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| 4/7/2010 6:33:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | High school cycling league comes to Colorado
By Danny Bay-Times Correspondent
Team registration for Colorado's inaugural 2010 mountain bike racing series just opened through the newly founded Colorado High School Cycling League. Salida High School plans to compete with a team that formed before word of the league reached them.
At the beginning of the 2009 school year, Fred Maxwell, teacher at Salida High School, said he created an informal mountain bike team that met every Wednesday and helped with trails.
"Some days we could have up to 15 kids and some days there would be only two," Maxwell said. They would ride "S" Mountain and other local spots.
In an effort to build competition, Maxwell said he contacted six-time winner of the Leadville 100, Dave Wiens, to see if there was enough interest in Gunnison to generate a team. Maxwell said he then heard about the National Interscholastic Cycling League's project to expand into Colorado.
"It just happened to work out perfectly. I was trying to start my own small group up here, but they're starting one this year," Maxwell said.
The NICA originally began in Northern California in 2001 when Matt Fritzinger, a math teacher at Berkeley High School, had aspirations similar to those of Maxwell.
"My second year teaching I put up a bulletin to start a mountain bike club," Fritzinger said. "The first year we had four members. The second year we had eight. And the third year we put together a race series. Now we have 700 kids on 60 teams in California."
Fritzinger said he taught his last math class in 2005 to solely focus his efforts as founder and director of NICA with a goal of developing high school mountain bike racing nationally.
"This is more than a full-time job." he said. "We were talking about adding one new league in 2011 and now it looks like we'll be building three new leagues," he said. States interested in occupying those three spots include Washington, Texas, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan.
But for the 2010 season, there are three chapters: Northern California, Southern California and now Colorado.
Kate Rau, founding committee chairwoman of Colorado High School Cycling League, said that at least 20 schools in Colorado have expressed interest in joining the league. But she said that there is a learning curve for how schools will accept it.
"They don't want to fund it," she said, noting that it is self-funded through sponsorships with a small membership fee. She said that a bike is probably the most expensive item and that most kids already have that.
"I'd be happy to go to any community and give a presentation about how to successfully join the league and run a team. And we have the wonderful benefit to replicate the rules, structure and insurance of a proven model in northern California," she said.
The Colorado season will consist of four races that progressively increase in difficulty with the forth and final championship race being the most challenging. The first race is scheduled for Sept. 19.
Rau said they have not chosen locations for the races yet and that Wiens, chairman of the venue committee, will be largely responsible for selecting the trails.
"I'm trying to get it (the championship) in Salida," Maxwell said. "But I'm sure everybody is probably vying for home-field advantage."
While the logistics of the season are still being determined, Maxwell said he is applying for a $5,000 grant and that he already has certain guidelines for his students.
"Part of the team is to have volunteer hours," he said. "They need to have at least 10 hours to get their jersey."
Maxwell said he's confident that high school mountain biking will become very popular in Colorado but that it might take a few years to compete with more established high school sports like football and soccer.
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