This past season was unbelievable. What started as a complaint from my daughter, that she didn’t like to mountain bike because none of her friends did it became the most rewarding experience. I made contact with the Utah League Director Lori Harward, who suggested I attend a coaches summit. It turns out she has received these calls before and knows how to get people involved. Within the first hour of the meetings, I discovered I was the new “Head Coach” for Juan Diego. I sat in shock and began to listen more intently to the classes on risk management and team organization. Thankfully one of the seasoned coaches took me and our Juan Diego riders under his wings. Stephen Hales has been the Alta High School MTB Coach for a number of years and has two kids on the team. In April 2016, he held a parent meeting in the commons area of Alta High School. About two hundred people showed up, which worked out to about 60 students signing up for the team. A few weeks later we attempted to hold a similar meeting at JDCHS, three students attended with their parents and I wondered what I was doing. We set a deadline for team registration in May, out of necessity to order team uniforms and have them ready in time for the race season. We had a total of five student riders from Juan Diego, but more importantly we had nine ride leaders to support our team in training. We trained throughout the summer, three days a week (Tues, Thurs, and Sat).
Our first race was at Powder Mountain and I was blown away. It reminded me of the Quidditch World Cup from Harry Potter. In the beginning, we were on top of the mountain and no one was around. Within 24 hours, thousands of people converged on the race site.
JDCHS MTB TEAM 