Virginia Joins National Interscholastic Cycling Association
The National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA), a youth development organization governing interscholastic mountain biking in the United States, announced Alabama and Virginia as the newest states in its growing nationwide school cycling program, bringing the number of new leagues added in 2014 to three, and the NICA league network to 13. NICA made the announcement at the Sea Otter Classic.
Austin McInerny, NICA’s executive director, said, “The experience and quality of people coming in as organizers to the NICA leagues is very encouraging and I think bodes very well for the future. But not only that, we are making substantial strides toward our goal of coast-to-coast high school mountain biking opportunities by 2020. We have been laying a solid foundation in previous years, and 2014, with 30% growth in the number of NICA leagues, I think is going to be very significant for us.”
One of the key features of NICA is its structural ability to work in concert with existing organizations that have parallel missions. Two of the leagues added in 2014, Virginia and Wisconsin, are built on established existing mountain biking programs.
With over 150 student-athlete participants in the 2014 Series, VAHS MTB is excited to join forces with NICA to further the development of interscholastic racing in the Commonwealth with a new FALL race series. The new NICA VA league will focus on expanding racing, developing new teams, training new coaches, and offering a comprehensive infrastructure to grow interscholastic racing in a professional, safe, and engaging manner. The SPRING VAHS MTB Series will continue as usual moving forward. Yes, this means Virginia will have two seasons of interscholastic mountain bike racing–a total of nine races.
The Virginia High School League benefits from an experienced and dedicated staff as well as the support of mountain bike legend Jeremiah Bishop, who serves on the NICA Honorary Board in addition to being a member of the Virginia NICA Founding Committee.
NICA has over 1,300 licensed coaches who are working with 3,500 student-athletes in the USA, giving a very favorable overall supervision ratio of one adult to three student-athletes.
For more information, visit http://www.nationalmtb.org/
