Stacked on a foundation of building strong minds, bodies, characters, and communities, The National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) has been getting more kids on bikes through mountain bike racing, adventure riding, trail building, community outreach, and scholarship programs since being officially established in 2009.
Katie Sox spills the beans on her experience photographing for the Oregon League and how NICA continues to expand its offerings while cultivating a healthier and more equitable approach to youth sports.
A dank, mossy forest on the Oregon Coast echoes with cheering voices of granddads, teenagers, and bicycle hubs as I wade through waist-high ferns. I can’t hide my silly-big, gap-toothed smile as I station myself to capture the whole scene. It’s race day and there’s a specific sort of nervous excitement that encapsulates the organized chaos.
The noise of someone’s tiny sibling ringing a cowbell that is too heavy for her little hands harmonizes with the directives of coaches negotiating giddy 12-year-olds on bikes into some sort of formation. A mom wipes a proud tear from her cheek; a product of knowing how much courage it took for her kid to show up today. There are a few serious race faces as knobby tires approach the start line. Mostly it’s all knuckle bumps and smiles as NICA riders get ready to participate in a race, or, what the Oregon Interscholastic Cycling League defines as a Really Awesome Challenging Event.
The National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) is, in my sweet little opinion, doing a big favor to the cycling industry, youth sports, and society at large. NICA, at its root, is cross-country mountain bike racing for junior high and high school students in the United States. The program creates a space where lifelong cyclists are born, personal growth is fostered, and that allows folks to participate at the level that suits them. And it’s not just the student-athlete who benefits, it’s everyone involved from coaches to families. NICA connects people.
From the small communities that get an influx of tourism during race weekends to the deep friendships forged between students from schools across the state, NICA is laying a foundation for health and kindness that spreads far beyond the trails. The organization currently has 31 interscholastic leagues in 29 states. Leagues are made up of teams that are often composites, assembling students from several schools. NICA’s mission is to build strong minds, bodies, character, and communities through cycling.
It all began in California when a math teacher from Berkeley High School formed a mountain bike team to encourage students to be active outdoors and have some fun. More teams popped up in the Bay Area and they started racing in 2001. With the growing demand for teams outside of California, the national organization was developed in 2009. By 2018, NICA’s programming approach had expanded to include non-competitive events, increased access for underrepresented groups, and amplified the impacts on youth development through engagement in outdoor sports.
NICA now reaches over 25,000 students across the USA and holds focus on changing the lives of more kids by getting them on bikes, including an intentional strategy to reach BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color) youth who may face additional barriers to participation. The Trek NICA Pathfinders Scholarship is part of the initiative for inclusivity. The organization offers programs like Girls Riding Together (GRiT) and the NICA Alumni Network. With 14,000+ volunteer coaches, the operation also facilitates personal growth, community, and connection for adults who get involved.
My first taste of NICA was in 2021 when my nephew, Oliver, joined the Umpqua Valley Composite team in Oregon. My partner and I introduced him to mountain biking several years prior and it was the coolest seeing him join the team as a high school student. What’s been way sweeter, though, is that even if Oliver only participated that one season, he made a deep bond with his best pal, Bridge. They grew up as neighbors, yet it wasn’t until they rode together with NICA that they truly connected and formed a friendship, one that has served them both far beyond the bike.
That first impression stuck with me and when the Oregon NICA League reached out to me the following year to photograph a few races, I said, “Absolutely, heck yeah, sign me up!” and shot the events. What I experienced had me hooked. It was way more than a bike race; it was community and kindness. I saw high school boys hugging at the finish line, coaches who seemed to understand that there is more going on in a human being than what meets the eye. Coaches supported riders with an openness I hadn’t yet witnessed in youth sports. There were junior high girls encouraging their competitors, a slew of friendly volunteers, high fives, good vibes, and people generally having fun because of bikes. And of course, there were people riding bikes as hard as they could, which I’m hyped on. I love any opportunity to hoot and holler words of encouragement in the woods. There were also kids favoring styling it out on the trail – eliciting wild excitement from spectating teammates – over pushing themselves to the limit. Admirable, too, choosing joy.
The rare moments of less graceful behavior between athletes were swiftly interrupted with mindful guidance from coaches. I have photographed a lot of bike events in the last 10 years, but there was something that felt different about shooting those races. Something so pure and formative about the moments I captured. When I was invited to shoot the whole 2023 season, I obliged. My sweetie Tory and I traveled to the races, camping amongst the riders and families. He started volunteering on course and noticing what was really going on at these events, underneath the bike racing itself. Tory has worked in various roles in the bike industry for 14+ years and is an opinionated bike nerd, through and through.
We’d get into the van at night, me at my computer editing photos and him recalling to me all the sweet moments he witnessed and how he thinks NICA is doing huge things for the bike industry. The girl who is always smiling is his favorite rider. How he wishes his family had been involved in something like this when he was a teen. How that might have positively impacted his health and transition to adulthood. How cool it is to see the whole family getting on bikes and all the kids having a blast with their teammates, giggling around parking lot campfires in the evenings. He was hooked, too.
We found mountain biking in our early twenties, and it’s been a catalyst for much of our personal and professional success, wellness, community, and connection to each other. Riding bikes saved me from debilitating depression, and helped me break a pattern of clinical panic attacks and deep-rooted junk around self-worth. Mountain biking taught me that you have to look where you want to go, on trails and in life. Bikes showed me that effort can foster a sense of value, how to trust myself, and that no one else can pedal for me. Riding taught me that I’m strong and capable and my legs are something I’m proud of, even with all these varicose veins, they have purpose.
They can carry me up mountains and ripping down trails – riding bikes helped me heal body image issues. Bikes allowed me to welcome other people’s support and critical feedback, teaching me that while the individual me must do the things, letting others encourage and guide me is as important as the courage I strum up in myself. A bike ride continues to be the simple medicine I need to remember what I’m grateful for and that difficult things are worthwhile. Bikes taught me that negative self-talk is antithetical to success and that I must believe in myself if I want to reach a goal.
Fifteen years into mountain biking and it’s still offering me opportunities to be a more whole, caring human being. Knowing that folks who participate in NICA are potentially becoming equipped with these lessons early in life gives me big, happy hope. I am not embarrassed to admit how many times I’ve had to put my camera down and turn to wipe away tears of overwhelming joy when grown boys hug like they mean it at the finish line after an all-out battle on the course.
I caught up with Heather Wolfgang, the Director of the Oregon League, and Amanda Carey, President of NICA, to get the inside scoop on how NICA does it. Wolfgang grew up in Florida and found herself in California in her 20s, where she discovered hills and shifting. She ended up working in a bike shop and playing around with ‘cross, MTB, and even some road and track racing. She got onto a cycling team and developed community through biking, eventually becoming a head coach for the San Francisco Composite NICA team. After her 11-year stint in the Bay area that included working closely with the NorCal League Director, Heather received a call that Oregon had approval for a NICA League and needed help with leadership.
She accepted the offer to build out the Oregon League, worked with the team to hash out their needs, and moved forward as the League Director. She and her partner Kurt are now based in Portland, OR, and do one heck of a job running the league with a brand of care that is worth celebrating. I asked Heather what she is most proud of since the inception of the Oregon League seven years ago. She replied, “Our culture, which is made possible due to the incredible coaches we have involved. We all believe that our program is a way to create a fun and welcoming environment for teens of all backgrounds. Having that sort of culture leads to the type of community we have.”
I can vouch for that – it’s obvious how leaders set a tone for the whole room. The Oregon League is a great example of the positive effects that caring people in leadership roles can have. Simply by creating a safe and welcoming environment that isn’t solely focused on accolades, but one that holds space for enrichment, graceful failure, personal growth, and fun, the format offers all a path to success. Because success isn’t just about winning. And NICA isn’t just about racing. Wolfgang articulates, “In an egocentric world full of cliques, performance, pressure, and anxiety, I believe that NICA is allowing our youth and anybody else involved a place to explore and be themselves, to play and get curious and try new things. For students, they get to play bikes with their peers. For adults, they get to play bikes with their peers and serve as mentors to the next generation.”
The Oregon League had 18 Composite Teams with 582 registered students in 2023. It takes something like 80 individual volunteers to pull off a 2-day event, in addition to the 200+ volunteer coaches and race crew. Wolfgang figures that an event gathers upwards of 650 humans, all those cute granddads and cowbell-ringin’ little sisters included. Like a lot of leagues around the country, the biggest hurdle for Oregon is that they’re getting too big for their chamois-lined britches. With steady growth, it’s becoming more difficult to find venues that can accommodate event weekends. “Fortunately, many of the land managers we’ve created connections and partnerships with over the years are supportive of us coming back. One big hurdle that our teams are having is finding appropriate spaces for weekly team rides,” Heather shared.
There’s certainly a disparity between communities where students live and practice when it comes to access to trails. Wolfgang invites, “Get involved with your community’s team. Support your local trail alliance group, trail systems, and bike parks. Volunteer with the league at an event weekend in the fall. Sponsor your local team with space for a social gathering, even if it’s just for the coaches. Say hello to student-athletes when you see them riding around. Donate your well-loved bike to a team. If you have land that you’d like us to build trails on and spend an event weekend together at, get in touch.”
NICA’s President, Amanda Carey, grew up in Ipswich, MA, and went to college in Colorado Springs before she moved to Jackson Hole in 2000 and remains posted up in the Teton Valley. Her NICA story began in 2015, she said “I was the Executive Director of an IMBA (International Mountain Biking Association) chapter, Mountain Bike the Tetons, and doing mountain bike skills coaching through my own small business when I heard NICA was starting up in Idaho. I was also at the tail end of my pro racing career and my husband, a mechanic for Giant at the time, also a long-time ski instructor, and I were just burnt out on the current state of all things racing and MTB culture.
I had started a conversation with the new Idaho League Director about hosting a race here in Teton Valley through my role with IMBA and it just snowballed from there.” Amanda shared about how she got involved with NICA. “At one point, my husband and I looked at each other and said, ‘This sounds amazing, let’s start a NICA team.’ It ended up consuming our lives in the best possible way the next 8 years. We’ve both done a lot in the mountain biking and cycling world and starting and coaching a NICA team is still the best cause-driven experience we’ve ever had. The inclusive, supportive, fun, and welcoming community we built off the existing NICA core values was the polar opposite of what we had been experiencing in the MTB community in general and especially in the bike industry.”
The growth and effects of NICA are well documented and the philosophies that drive the organization are evidence-backed. You can find a wealth of info on their site, nationalmtb.org, including links to student scholarships, event info, education for coaches, and extensive data displaying the impacts of its work. While there are still tricky dynamics like the fact that there is a wide range of bicycles on the market and not all families have budgets for the newest carbon race bike, NICA’s work around fostering a more equitable approach to youth sports is having a net positive impact.
The Teen Trail Corps program offers NICA athletes the opportunity to do trail work and use their voices to advocate for increased trail access. Such initiatives get more folks throughout a local community invested in and involved with outdoor recreation access, a win-win that reaches beyond NICA participants.
When asked why NICA is important, Carey said, “All kids should have the right to play, to be active and healthy no matter their ability or level of interest. That should be our goal with youth sports. Period. I think what NICA has figured out is how to include the most competitive, race-focused riders AND those that want to ride for fun and maybe not race at all, on the same team and in the same program.”
You’re probably getting the point by now that NICA’s core values of fun, inclusivity, equity, respect, and community are at the forefront of its offerings. Amanda shared, “I was a multi-sport varsity athlete and was lucky that I always ‘made the team’. What bothers me about high school sports in the US now is that they’ve become so wrongly focused on performance rather than making sure all our youth get the opportunity to experience the mental and physical health benefits and the social/emotional benefits of belonging, making friends, building confidence, learning teamwork, how to work towards goals, how to experience adversity, perseverance all while being guided by great mentors and coaches. NICA is important because we are literally changing youth sports for the better.”
You can unbunch your drawers if you take issue with the “everyone gets a ribbon” approach to competitive sports, though. That philosophy is perhaps not an accurate representation of the reality of existing among other human beings, on race courses or in the workforce, that most of us will find ourselves within to participate in society as adults. Whether that reality is the only or best way is another conversation… but it’s reality. And people do deserve celebration for accomplishments. There are podiums and medals – due credit awarded for the hard work athletes put down on the course on race days.
There’s a duality living peacefully in NICA between competition and the understanding that in sports (and life) even if we don’t all get the spotlight, our efforts aren’t a waste. In fact, they’re super worthwhile, regardless of the outcome. For me, the things gleaned from being dedicated and disciplined in pursuit are far more valuable than the actual achievements themselves. I’ve stood atop race podiums, I’ve won awards for filmmaking, I’m a published author, have earned letters after my name, and run two successful businesses.
Truly, though, it is the way I honored an agreement to myself to see a thing through, the way I showed up and gave my best with no promise of desired outcomes. It’s how I let others encourage and support me and the evolution caused within me that I am proud of in the end. The trophy just gives a tangible acknowledgment, it’s not the actual golden nugget of the experience. And we don’t need the trophy to have a highly valuable experience, despite what society is trying to fool us into believing. Hot dang, I sure as heavens wish I had learned that through riding or racing bikes before stuff got heavy in adulthood. Would have been a lot more fun than learning it through my lunch break panic attacks in my twenties.
Carey hopes that folks will continue to support the mission and said, “NICA has an ambitious goal of getting 100,000 kids on bikes in the next 10 years and it’s going to take a monumental amount of commitment from us all to change that many lives a year. Donate your time as a volunteer, join the Alumni network, and tell the NICA story to anyone who will listen!
I know there are so many kids and families just waiting to be introduced to mountain biking and this amazing community and they just don’t know we exist. We need extra help in introducing families to us that aren’t already cyclists.” Support for NICA’s mission can even look like simply showing up and checking out a race near you. They always need volunteers, and it can be as low commitment as a 2-hour crossing guard shift or as fun as riding your bike during races as a marshal.
All this to say NICA isn’t just competitive bike racing for teens; it’s facilitating healthy individuals and communities through having fun on bikes outside. The byproduct is positively impacting the culture and profitability of the bike industry by introducing cycling as not only a sport, but a lifelong way to build healthy bodies, minds, and communities. That’s rad, yeah?