So I have been meaning to create some discussion about this. Since 2009, there has been a "Northern New England High School Mountain Bike series" which puts on 14 or so races in the fall in Maine, VT, and NH. The races are on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Its split between an East and West conference and is composed of both private and public schools, but is more of the private schools. I think there are around 26-28 teams with 700 or so registered riders, middle school age but also HS. The kids can race A, B, C, or Novice. They allow anyone to race as an independent. Many of the schools have full time programs and practice every day. There are a bunch of ski focused schools that have really good teams like SMS, Proctor, Holderness, KMS, Gould, and also some really good public school programs like Burr and Burton and Kennett. It was organized by a teacher at one of the schools and is run at almost no cost for riders.
In 2016 along comes another league from mass and rhode island, the "New England High School Cycling Association" They have a different approach, much more heavily promoted, much more expensive, designed around town and multi town clubs vs schools, etc. They also have racing for all grade levels starting at grade 6. They have recently spread into NH, and VT. They race in the Spring on Sundays so that their members can do other sports at school. I think they have around 25 teams and 600 or so riders.
My question is in an ideal world the two should be blended. Schools should be encouraged via peer pressure to create MTB teams like you see in the northern league and kids should get to practice every day. Maybe the northern league needs to quit doing as many races on Wednesday afternoons to allow for more public school participation. You could also have a spring and fall calendar. The southern league needs to lower costs a lot. There is only one school that races in both leagues. To me it looks like the new league wants to expand, why be so competitive? Why not collaborate so the kids win?
In 2016 along comes another league from mass and rhode island, the "New England High School Cycling Association" They have a different approach, much more heavily promoted, much more expensive, designed around town and multi town clubs vs schools, etc. They also have racing for all grade levels starting at grade 6. They have recently spread into NH, and VT. They race in the Spring on Sundays so that their members can do other sports at school. I think they have around 25 teams and 600 or so riders.
My question is in an ideal world the two should be blended. Schools should be encouraged via peer pressure to create MTB teams like you see in the northern league and kids should get to practice every day. Maybe the northern league needs to quit doing as many races on Wednesday afternoons to allow for more public school participation. You could also have a spring and fall calendar. The southern league needs to lower costs a lot. There is only one school that races in both leagues. To me it looks like the new league wants to expand, why be so competitive? Why not collaborate so the kids win?
