News: NICA’s High School Cycling Program Comes to Alabama and Virginia

What’s the best time to get someone on a bicycle? Well that’s easy. The answer is every time. Or maybe any time. Even so, it’s also great to encourage kids to ride, which is where NICA comes in. NICA, or the National Interscholastic Cycling Association is, in their words, “a youth development organization governing interscholastic …

CombinedWhat’s the best time to get someone on a bicycle? Well that’s easy. The answer is every time. Or maybe any time. Even so, it’s also great to encourage kids to ride, which is where NICA comes in.

NICA, or the National Interscholastic Cycling Association is, in their words, “a youth development organization governing interscholastic mountain biking in the United States,” and they’ve just announced that their program will extend to the great states of Alabama, from where your correspondent hails, and Virginia, where your correspondent got his butt kicked by some gorgeous but challenging terrain. NICA now boasts 13 leagues in its network.

Alabama and Virginia join the other southeastern leagues in the states of Tennessee and Georgia, as NICA seeks to spread high school mountain biking coast-to-coast.

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.

As far as we here at Singletracks are concerned, we’re super excited. This can only mean good things. Let’s get kids on bikes, start ’em young, keep ’em clean, and we’ll all be enjoying a thriving sport for many years to come.

Check out more about the NICA program here on their site.