I read in Velonews about the high school program out in Califonia and it sounds like a great idea to get kids involved in biking. Anyone here do this sort of thing?
We just started a college team here at Mary Washington which is not quite the same as high school but if you need tips on recruiting and so forth I might be able to help.
I do think though that getting kids started in High School would be fantastic. The immediate problems that I can see with it though are the expenses of buying a bike (how many parents who know nothing about bikes really want to lay down a grand for a bike?) and also the danger of road biking. Schools might not want the liabilty associated with it, and parents may be weary of letting their kids ride in traffic. My parents still grimace when I tell them where we ride sometimes. But, if you could get over these two hurdles somehow, I think implanting the masochistic cycling fanatisicm early is a great idea.
I didn’t see the Velonews article, but Berkelely High (in Berkeley, Ca.), has an awesome mountain bike team.
They train on the road sometimes, but they are always in a group with adults leading and sweeping. It looks very safe to me. I see them at mtb races all the time. I think it’s a great thing to do! I wish this had been available when I was at BHS.
Of course, mountain biking had not yet been invented when I was in High School…
I would suggest contacting BHS to ask about their program if you want to start your own.
We just started a collegiate team over here at CSU Sacramento. It took a good year of putting the word out to actually get real interest. Funny, there are major financial benefits of being on the team, but it still took awhile for interest.