New Montgomery Co. Youth Mountain Bike Team Gears Up For Inaugural Race This Weekend

The SoMont Cycling Youth Mountain Bike Team will blaze trails this weekend at the inaugural race of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Cycling League at Oesterling Farm in Marysville, PA. The 6th to 10th grade boys and girls from Southern Montgomery County have been training for three months under team directors John Raisch and Thuong Nguyen. The SoMont team will be competing against 15 other Pennsylvania-based teams with over 200 youth athletes competing in total.

WHERE: Oesterling Farm, Marysville, PA (outside Harrisburg, PA)
WHEN: Sunday September 18, 2016 (races start at 9am)
WHO: SoMont Cycling Youth MTB Team, 1 of 15 Pennsylvania Interscholastic Cycling teams
DETAILS: High School classification (4.4 mi. loop, +276 ft. of climbing/descent, 3-4 loops)
Middle School classification (2.2 mi loop, +172 ft. of climbing/descent, 2-3 loops)

SoMont Youth MTB team introduces 6th to 12th grade boys and girls to adventure, exploration, excitement, friendship and good health through the sport of mountain biking. These characteristics are the bedrock of the team’s philosophy. Through instructional practice and competition student-athletes also develop problem solving skills, increase their self-esteem and see the benefits of a healthy and active lifestyle.

Maris, a SoMont athlete and 6th grader at Elkins Park School in Cheltenham Township, enthusiastically awaits her first-ever mountain bike race, saying "I love to ride my bike with my new friends, being outside in the woods going fast! And, the jerseys are really cool too!"

Parents of SoMont youth athlete Collin, a sophomore at Springfield H.S., are eager to see him race this weekend, saying "The cycling team experience has provided great confidence-building lessons for him. And, the best part is he's having a ton of fun doing it!”

West of Harrisburg, PA, the Oesterling Farm race course is a renowned Mid-Atlantic classic. Student-athletes will be physically and mentally challenged by a fun mix of open pastures and flowy single-track. After nearly a year of planning, and months of intense skill development, conditioning and team building, directors Raisch and Nguyen believe the team is ready for the challenge.

“Our athletes impress me every time we’re out on the bikes,” said Nguyen. He further added, ”Their confidence is growing off the charts, but, more importantly, they are developing meaningful friendships. They’re just a great bunch of kids.”

“We have a fantastic group of dedicated community based sponsors, coaches, student-athletes and families. I am so proud of what we’ve collectively accomplished and I look forward to seeing our team race and represent Southern Montgomery County,” remarked Raisch. However, Raisch is boldly looking beyond this season further adding, “We are actively recruiting more student-athletes, preparing for a time when Abington, Cheltenham, Lower Moreland and other school districts adopt mountain biking as an interscholastic sport. This wonderful sport promotes physical and mental fitness, equality, inclusivity, and an appreciation of the great outdoors. We don’t think it gets much better than that.”

The SoMont Cycling Youth Mountain Bike Team was sanctioned in early 2016 as composite team in the newly formed Pennsylvania Interscholastic Cycling League (PICL). It is an independent interscholastic youth mountain bike team with student-athletes from Cheltenham, Abington, and Lower Moreland and Springfield areas of southern Montgomery County, PA.

To learn more about the SoMont Youth MTB Team visit them on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter or at their website: www.somontcycling.org , www.pamtb.org , www.nationalmtb.org

More about PICL, NICA and SoMont Cycling

Founded in 2009, the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) develops interscholastic mountain biking programs for student-athletes across the United States. NICA provides leadership, services and governance for local leagues to produce quality mountain bike events, and supports every student-athlete in the development of strong body, strong mind and strong character through their efforts on the bike. NICA operates in over 20 states, has over 7,500 student athletes and over 3,000 NICA-licensed coaches across the United States. NICA's vision is to develop interscholastic mountain biking coast-to-coast by 2020.

The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Cycling League (PICL) is a non-profit 501(c)3 NICA Project League. The league was organized in 2014 with the goal to provide fun, safe, and competitive mountain biking opportunities for middle (grades 6-8) & high school students in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. For the inaugural 2016 season, PICL has over 200 athletes and 15 teams.

SoMont Cycling Youth MTB Team is a PICL sanctioned composite team, organized in 2016. It is an independent youth mountain bike team in the Cheltenham, Abington, Rockledge, Lower Moreland and Springfield areas of southern Montgomery County. The goal of SoMont Youth MTB is to introduce boys and girls (6th to 12th grade) to the sport of mountain biking and to help them use the sport as a way of developing a new life-long athletic interest. The team and coaching philosophy is to use cycling, and the mountain bike itself, as a way-of-thinking to transport our riders to a sense of adventure, exploration, excitement, and good health.

Beyond the Marysville Epic, the 2016 season race series will continue as PICL will host 3 more races. The next scheduled event Race #2: The Flow at Jordan Creek is scheduled for Sunday, October 2nd at Jordan Creek Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The season will conclude with Race #5: Finals at Fair Hill, November 6th in Elkton, Maryland, only a 20–minute drive from the most Southeast corner of Pennsylvania.