Stoked students
A new sport enjoyed a successful first season at Hortonville High School in Hortonville, Wisconsin, as mountain bikers formed a competitive team that raced in the Wisconsin High School Cycling League (WHSCL) this year.
Most of Hortonville’s riders said they have been involved in mountain biking for several years, and have competed in Wisconsin Off Road Series (WORS) races in recent years.
“Being able to be on a competitive team is really awesome,” Hortonville racer Cole McDicken said. “The atmosphere around these races is also pretty cool.”
In the 2014 four-race WHSCL series, Hortonville’s bikers competed against riders from all around the state on courses covering distances from 12 to 15 miles for the boys and 4 to 5 mile courses for girls.
The races were held at ski hills or state parks in separate heats for varsity, junior varsity, sophomores, freshmen and middle school riders. The number of laps ranged from five laps for varsity riders to one lap for middle schoolers.
“There are lots of hills on each course, and every race starts on a hill,” McDicken said. “The difficulty level depends on your level of fitness.”
McDicken, his sister Katy, and their teammates Dylan Eggebrecht, Daniel Gretzinger and Jacob Ahles sat down for an interview shortly after the conclusion of this year’s season.
“Other mountain biking events brought us together to form a high school team. We all race on the same WORS team in the summer, so we formed a school team,” Eggebrecht said. “Our season went very well, even though we have far fewer racers than most other teams. We’re trying to recruit more people for next year.”
Coach Aristotle Peters, himself a mountain bike racer for the past 10 years, said, “We really had a great season. I couldn’t ask for better kids. They all had racing experience, and it was great to see kids who normally race in intermediate categories make it to the ‘big show.’ I enjoyed seeing them compete on a bigger stage.”
John Gretzinger helped bring the mountain biking sport to Hortonville when he founded the Fox Cities Youth Cycling Team six years ago. The team participated in WORS races throughout the summer.
“It all started when my son tried out for a baseball all-star team and got cut. It was hard on the whole family,” Gretzinger said. “Then my son said he wanted to give biking a try. So I started a team. Biking is a really great sport for kids that don’t seem to fit with sports like football, soccer, baseball and basketball.”
Gretzinger said the team grew quickly after a successful first season. “We had seven kids the first year, 15 the next year, then 27 kids the next year,” Gretzinger recalled.
“Biking has really taken off in states like California, Minnesota, Colorado, Kentucky, New York, Arkansas and Oregon. Our league hasn’t been around too long, but I think it will grow quickly. I envision a varsity team in Hortonville with 20 kids,” he said.
WHSCL, founded in 2013, serves all Wisconsin high school and middle school-aged students. The league exists by virtue of a range of fundraising activities. The four-event league is part of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA), a self-funded non-profit youth development organization that governs high school mountain biking in the United States.
This year, WHSCL races were held at Minooka Park in Waukesha, Iola Winter Sports Club in Iola, Nordic Mountain in Mt. Morris and Cascade Mountain in Portage.
Hortonville’s riders all seemed to agree that Cascade Mountain was the toughest course, while Nordic Mountain was the most enjoyable.
“Nordic Mountain was kind of like our home course,” Cole McDicken said. “We have all ridden there before, and we actually helped build some of the trails.”
Learning to persevere
The Hortonville riders shared what they enjoy most and the least about mountain bike racing.
“Competition is the best part about this sport,” said Katy McDicken, who took first place in the middle school girls group in all four of her races. “My least favorite part is probably the wet, slippery singletrack areas where the trail is really tight.”
“I just really enjoy biking and the downhill parts of each race,” Daniel Gretzinger said. “Climbing the hills is probably the most difficult part.”
Echoing that was Cole McDicken: “My least favorite part is probably the hills.”
But Jacob Ahles had a different take. “My favorite thing about this sport is the opportunity to improve my technique while competing,” he said. “I enjoy the hills. I really don’t like the flats, because those areas are boring to me.”
Whatever the likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses of young riders, the opportunity to race as a team can change all that, the elder Gretzinger said.
“One of the best things about this sport is that kids get to play the whole time,” Gretzinger said. “If you’re not good at it, you get to do it longer than the other racers. It teaches kids perseverance. I always tell parents that their kid is going to cry if they take up this sport because they have to learn how to fall and get hurt and then get up and overcome it. If they don’t learn to overcome their falls, they usually don’t continue with this sport.”
Gretzinger said when his son started mountain bike racing at the age of seven, he would cry during the pre-ride because of the difficulty. “Now that he’s learned how to overcome the challenges, he just goes onto the course and rips it apart.”
“But it’s really not a dangerous sport,” Gretzinger said. “The worst I’ve seen is a kid who fell and landed on his elbow. I’ve seen adults break their collar bones, but that happens in high school football, too. I think mountain biking is much safer than jumping, running and landing sports. Kids are taught how to control the bike right off the bat so that they know how to brake and stop on a dime.”
With improved skill comes safety
The Hortonville cyclists practice once a week as a team for about 90 minutes. But riders are also expected to practice on their own throughout the week. Each team member does hill climbs, sprints, and other exercises to improve their skills and techniques.
“All of the kids worked hard to improve their skills form the beginning of the year to the end of the season,” coach Peters said. “A lot of this sport has to do with endurance and physical capabilities, so we did a lot of work on skill aspects to help them go faster. The technical skills can really set riders apart from the competition. Teaching skills also improves safety, which is our top priority.”
Peters said mountain biking also has the advantage of being a sport that can be enjoyed well after high school.
“I’d like to see more kids get into a sport like this rather than traditional high school sports that they probably won’t continue to play after high school or college,” he said.
Current team members are Peters’ best recruiting tools.
“Come out and watch a race. Once you see it, you will like it,” Cole McDicken said, encouraging other student-athletes to give mountain bike racing a try, adding, “You can also pre-ride a course with us to see what it’s like.”
To learn more about the WHSCL, visit wisconsinmtb.org.
Tim Beimal is sports editor for the central Wisconsin weekly newspapers the Clintonville Tribune-Gazette and New London Press Star, where a version of this story originally appeared.