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They call it sliding, and for some, that's what it might appear just to be. But for Robby Huerbin of Ross Township, the Luge is so much more.

Huerbin, 15, was crowned the U.S. Youth A National Luge Champion at Lake Placid, N.Y., on Feb. 19., and on Jan. 28, he capped the 2005-06 Youth A World Cup season with a silver medal in Koenigssee, Germany.

"I really enjoy sliding," Huerbin said over the phone from Salt Lake City. "It's an amazing feeling going down and having control. I've never had control over something like this, and I can go far, so it makes me feel real good."

Huerbin's goal is to make it to the 2010 Olympics, but he's not focusing that far into the future. His immediate goal is to perform well at the U.S. Junior Nationals in Salt Lake City next weekend. After that, Huerbin will focus his attention on the summer when he'll try to make the U.S. Junior National team again.

"I want to go back to Europe and do good there again," he said.

Trips to Europe, summers in Lake Placid, silver medals in the Luge - Huerbin doesn't sound like your typical North Hills High School sophomore.

"I just take part in it as a normal day activity," he said, "like a normal kid does football. I'm keeping my mindset on it not being special."

The Huerbin family traveled to Philadelphia three years ago to visit friends and enter their two children into a slider search. Robby and his younger brother Randy were two of 125 who were chosen. That earned them a week in Lake Placid, where the field was narrowed to 25. Again, both made the cut. However, when the field was cut to nine, only Robby made the list.

From there, his life has been anything but normal. Fortunately, one thing that has not been affected is his school work, according to his father, Bob Huerbin.

"He makes the honor roll," Mr. Huerbin said. "He has a tutor with him, and the teachers (at North Hills) give him a packet, and he administers the tests. Most of his work assignments, he gets them done and faxes them to me, and I send them in to the school."

Unlike a lot of teenage phenoms in the sports world, Heurbin was not forced into the Luge by his parents.

"He does this on his own," Mr. Huerbin said. "He's pretty much self-driven."

With the kind of dedication that it takes to become a U.S. Youth National champion, one might think it was love at first site for Huerbin and the Luge. But that's not the case. Before he went to Philadelphia, Huerbin said he had never even given the sport a thought, and he didn't fall in love with the sport after his first ride, either.

"I just wanted to keep giving it a shot," he said. "I'm not one to give up. After a while of doing it, it became an interest to me."

Duncan Kennedy, a three-time Olympian in the Luge who coached Huerbin for two years, described the 15-year-old as being "very intense and focused."

And there in lays Huerbin's biggest problem.

"Sometimes he's a little too intense," said Kennedy, who is the head development coach for the U.S. Luge team. "Besides the importance of being fit with overall strength, it's a sport of finesse and fine touches a lot of the time. To really excel with the nuances, you have to relax and let the sled run. He's such a strong kid, he'd muscle the sled around too much."

Huerbin said he has begun to relax more on the sled. It's one of the things Kennedy, who is now his former coach, taught him.

"He taught me how to slide," Huerbin said. "He doesn't make you feel any different, and he shows you that you can do the sport and can have a normal life after, and that was one of the things I was worried about."

Kennedy said that he could tell from the beginning that Luge was in Huerbin's heart, and as long as it's there and he continues to improve, Huerbin is not going to live a normal 15-year-old's life.

And that's just fine by Huerbin.

"I can't liken sliding to anything," he said. "It's an individual feeling. You just got to do it and try it out. It's just a feeling of being free, as goofy as that sounds."

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