League Status

Yesterday, Wednesday, September 14, 2011, our official announcement took place at Interbike.

Please check out our new web site www.utahmtb.org

NICA leaders at Outdoor Retailer

NICA leaders Ben Capron and Tyler Dibble will be in Utah. Come visit the NICA booth at Outdoor Retailers Summer Expo at the Salt Palace August 4-7 from 9 am to 6 pm. It is so exciting to see NICA make the push to go coast to coast by 2020!


Some of our coaches need to organize their cycling clubs this October during "club rush" at their schools, which is not far away. We are planning a coaches/assistants meeting to get the ball rolling. We will post that info as soon as we have it set. Thanks to all of you who have volunteered and contacted me regarding coaching! Notice the changes in the status of many schools involved.

Some fantastic and exciting news of support! Our coach at Wasatch (Heber) talked with the Principal who is so excited - he wants to also start a road cycling program as well. We have David Dotty, the Superintendent of the Canyon's School District behind us and leading the way for other districts. I also received a phone call from Ephraim - the kids there found out about us and made their dad call me.

We will be at Dealer Camp this Tuesday, August 26 at Deer Valley , sharing a booth with Mountain Trails Foundation. Also look for our cards in registration packets for the Ulcer and Logan to Jackson. Hoping to get the word out there to more people and hopefully get more schools involved. Why? Because cycling is so amazingly awesome and fantastic and fun!

NICA leaders coming to Utah

First, Ben Capron and Tyler Dibble will be in Utah August 2-7. NICA will have a booth at the Outdoor Retailers Expo at the Salt Palace. http://www.outdoorretailer.com/summer-market/  Come say hi!

This program is going to be so exciting for all of us - bringing cycling into the high schools! Heather Williams in Ogden started her mtb club this year and has been riding with the kids. Every time we talk she tells me how much fun she is having and how the kids love it! At first even shifting was a challenge, and now she says many of the kids are riding faster than her.

SPONSORSHIP STILL NEEDED

We have been working full-time at making this League a reality! While we have sponsors, we have only half of the needed $25K league start-up fee for NICA. While that sounds like a lot, NICA invests close to $100K in us to get us up and rolling. They provide League logo and branding, marketing, development services, legal services, branded products, manuals, banners, race productions package, financial services, etc. It's a deal! Plus, these races are incredible - snow fencing, banners, real-time timing system, pit zone, etc. Here are some pictures to give you an idea.

We had several new coaches and assistants sign up this weekend for Wasatch High, Skyline, and Olympus. With so many schools, we are anticipating 250+ kids. And the best part is that a recent survey done by NICA shows that 57% of parents started riding with their kids. This will not only be great for the kids, but help our community get out riding!

Plus, there is great marketing potential! If interested in sponsoring yourself or you have a contact with a business please contact Lori at loriharward@comcast.net or Dave at harward.david@gmail.com

NICA is Amazing!

I wanted to express my excitement about becoming affiliated with such a great program as NICA! First, check out this super cool NICA Expedition!http://www.nationalmtb.org/nica-expedition/ That's right kids can go on this 5-day biking adventure! Don't you wish they had this when you were a kid? That is in addition to their skills camps. I am also really impressed with the leadership. They really care about the kids! This is a clip from the last NICA Newsletter.
"With NICA alumni already racing at the profession level where doping may never go away completely, it may be that some our riders are already facing this dilemma. I believe I can speak on behalf of all of the NICA coaches and parents when I tell our young riders: never let the cheating of others erode your integrity – there is much more to life than winning bike races. We don't want our programs to promote the idea that any amount of winning, wealth, or celebrity could ever mean more than the simple joy of riding a bike with a clear conscious."

Grazie e ciao a tutti–
Matt Fritzinger

There really is something different at these races. Mike with Mountain Bike Action magazine is writing an article about the camaraderie he experienced at the State Championships. He said he had never experienced anything like it before, and he's been to a lot of races. It really touches you when you hear kids telling each other "way to go" while they're out on the race course to each other! Or to hear parents out on the course with a list of every athlete's names calling the on-coming riders by name and cheering for them! It's that camaraderie that I think makes NICA so fantastic and why Utah will be privileged to be a league under them. They really do care about the kids!

California High School MTB State Championships 2011 Trip

Dave Harward post on the California High School MTB State Championships 2011 Trip -- more photos and video inserts to come, I'm too tired right now.

Lori and I had a great trip this week. For those who don’t know, Lori has been working on putting together a bid for a high school mountain biking league in Utah. NICA, the National Interscholastic Cycling Association, is the governing body for high school cycling and they approve new league bids. This weekend was the California High School Mountain Biking State Championships. There are two leagues in California, so this weekend was the culmination of both league’s seasons. We decided this would be the best time to see the longest running high school leagues in action. This is likely going to be a long post and I’m sure will be well worth your time. It’s going to have pictures and video!

We met some amazing people this weekend. Between the never-resting NorCal and SoCal league staff, NICA officials, and the supportive and excited parents, Lori and I were welcomed as friends and coworkers. We really had no idea how things were going to go and if we would be able to get involved in the action or not. I figured we would be able to at least observe how they did things but didn’t know for sure.

Utah Bike Summit this Friday!

Hello!  We will have a booth at the Utah Bike Summit this Friday, April 29! The summit is from 7:30 am to 5 pm at the Salt Lake Community College, Miller Campus. Andy Clark, President of the League of American Bicyclists will be presenting, along with Kevin Lewis, Brett McIff, Shaunna Burbidge, Max Testa, Dave Harward and others. Bike Utah's mission is to promote and preserve the safety, opportunities, and responsibilities of cyclists through legislation, education, and facilities development. I want to thank Tara McKee for supporting us and asking us to come!

Lori is off to Colorado's Leader Summit this weekend. Heather, our coach at Mound Ford Jr. is going too. We are looking forward to a great experience! Did you see the great NICA t-shirts? "I wish they had this when we were in school"? Well, not only is it true that everyone says that to us, but I also wish I could have gone to this clinic years ago and learned some on-the-bike skills! Sigh!

More exciting news, we are half-way there in sponsorship money. Yae! We are still waiting to hear back from several businesses, and are making contact with others as well. If you happen to have a connection with anyone  you think would be interested in sponsoring us, contact Lori.

Our coaches are still contacting schools, and we keep hearing back from more and more. Park City is on board! We have several schools in Alpine District we need to work out some details for, but we have coaches and the schools are supportive.

Everything is going really great! We just need the snow to melt to map out some race courses in the mountains!

Sponsorship & Diversity

Hi friends! I have been super focussed on sponsorship all week. If anyone has connections for me of possible sponsors, please email me! I am hoping for good weather this weekend to get out and check out a couple possible venue sites with Dave, Alex and Justin.

I thought with recent events in Utah, you might be interested in NICA's policy on diversity. This blog is in  no way, shape or form commenting or taking a stance on said incidences. It is purely to give you information of NICA policy.  Here is a quote right out of the coaching manual.

Finding Grants

Spent the week drafting the bid. I also spent hours upon hours pouring over grants. I literally looked at 1292 federal grants that were health related. There are a couple we can apply for.  Has anyone written grants before and want to serve on our sponsorship/fundraising committee? :)  :)  :) please?

What's going on?

First, how about if I tell you about our coaches meeting. We have some really amazing and dedicated coaches! John Miller from St. George came up. He has connected with other St. George coaches and they are starting their programs this year. Their club rush was March, and they went for it! They have a plan and have coaches at every school in St. George. They are planning on attending the coaches summit in Souther Cal this Oct. Alta has 5 coaches! All of them fantastic! We have Heather Williams up in Ogden who actually got a grant for 10 bikes this year and is starting her program. Both she and our new Team Development Committee head (Wesley Rasmussen) will be going with me to Colorado's Coaching Summit April 30. But, it's not just the motivation behind these coaches, it's the kind of people they are! Really really good people! The kind of people who I would love my kids to have as coaches. They care about the kids! As I get to know them and learn about them, I am amazed! While many are very accomplished riders themselves, I believe it takes more than that to be a positive role model for kids. And that is what I'm talking about. Anyone can scream at a kid and tell them to do better and use intimidation or call them names (my all-time annoyance "you play like a girl!"). That is not what a good coach does! Our coaches are the kind of people who are fun to be with and enthusiastic about biking and will put the kids first (not their own agenda). They are great people!