Diablo Fit: High School Mountain Biking Emerges in the East Bay

High School Team of the Month Contra Costa Composite takes the stage.

The battleground for turf between high school sports is often a tumultuous affair. Financial funding is sometimes rocky. While grabbing exposure and filling rosters can, at times, best be described as a bumpy ride.

Notwithstanding these apparent obstacles, the new Contra Costa Composite Mountain Bike Team is determined to tackle the uphill battle. And they’re not alone. The nine-man team is part of the Nor Cal High School Mountain Bike League, the largest league of its kind in the nation.

For an unconventional sport, the Nor Cal league has grown at an impressive rate. Starting out as a Berkeley High School club with only four riders in 1999, the league now boasts more than 450 riders coming out of 37 different teams from Napa all the way down to Monterey. Team Contra Costa Composite is one of the newest teams emerging out of the East Bay.

“It is the future of cycling in my opinion,” says Contra Costa Composite Assistant Coach Gordon Reese, emphasizing the league’s ability to attract new riders to the sport.

“We teach these kids how to have fun on bikes. And they not only gain physical fitness but they gain camaraderie, a sense of belonging, strength, confidence, and how to care for the environment. It’s a wonderful thing,” says Reese.

A part of the appeal is simply the new challenges mountain biking brings. The six cross-country courses within the Nor Cal series are every bit as daunting as one might see at a professional venue. Sand pits flow into boulder fields, thick roots lace themselves over steep climbs and then there are the high-speed descents filled with the occasional three-foot drop. It’s enough to push even the burliest of football players.

Yet, Reese points out that rosters don’t always reflect the traditional high school sports clientele. Many times kids will be more academically inclined or even come from a steady diet of video games and television. He says that mountain biking offers new comers to athletics more of an equal playing field and a vehicle for self-improvement.

The league is also a great way to advance in the sport. Riders like El Cerrito High School’s John Bennett qualified to be a part of the USA Cycling team in 2008 and had the opportunity to compete in the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Val di Sol, Italy last year.

Founder and League Executive Director Matt Fritzinger remembers when the league was still crawling out of obscurity back in 2001. As a non-profit organization that does not receive funding from the California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body of high school sports in California, Fritzinger says finding the initial funding wasn’t easy. “I came into this when schools had very little funding and so we had to be really creative to raise money,” he says.

Today, with the help of corporate sponsorship from Specialized Bicycles and Clif Bar, the league boasts a budget in the six-figures and is looking to make the jump out of California and onto the national scene. Fritzinger says that in about five years he wouldn’t be surprised if there are as many as 10 additional states that have their own leagues.

Contra Costa Composite Head Coach and Director Sportif Joseph Lyons says that he sees his team as a vehicle to generate young cyclists locally and looks forward to seeing it flourish, with the ultimate goal to develop mountain bike teams within individual Contra Costa County high schools so that a county team will no longer be necessary.

“I think the program gives kids an outlet that allows them to say ‘hey I really feel a part of the community and a part of a larger movement.’ There’s a lot to this multifaceted activity,” says Lyons.

For more information about the Nor Cal Mountain Bike League and local high school mountain bike clubs, visit norcalmtb.org/.

 

Got a good health & fitness tip or story idea? E-Mail us at fit@maildiablo.com.

 

Posted at 04:19 PM in Best Of Editor Picks | Permalink