When Ben Lisson entered a coffee shop in Park City, Utah for breakfast, he was stunned to see a familiar face.

The mad North Melbourne supporter immediately recognised Michael Firrito standing at the counter and took the opportunity to say ‘hello’.

Lisson, in town for a bobsleigh competition couldn’t believe the timing of the Kangaroos’ training camp and his event.

But things became even more exciting for him on the eve of his 23rd birthday when Firrito offered to bring the team to the top of the mountain to watch him compete.

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“I’ve been to watch them plenty of times and it’s really nice for them to come out here and do the same for me,” Lisson told kangaroos.com.au from the site of the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games.

On Thursday during their day off, around 35 players including Brent Harvey and Drew Petrie hitched a ride up the mountain to watch Lisson and the Aussies in action.

“It’s very cool and very nice to meet all of the guys over here and really great they’re out here supporting me…I hope we put on a good show for them.

“It’s the America’s Cup, it’s a good second tier competition for countries like Australia and other ones like Korea to really build their world ranking and get into events like the World Cup and the World Championships and obviously build towards 2014 and the winter Olympics.

“Here in Park City I’m going to be doing the two-man and four-man events as the brakeman, that’s the guy at the back. I basically give it the big heave-ho and take it down the track as far as I can and then hop in and hope.

“I grew up in Canada and obviously love my winter sports and always sort of had my eye on it and thought this would be a good thing to do. It’s good fun and we did some sprint tests in Melbourne, basically thirty-metres, broad jumps and those sorts of things and I tested well enough so they got me over here and here I am.”

Despite the lack of experience, Lisson and fellow Australian Heat Spence put in an exceptional effort to finish 9th out of 22 teams in the bobsleigh.

North Melbourne staff and players will be tweeting from Utah. Search the hashtag #utahroos or visit twitter.com/northkangaroos for updates.

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North Melbourne players meet the Australian bobsled team
Cameron Pedersen, Ayden Kennedy and Jamie Macmillan watch on
The Jamaican bobsled
Brent Harvey a keen observer
The North Melbourne players take a prime viewing position
The Australian bobsled
Ready to go!