{"id":63873,"date":"2019-06-24T12:23:44","date_gmt":"2019-06-24T19:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=63873"},"modified":"2020-05-22T12:57:11","modified_gmt":"2020-05-22T19:57:11","slug":"u-s-mountain-bike-organization-gets-more-kids-on-bikes-but-aims-for-more-equity-diversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/cycle\/u-s-mountain-bike-organization-gets-more-kids-on-bikes-but-aims-for-more-equity-diversity","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Mountain Bike Organization Gets More Kids On Bikes\u2014But Aims for More Equity, Diversity"},"content":{"rendered":"

At first, Demonte Cosby did not like mountain biking. <\/span><\/p>\n

It was 2015. Cosby was 13 years old and living in a public housing unit in Richmond, Virginia. He was used to traditional team sports. He\u2019d tried swimming, basketball, soccer, football and baseball, but he said he never felt entirely engaged with the activities or the teams. When another kid in the neighborhood told Cosby about Richmond Cycling Corps (RCC), a National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) mountain bike team composed of kids living in Richmond\u2019s East End, Cosby was curious but skeptical. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTrails and bikes, I never knew they existed. I never knew there was teams or nothing. It was very new. I was not into it,\u201d said Cosby. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mountain biking is hard physically and mentally. For Cosby, there was no sitting on the bench during games, no skating by in practice. The feedback was instantaneous. If he didn\u2019t put in the work to pedal his bike, he didn\u2019t go anywhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

NICA has taught that very lesson\u2014and much more\u2014to over <\/span>40,000 middle and high schoolers across the country<\/span><\/a>. Officially founded in 2009, NICA was born out of a high school mountain bike team in Berkeley, California. Every year since, the organization has continued to see <\/span>an average annual growth<\/span><\/a> of 48 percent in ridership. The fast-growing youth mountain bike organization has been applauded for its success in providing a platform for teenagers to explore the benefits of team camaraderie and individual goal setting. Austin McInerny, former<\/a> president of NICA, said that students develop confidence, self-identity and interpersonal skills. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cKids are hungry for being part of something right now, somewhere they can be engaged with their peers who don\u2019t judge and help them achieve their challenges,\u201d said McInerny. (McInerny recently stepped down as president of NICA. The organization is now under the leadership of Steve Matous<\/a>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

For some students on the Richmond Cycling Corps, the challenges of mountain biking are compounded by everyday struggles. Richmond\u2019s East End, which includes Cosby\u2019s home neighborhood of Fairfield Court, sees\u00a0<\/span>higher rates<\/span><\/a> of crime, violence and <\/span>concentrated poverty<\/span><\/a> than other parts of the city. Within that context, children and teenagers can experience <\/span>a host of negative mental health and behavioral difficulties<\/span><\/a>. They are also at <\/span>a higher risk <\/span><\/a>for dropping out of high school.<\/span><\/p>\n

With a GPA below 1.0, Cosby was among those at risk of dropping out. The oldest of three kids, Cosby lives with his mother and grandmother. In 2015, the same year Cosby joined RCC, his father died from an overdose. Despite his initial apprehensions about mountain biking, he said the sport gave him an outlet to cope with the loss of his father and the chance to discover a new community.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up around my neighborhood, I think everybody has experienced things and seen things they aren\u2019t supposed to see,\u201d he said. \u201cI always thought I was going to be around the same people but [mountain biking] changed that. It was surprising that I got new friends that support me more than my other friends.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo Credit: Jess Daddio<\/p><\/div>\n

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In its <\/span>2018 Participation Report<\/span><\/a>, the Outdoor Industry Association found that nearly a quarter of American youth participated in road, mountain and BMX biking, making it the most popular outdoor activity among kids 6\u201317. But that same report found that most outdoor recreation participants (including those who mountain bike) are white (74 percent), affluent (66 percent with incomes greater than $50,000), college-educated (42 percent) and\/or men (54 percent). <\/span><\/p>\n

Equity is one of the five pillars in NICA\u2019s mission, and McInerny said that diversity is one of the group\u2019s top priorities for the next five years. Though NICA has not conducted an official demographic survey, <\/span>only 22 percent<\/span><\/a> of student-athletes are girls. That fact is at the heart of NICA\u2019s <\/span>GRiT<\/span><\/a> (Girls Riding Together) programming, designed to \u201crecruit and retain\u201d more girls. McInerny said GRiT has been successful in its mission. But the organization still has some work to do to make mountain biking accessible and equitable for low-income and minority youth.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Co-op Journal interviewed a dozen NICA directors and coaches and found that two of the most universal challenges teams face to getting more kids on bikes are transportation and access to trails. According to McInerny, NICA discourages its coaches from transporting team members due to liability concerns. For some students, just finding a ride to practice can be problematic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe low-hanging fruit has sort of fallen. The first people who got involved [with NICA] were from more affluent communities who already have good trail systems and resources,\u201d said McInerny, referring to states like Colorado, Utah and Texas, which were <\/span>some of the first states<\/span><\/a> to establish leagues. \u201cA big challenge for us is getting in the urban areas where there are just no trails. Until we crack that nut, it\u2019ll continue to be really challenging to get inner-city urban teams up and running.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In Nashville, Tennessee, the Oasis Mountain Bike Team is raising funds to build a bike park within city limits. Now in its fourth year, Oasis is mostly composed of youth from refugee families who resettled in Nashville from Egypt, El Salvador and Mexico. The first year the team raced, they rode in hoodies and jeans on mountain bikes they built through the <\/span>Oasis Bike Workshop<\/span><\/a>, an earn-a-bike program provided for free to youth in the community. <\/span><\/p>\n

Finding coaches is yet another hurdle for NICA teams. Mountain biking is unique among team sports in that it requires a large number of adults not just to supervise but to ride along with the team during practices. Most coaches are not paid, which can make it nearly impossible for working parents with inflexible schedules to become licensed and volunteer. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe NICA effort is about finding coaches as much as it is finding riders,\u201d said Scott Nydam, a former professional road cyclist and head coach for the Gallup Composite Team in Gallup, New Mexico, which sits just across the boundary from the Navajo Nation. <\/span><\/p>\n

Though mountain biking is not necessarily new to the area\u2014Nigel James and the Yazzies\u2019 enduro riding on the Navajo Nation was chronicled in <\/span>a New Yorker article<\/span><\/a> last year\u2014Nydam said the reservation still has a long way to go in building what he calls \u201csocial capital\u201d around mountain biking. After all, the NICA season is a mere two months long. Through programs like NavajoYES and Trips for Kids, Nydam and colleague Manny Chavarria (a NICA coach on the Hopi Reservation) both hope to encourage year-round riding among all reservation youth.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHaving it be more a part of the fabric of their life not on a seasonal basis but on a weekly and daily basis, that needs to happen,\u201d said Nydam. \u201cNICA is the icing on the cake. It\u2019s not the cake. We\u2019re establishing that guard of ridership through grassroots programming that doesn\u2019t even talk about the races. It talks about education and community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In a recent strategic plan, McInerny said NICA named diversity as one of the organization\u2019s five key priorities for investment in the next five years. The organization is making an internal commitment to diversity and inclusion through their new Pathways Initiative. But the roadmap to achieving equity is still a work-in-progress. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to bring more underserved communities into the NICA family and introduce more people to the sport we love,\u201d said McInerny. \u201cPathways will make inclusivity a priority within NICA leagues and teams through reaching out to communities not currently represented or that may have an economic disadvantage to forming teams. Pathways will also strategically partner with existing regional and national organizations to increase the diversity of participants in all of our activities and programs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"The

Photo Credit: Jess Daddio<\/p><\/div>\n

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Partnering with existing organizations is exactly what RCC founder and former professional road cyclist Craig Dodson did to get Richmond\u2019s East End youth on bikes. In 2008, Dodson was the head of Richmond Pro Cycling, a competitive team that partnered with local nonprofits to introduce youth to cycling. He started by leading after-school cycling rides for kids at the Boys & Girls Club in Fairfield Court. <\/span><\/p>\n

As he built relationships with students, Dodson said he started to realize that many of them were chronically absent at school, failing or suspended, and <\/span>at risk of not graduating high school altogether<\/span><\/a>. During his first year working with the Boys & Girls Club, Dodson and a handful of volunteers started helping his fledgling mountain bike team members off of the bike with tutoring and counseling. <\/span><\/p>\n

To maintain that extra support, Dodson eventually founded his own homeschool cooperative, the<\/span> Legacy Academy<\/span><\/a>, in 2017. Run by accredited teachers, Legacy will eventually achieve private school accreditation after seven years of operation. The school is funded by private donors and limits enrollment to a dozen students, all of whom ride mountain bikes with the Richmond Cycling Corps. Kids from other schools can compete in RCC, but at Legacy cycling is the hook to get kids involved in a program that also supports them in life and at school, said Matt Kuhn, RCC head coach and Legacy Academy executive director. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSince our inception we\u2019ve been bringing kids to the hospital and helping with stuff at home,\u201d said Kuhn \u201cI\u2019ve gotten kids birth certificates, jobs, dental appointments. Anything they need help with is what we do and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve always done.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cosby was one of the first students at Legacy. When he arrived, Kuhn said his GPA was below a 1.0. By then, Cosby had been riding with RCC for two years, but he resisted the standards Dodson and Kuhn expected of him. \u201cHe used to be the kid that was like, \u2018No, I\u2019m not riding today. I hate riding. I\u2019m not doing this,\u2019\u201d said Kuhn. \u201cHe would just begrudgingly ride.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When Dodson stepped down from his role at Legacy in 2018, the school briefly considered dropping the mountain bike team. By then, Cosby had become a mountain biking evangelist. \u201cIt took a lot of courage for me to be able to hop on a bike because most people don\u2019t do it where I come from,\u201d said Cosby. \u201cThis is one of the hardest things I\u2019ve ever done in my life.\u201d He couldn\u2019t fathom a life without bikes. Mountain biking had given him new friends, fond memories, even job connections. So he stepped up to the plate, leading practices and coaching new riders, becoming the real-life-embodiment of the team\u2019s motto, \u201cCan\u2019t stop. Won\u2019t stop.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cComing into a new environment, it changed me,\u201d said Cosby. \u201cExperiencing new things, that changed me, too. Meeting new people, that changed me in a good way, with controlling myself, knowing new things, not giving up, keep pushing no matter what.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, Cosby\u2019s GPA is a 2.4. If he maintains at least a 3.0 for one consecutive year at community college, he will receive a full-ride scholarship to Warren Wilson College, where he plans to study outdoor leadership or entrepreneurship and will continue to race mountain bikes at the collegiate level.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m setting an example for my brother and sister,\u201d said Cosby, who will be the first in his family to attend college. \u201cI hope I can be a leader of the community one day, come back here, get kids on bikes, and make a big improvement on it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

What worked for RCC and for Cosby doesn\u2019t necessarily apply to all communities with low-income and minority populations. There\u2019s no silver bullet, said Aparna Rajagopal-Durbin, founding partner of The Avarna Group. Each city has barriers unique to its history, setting and resources. She said establishing equity is a complex issue that involves a thorough understanding of the unique barriers preventing people from accessing the sport, and then taking action to eradicate those barriers. <\/span><\/p>\n

For starters, Rajagopal-Durbin said, it\u2019s up to the industry and organizations like NICA to elevate stories of people with diverse backgrounds and experiences who are engaging in the sport in a way that is not currently being represented. Much of the media and marketing surrounding the mountain bike culture celebrates the 1 percent of the sport\u2014the elite echelon of riders being paid to compete around the world, which can be incredibly intimidating for beginner riders, said Rajagopal-Durbin.<\/span><\/p>\n

For meaningful change to happen, Rajagopal-Durbin suggested building partnerships with community organizations that support underrepresented populations, providing funding for coaches in low-income areas and finding creative solutions to transportation woes\u2014like retrofitting school buses to carry mountain bikes. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA real commitment does involve a lot more than just recruitment hiring and sponsorship, which is a superficial way to engage in this work,\u201d she said. \u201cYou’re playing the long game. You\u2019re investing a lot. It pays off a lot but it doesn’t happen overnight. It requires real transformative work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

NICA is willing to put in the hard work, said McInerny, but change is slow. The organization won\u2019t be hiring someone to oversee the Pathways Initiative until 2020, and the person\u2019s time will be split between GRiT and the diversity initiative. Still, if NICA has proved anything in its decade-long history, it\u2019s that progress is built on relationships. According to McInerny, 100 percent of NICA\u2019s student-athletes affirm that they will be lifelong cyclists, which means the vanguard advocating for more kids on bikes is only going to increase with every year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt really takes someone in each community who is going to step up and be the ringleader,\u201d said \u00a0McInerny. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t throw bikes at the situation,\u201d added Coach Nydam in Gallup, New Mexico. \u201cYou have to throw lives at it. There\u2019s federal money to buy bikes but that’s not the solution. It\u2019s human bodies, it\u2019s people, it\u2019s relationships, it\u2019s sharing, it\u2019s experiential.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s clearly been the case with Cosby back in Richmond, Virginia. When asked what makes mountain biking different from all of the other sports he\u2019s played, Cosby hardly hesitated: \u201cPeople that love you, take care of you. Most coaches don\u2019t do that, most coaches don\u2019t take you to the doctor, don\u2019t take you to the bank when you need to, or go get something to eat. Matt [Kuhn] and Craig [Dodson], they always did that for us. They\u2019re family. They\u2019ll always be family.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At first, Demonte Cosby did not like mountain biking. It was 2015. Cosby was 13 years old and living in a public housing unit in Richmond, Virginia. He was used to traditional team sports. He\u2019d tried swimming, basketball, soccer, football and baseball, but he said he never felt entirely engaged with the activities or the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":63926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1127,727,1382,1898,1484],"internal-tag":[],"class_list":["post-63873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cycle","tag-cycling","tag-latest-posts","tag-mountain-bike","tag-nica","tag-staff-society"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/cycle\/u-s-mountain-bike-organization-gets-more-kids-on-bikes-but-aims-for-more-equity-diversity","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"U.S. Mountain Bike Organization Gets More Kids On Bikes\u2014But Aims for More Equity, Diversity","url":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/cycle\/u-s-mountain-bike-organization-gets-more-kids-on-bikes-but-aims-for-more-equity-diversity","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/cycle\/u-s-mountain-bike-organization-gets-more-kids-on-bikes-but-aims-for-more-equity-diversity"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/06\/DEMONTE_RICHMOND-CYCLING-CORPS_CREDIT-JESS-DADDIO.jpg?resize=150%2C150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/06\/DEMONTE_RICHMOND-CYCLING-CORPS_CREDIT-JESS-DADDIO.jpg?fit=2048%2C1365"},"articleSection":"Cycle","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michelle Flandreau"}],"creator":["Michelle Flandreau"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Uncommon Path \u2013 An REI Co-op Publication","logo":""},"keywords":["cycling","latest posts","mountain bike","nica","staff society"],"dateCreated":"2019-06-24T19:23:44Z","datePublished":"2019-06-24T19:23:44Z","dateModified":"2020-05-22T19:57:11Z"},"rendered":"