NICA Teen Trail Corps
A butterfly flaps its wings across the globe. A pebble splashes into the center of a pond…or, a NICA coach sees an opportunity to improve their community, and in doing so inspires countless volunteers, advocates, and leaders to invest in the power of mountain biking.
Eight NICA teams dot the region. An unprecedented four have accessible, well-maintained, on-campus trails. Two of these are public high schools without tuition dollars to support the infrastructure necessary for building mountain bike trails. So how did Charlottesville become the gold standard for school-based trail systems?
Senior Molly Kaplan recently won the Teen Trail Corps Captain award for her work in the Pennsylvania NICA league. She went from knowing absolutely nothing about mountain biking to becoming a passionate biker and advocate for trail maintenance. She led her team on several trail clean ups, and passed along her newfound knowledge with the hope of inspiring others to care for the trails and environment as
much as she does.
Darin Jesberg didn’t think anyone would want to mountain bike in Modesto, California’s mostly flat, arid, agricultural city. But he discovered a trail alongside one of
the city’s creeks, found some like-minded friends, and began cleaning up and creating trails long before it was a common activity for avid bikers.
Great things happen when young adults are encouraged to do their best. A group of teens in Houston, Texas, are waking up to the reality that they can make a difference in their community, one shovel at a time. Bryce Cole is what you could call a puritan in mountain biking. He is a Houston-based trail advocate and Head Coach for the West Houston Composite Team. When he’s not working with local NICA student-athletes to maintain a beautiful trail system within his community, he works his regular 9-5 job like everyone else.