One of the biggest athletic teams in the school, all 95 riders have fun. The state championship is on Oct. 14-15. They have won all state championships from 2017-2022, excluding 2020 due to COVID and they have assembled a legacy for themselves. The mountain bike riders in grades six through 12 feel no stress through maintaining it because the coaches focus on everyone having fun.
The sport is about having fun and building a solid community with each other. They have no pressure or stress to win state by coaches and are not expected to maintain the five-win streak. To the riders, it is about giving it their best shot and having a quality time. The coaches and captains are not concerned if they do good or not, they all just want everybody to do what their best is.
“Whether they perform and get first in the race or 100th I don’t care,” Head director Dan Ralston said.
The team is self-motivated with the will to win. Every practice, riders show up even if it is endurance work, which is everybody’s least favorite part, but makes them truly progress. They have a really good relationship they want to push each other to do better and it makes everyone hold each other accountable for how they perform.
“It happened truly organically by our riders putting in time, putting in work, and enjoying being on a bike,” Ralston said.
“It happened truly organically by our riders putting in time, putting in work, and enjoying being on a bike,” Ralston said.
There are five team captains, a mix of three boys and two girls on the team to help lead the younger riders and to give support to the whole team. One of them is a junior James Kalmon and it is his first year being a captain. It is a big responsibility to be captain having all the younger riders looking up to him and having to do extra to help his team do better.
Kalmon is excited to be a team captain this year and is ready for all the challenges that are added to it. He describes his duty as creating a great team atmosphere and getting everybody of all ages involved.
Even though the riders represent different teams and are each other’s opponents, they still share a love for the sport. During the race, they are competitors who are trying to do anything they can to get ahead. In other sports most of the time there is a rival team that they always try to beat and try to be better than, but not mountain biking.
After the race, it is a completely different story. “You’ll see all the kids from all the different teams giving each other high fives shaking each other’s hands, the girls and giving each other hugs. Dudes are two,” Ralston said.
Even though the team has won five times in a row does not mean that they are the only good team. There are good teams all across the state with exceptional programs.
A big challenger in the state for this year is “Duluth,” freshman Emmett Valley said, last year’s first place champion for his division.
“If we don’t win a sixth time, it’s not going to be a loss at all,” Ralston said.
