3rd practice

For practice #2, the bikes came in!  I don't have a good picture - I'll post one when I do - but for now, I will just report that they are really nice Felt hardtails.

This year, our goal is to have three practices per week.  At practice #2, the group rode on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST) for the first time.  Some of the students had been on this trail before, but others had not.  They did great using their own bikes or the new bikes.

At practice #3, we again headed to the BST.  Our big exercise for the day was the baseline time trial.  Each athlete was timed on the climb up Dry Creek, which is a pretty steep steady climb having a couple of tricky spots.  The goal was not to beat each other, per se, but to establish a baseline measure of fitness and skill for each athlete to which we can compare his or her time at various times throughout the year.  Our four athletes completed the trial in anywhere from 14:45 to 20:09. Not too shabby! 

We had a good showing of coaching staff (7) and but still only four athletes.  More are expected next week. 

1st Practice

We had our first official practice on August 14.  We tried to practice last week, but the bikes we thought we had were loaned out to other league kids.  For this first practice, we were able to borrow a few bikes from the awesome gang at the Salt Lake Bicycle Collective.   Only three athletes were in attendance because many of the others are still out on family vacations, etc.  The three students were super excited and impressed the coaching staff immensely.

For now, we are not going to use the student's full names on this blog until we have permission from parents. 

We held practice on the nice soft grass at a park close to the school to judge the level of confidence each of the riders had before hitting the trail.  We practiced braking and easy downhills.

And next moved on to slow speed maneuvering using obstacles placed close together.  We took turns weaving in and out.

We did some endurance riding and ended with a game of "Foot Down" inside a makeshift circle.  The goal is to get your opponents to put his or her foot down before you have to.  It hones slow speed maneuvering.

By the end of practice, our coaching staff all agreed, the students were ready for the trail!

Utah Leaders Summit

In April, 5 of our coaches attended the first ever Utah Leaders Summit.

 Utah set a record for attendance at a state's first leaders summit.

Coaches heading into the Utah Olympic Park in Park City.

 Cafe Rio provided food.

 League director Lori Harward.

 Skills teacher Lee McCormick.

 We got to ride our bikes after a day and half of classes.

Learning to teach skills.

The Leaders Summit was great.  We learned a ton and met many of the other coaches who will be leading some 30+ teams next fall.

Reruiting

A few pictures from last spring's recruiting activities at East High.

 

East High School

 Head Coach Drew and our teacher sponsor Will Hair.

 

 Bikes 4 Kids is donating 20 brand new Cannondale bikes to the league.

Coach Lucy 5th from the left with a whole group of interested girls.  This picture got a lot of press.  It was in the Salt Lake Tribune with this story on the new team.

We were moderately successful getting the word out. About 20 kids signed up as interested, but we had a long summer ahead and only time would tell who showed up in the fall.

Who we are

We have a team!  2012 is the inaugural year of official high-school-only mountain bike racing in Utah.  Sure, high school kids have been able to race in lots of Utah's mountain-bike races if they wanted, but this fall, high schools all around Utah are starting teams and racing against each other as a high school club sport in the Utah High School Cycling League and under the direction of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA).  NICA is huge and professional and they are going to get us off to a super stellar start.

But this blog isn't about the Utah League or NICA, this is about our East High Mountain Bike Club based out of East High School in Salt Lake City.  It is about a group of motivated young adults and some dedicated coaches that are going to work together to race hard, have fun, and learn about biking, life, and each other.  It'll be grand!

Here is a link to our Facebook page if you want to see what we are up to on a daily basis.

But check this blog for pictures of practices, race reports, athlete profiles, sponsor profiles, and coach profiles.

Feel free to comment and share.  Let's get the word out.

Update 5/18/2013 
We have changed our name to SLC Composite Mountain Bike Team to reflect our expansion to targeted riders from outside East High.  Now, any high school student attending a high school in Salt Lake City that does not have its own school team may join our team.  Riders will be primarily from East, West, and Highland High Schools, but we welcome students throughout Salt Lake City.