Mountain Bikers Coast To Success

The Berkeley High School mountain biking team is a hard working and determined group of young athletes. BHS was the first high school in California to have their own competitive mountain biking team. The members of the team all love bikes, biking, and anything relating to the sport. “I just love to bike,” says Jackson Achorn, freshman biker. “I spend every waking minute on or around my bikes.” The coaches are also dedicated to the team. “The coaches are awesome!” Achorn confirmed. All of the coaches, having been longtime riders and racers themselves, bring mounds of experience and passion for mountain biking, which really helps the team reach their full potential.

Head coach Josh Moberg thinks highly of mountain biking. “The best part of mountain biking is being outdoors in the mountains and the challenges each trail brings you on your mountain bike,” he explained. Almost nothing can amount to the enthusiasm for biking shared by the team.

Races are a very important part of mountain biking. “We earn points as a team and individually based on how well we do at each race,” explains Moberg. The BHS team competes in the Northern California High School Cycling League and finds races to be a good place to push themselves and grow closer as a team. “[Races] give us an opportunity to see how well we do compared to other riders and test our limits,” commented Achorn. Fun is the main objective for a majority of racers. However, some take the races very seriously.

“The races can be important for some kids, but for most, it's just a fun experience for the riders to challenge themselves with other kids in the sport,” Moberg expands. “There are a few members of the team that will go on professionally or race at the collegiate level, and these races can be important for their sponsors and determine if they will get picked up on a professional or college team.”

The team gives up two afternoons a week and Sundays to train for races. Their practices include all kinds of training from running to yoga, and of course, biking. “The practices can be hard; we do sprints, hill climbs, and overall mileage rides,” informs Moberg. “Some weeks are recovery weeks after a race and some are build–up phases towards a race which can be much harder. Most of these riders will top out at their highest heart rate capacity after a sprint or a hill climb time trial.”

There are definitely a few star athletes on the team. “All of our riders are star athletes in my eyes,” Moberg brags, “but we have a few that are placing really high after each race.” Isaiah Rapko is ranked second overall for junior varsity boys, Emily Merrit–Anderson is ranked second for sophomore girls, and Alex Stevenson is ranked seventh for varsity boys. The strongest aspects of the mountain bike team are the kids. “[They have a] positive attitude towards their team members; they look out for each other,” illustrates Moberg. The love for biking is the driving force for the success of the riders.
“I like that there are all these people who all love what I love on the team,” admits Achorn.

The team has faced some conflicts that have made it more difficult for them to succeed as a team. One of the major dilemmas was the fact that most of the incoming freshman had little or no mountain biking experience and therefore needed to be taught the basics of the sport. The excess of rain this season has also made it difficult to find times to bike together as a team outdoors.

Now the team is just looking towards the state championships, fully prepared and ready to race.

Photos:

• Mountain Biking (courtesy of Lang Miller)