March last year.

“Little did I know what the next week was going to bring,” Rougeux said this week.

Rougeux has led the Bend Endurance Academy — a local nonprofit founded in 2009 that offers development programs for youth and juniors in rock climbing, mountain biking, and nordic skiing — throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and was recently announced as the official new executive director by the organization’s governing board.

The longtime climbing director of the Bend Endurance Academy, Rougeux took over for former executive director Sandy Visnak.

Operating youth outdoor sports programs has certainly been a challenge during the pandemic, but more and more youth are turning to outdoor pursuits as indoor sports have been mostly shut down over the past year.

“Some of those indoor programs, like dance or gymnastics, or basketball, have definitely been more impacted,” Rougeux said. “But people are still hungry to get their kids that social interaction. So outdoor programs are more able to operate and parents are more comfortable with it.”

Rougeux, 42, said the biggest challenge has been navigating the constant changes to COVID-19 guidelines. Bend Endurance Academy works with the Deschutes National Forest to operate its nordic skiing programs at Virginia Meissner Sno-park and also uses the Bend Rock Gym for its rock climbing programs.

“Once you figure out what the guidance is, it hasn’t been super hard to put things in place,” Rougeux said. “It’s just been trying to figure out, OK where do we fit and how do we adapt to it? We’ve been trying to be as agile as possible as an organization. You can’t really plan ahead. You can only put the pieces in place, wait to see what happens, and then move your piece.”

Bend Endurance Academy canceled its programs last March but was able to resume in June with several adjustments. Rock climbing moved from the Bend Rock Gym outside to Smith Rock State Park in Terrebonne.

The nonprofit has found its niche with rock climbing and mountain biking youth programs. It also offers nordic skiing, but most Central Oregon youth nordic skiers train with the Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation, a longtime youth outdoor sports nonprofit that also offers alpine skiing, freeride skiing and snowboarding.

Rougeux — who has coached multiple youth climbers as members of the U.S. National Climbing Team and served as a regional coordinator for USA Climbing — has helped to grow the climbing program at Bend Endurance Academy over the past few years.

“Mike has created a culture within our climbing team that sets a precedent on community over competition, determination over talent, and passion over performance,” said Brady Kendrick, assistant climbing director for the nonprofit. “I look forward to seeing him apply these principles to the entirety of the Bend Endurance Academy.”

Mountain biking has been the most popular sport at the nonprofit, according to Rougeux.

“Our mountain biking program is way bigger than our other two programs,” Rougeux said.

“While the sport I coach has predominantly been rock climbing, I’m focused on trying to bring what I did in terms of coaching development, coaching philosophy, and working with youth on the climbing side, and applying that to the other two programs.”

He added that mountain biking has grown quickly because of its accessibility and the many miles of trails in Central Oregon.

“It’s so familiar to a lot of people who are moving here,” said Rougeux, who has lived in Bend for 15 years and was raised in upstate New York. “A lot of them ride bikes for fun out on the trails, so they sign their kids up.”

One of Rougeux’s goals as executive director is to provide more scholarship and tuition-assistance programs so underprivileged youth can participate in the Bend Endurance Academy programs.

“There could be kids out there who aren’t riding the trails near town,” he said. “And if they’re exposed to that and provided the opportunity and the access, maybe that is something that they just pour their heart and soul into. But we won’t know if we can’t reach them and give them the opportunity to experience it.”

For more information on the Bend Endurance Academy or to register for programs, visit bendenduranceacademy.org.