NICA helps young athletes develop into leaders

National Interscholastic Cycling Association athletes develop their leadership skills by riding mountain bikes for healthy benefits. In doing so they make close friends with people from different schools in the entire Alabama community.

NICA, begin in Idaho and now runs programs in over 19 regions. Due to their steadfast dedication to biking, NICA earned the Next Generation and Outdoor Inspiration Award in 2015 and has given teens the opportunity to spend over a million hours being active with their teams in the previous year. Several nearby teams in our area include the Madison Trailblazers and the Huntsville Rockets. Freshman Bailey Seyboth is involved in NICA.

“I liked doing it [riding my bike] during my childhood,” Bailey said. “I thought, ‘why not do something I love with other people?’”

The organization shows people by experience. Those who do not yet know how to ride a bike in the environment are then taught the necessary skills through exercise and practice. As the team manager for the Madison County Trailblazers and father to Bailey, Jason Seyboth explains that NICA trains throughout the winter to get the athletes involved to a standard where they feel comfortable riding the bike. All this experience builds their endurance so that the young athletes are not out of breath or worried about trying to make the whole race course.

“You’re going to be sore for a couple of days [after joining NICA],” Bailey said. “You just need to train and go to more NICA races.”

Not only does the organization provide kids the ability to learn how to prepare themselves for mountain biking by teaching them the required skills to ride on any trail in any environment, but it also offers its riders the chance to make new friends with other bikers. From the start, shy individuals can easily connect with other athletes through their shared dedication and passion for biking. The young athletes are not the only ones enthusiastic about the benefits that come along as of being a part of NICA. Amy Seyboth also noticed the change in her son Bailey.

“A lot more confidence, I would say,” Amy said. “In the beginning, he didn’t believe he [Bailey] could do it. But I think that between the parents and the other teammates, they all know they can do it. He’s definitely gotten a lot stronger, so that’s definitely good.”

Amy recognizes NICA as a great opportunity for kids to learn healthy habits through the active sport of racing through trails in the outdoors. It is a great way for teens to get outside and enjoy what nature has to offer with each other while training for the races. No matter what the weather has in store for them, NICA still goes out in the misty freezing weather and the heat says Amy. They do lap after lap and in doing so, accomplish the races.

“It’s pretty neat to see what the kids can accomplish,” Amy said. “It’s a lot of miles; it’s a lot of work. The time they put in not specifically racing they have a lot of fun training. Even when they go to the gym, they get so much stronger. By the end, they really just worked hard to do their best.”

The coaches are dedicated to teaching kids how to ride a mountain bike on trails of many different levels of difficulty. Each instructor has a passion for biking and for showing the the kids the skills they need in order to enjoy the ride. If a NICA athlete were to pop a tire on the trail while they were still uneducated on how to fix it, the NIKA coach would stay behind until the tire was fixed and teach the biker the skills they need to fix the damage says Bailey.

“The biggest thing is everything is inclusive,” Jason said. “They [those whose skills suffer from lack of confidence] are not segregated out and the only segregation is by grade so it’s basically sixth grade all the way to twelfth grade, each one of them riding in their grade. They all ride together no matter how good they are at the beginning or how much they need to learn.”

As a highly anticipated occasion of NICA, many athletes cherish the races because they are a time which the entire organization gets together as a community to have dinner and camp out during the time they stay for the races. It is a unique opportunity for people to meet from places all over Alabama and make friends with other athletes that live as far away as Auburn.

“It’s [the races] a little different; everyone rides regardless, so you don’t have to be the best out there to enjoy your own race. It’s [NICA] is a really good family-orientated part of the community.”