Student athletes in some parts of Idaho have another option for a team sport this fall: mountain biking. Almost 250 students make up the first group of athletes in the Idaho High School Cycling League. There are 17 teams all together, including three at high schools in Boise. The rest are spread across the southern half of Idaho up to McCall.
Dylan Gradhandt says it’s exciting to see kids get a new way to experience Idaho, and with a competitive edge. Gradhandt is the league’s director and says getting the new sport off the ground has been a process, but a worthwhile one. Idaho is the latest state to add mountain biking as an official high school sport. States like Utah, Nevada and California have been competing for a while.
“There’s an outdoor culture overall in Idaho," says Gradhandt, "but we found there wasn’t a lot of access in many communities within Idaho."
Gradhandt says one of the things that helped the league get established is mountain biking's popularity.
“A lot of kids that join these leagues actually are coming from no cycling background or very little cycling background. Perhaps they see the magazines and say, ‘Oh that’s mountain biking? I want to do that, I want to try it.”
The next competition is this weekend at Galena Lodge near Sun Valley.
Find reporter Frankie Barnhill on Twitter @FABarnhill
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