That's interesting! I'm sure there will be plenty of racing to be had and the league will be just fine but that seems like pretty big news.

 

Colorado and Georgia left NICA about 18 months ago. NICA felt like there would not be others.

NICA president not expecting more states to leave

NICA president Steve Matous does not expect additional state leagues to depart the national organization.

www.velonews.com

 

Talking with a friend who coached a NICA high school team, NICA made it very difficult to attract coaches due to their certification fee structures For coaches and volunteers.

 

Washington left NICA and IMBA and has been doing better than any state!

 

Late to the conversation. Been way to busy. This is our second year into nica. Last year we had the coach that ran the team pretty good and had ride leaders to cover the team. This year the team has a new coach and there doesn't seem to be as much for ride leaders like last year. It's a shame that the league has to make things difficult. It's not good if states are pulling out amd coming up with their own thing. But on the other hand it's probably best i take it too. I still believe in the league and feel it's good for the kids to have somewhere to belong.

 

Sign up and get your level 1 coaching and you can ride with the kids, it’s super fun being part of the action. In NorCal it’s six kids per coach.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Sign up and get your level 1 coaching and you can ride with the kids, it’s super fun being part of the action. In NorCal it’s six kids per coach.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I would love to. But my schedule for work sucks. I work 80-90 work weeks, 5-6 days a week. In other words I have no time. I barely get time to ride myself lately and take the kid to practice 1 day a week. Hoping life slows down for me in a few years. It's slowly looking better now.

 

I'm curious about the pros and cons of NICA? Is there a list anywhere of which states are NICA affiliated vs. standalone? What are the issues driving states to avoid the NICA umbrella? Is there anything that student athletes potentially won't have access too if their sanctioning body is in an unaffiliated state?

 

This page has a list of all the NICA states: Leagues - NICA

 

MiSCA has been fantastic! The structure, programs and rapid growth have been incredible! My question came from my lack of understanding of the differences between the independents and NICA and what may be leading to the original posts point about a wave of NICA departures…

 

Makes me wonder if my home state of Utah could be doing it's own thing and better using all those funds to expand cycling to more kids. Both my wife and I coach (level 2) and sponsor teams in UT. However, when I add up the cost per athlete times 7000+ athletes + all the sponsorship $ I wonder where all the $$$ goes. Overall the program is a huge success in getting teenagers outside and riding bikes. No complaints there, but I'd like to see more kids from lower income brackets who get help to do the same thing.

 

It's a great thing your doing being a sponsor and coaching. Don't know about the money thing that much but I know these kids love getting out riding and racing. Wish we had something like this as a kid growing up. My kid loves riding with his team. He's really looking forward to this new season. He's dying for it to warm up and the snow to melt in the valley some so he can start getting out and ride. Your right it's a hard sport for lower income kids to get into. I know there's programs out there to help get kids on bikes but that's not always around or a option for some kids. But maybe that's something for you to look into or help get something started for low income kids.

 

Part of me wants to be more open about my thoughts, and part wants to be more blunt. But Utah, being the largest NICA league (by far), could easily stand - no, prosper - on its own. The people in the Utah league are some of the best around, they know how to run events and manage event locations. However, NICA national would take a big hit and will do anything to keep that from happening.
Have there been...um...thoughts about it among league officials and coaches? Yes, no doubt. Is it in the immediate future? Not likely.

I would love it to happen on multiple fronts. More freedom with expenses and programs, less control and agenda pushed from a group that leans on learning from the Utah league anyway.

This post will likely come back to bite me. But at this point, I pretty much don't care. I care about the kids, not the national NICA guys.

 

Part of me wants to be more open about my thoughts, and part wants to be more blunt. But Utah, being the largest NICA league (by far), could easily stand - no, prosper - on its own. The people in the Utah league are some of the best around, they know how to run events and manage event locations. However, NICA national would take a big hit and will do anything to keep that from happening. Have there been...um...thoughts about it among league officials and coaches? Yes, no doubt. Is it in the immediate future? Not likely. I would love it to happen on multiple fronts. More freedom with expenses and programs, less control and agenda pushed from a group that leans on learning from the Utah league anyway. This post will likely come back to bite me. But at this point, I pretty much don't care. I care about the kids, not the national NICA guys.

I think your sentiments are similar to what pushed the other states to become independent. Dollars in vs. dollars out and what the benefit is for those dollars. NICA may need to adapt its model for leagues that are well established; perhaps a cafeteria plan that allows leagues to pay for only services that they might have trouble getting on their own. Although given the growing number of independent states I think leagues have been able to find what they need without NICA.

 

This seems similar to what happened to IMBA. Eventually the local organizations decided they could serve themselves better, coupled with some missteps of IMBA. IMBA had to redefine itself. I observed that NICA was instrumental in supporting the launch of the new league in Ohio (and probably elsewhere). Having the infrastructure and tools in place to work from made the heavy lifting easier. The folks in Utah & elsewhere probably don't feel like there is much value in that since they are already established. I am sure there are some improvements NICA could implement so that their value was not in question for all of their leagues, including established ones. I think they will need to do that or face real problems.

 

I have a ton of respect & admiration for the values & intentions of NICA leagues; I have volunteered extensively with league leadership in a couple states. NICA has a great program that can be adopted to start up leagues. I do not envy the strategic challenge of trying to craft a long term value proposition between the national non-profit and mature state level leagues.

 

Golden State South league came up on my feed.

Home - Golden State South ICL

Golden State South MTB empowers youth through mountain biking in Southern California. Join us to build skills, confidence, and community.

goldenstatesouthmtb.org

Interesting development! Not much info yet on their website.
Different schools?
Will there be a Norcal-Socal State Final like before?
What's the lowdown?

 

I have a ton of respect & admiration for the values & intentions of NICA leagues; I have volunteered extensively with league leadership in a couple states. NICA has a great program that can be adopted to start up leagues. I do not envy the strategic challenge of trying to craft a long term value proposition between the national non-profit and mature state level leagues.

All of this 👆. I am very grateful to the team at NICA for their support in getting my team started. I would not have taken on trying to organize a team without having the tools and advice in place with NICA's Ohio League. I have been involved with youth sports for my entire adult life (and I am OLD, so a long time), this has been the most rewarding and fun experience I have had. What other sport can you coach and get to be on the field and play with the kids?

One piece of advice I would offer to NICA is find a way to incorporate elementary school kids. There has been huge demand here in my area to have an outlet for the little ones.