It’ll be the first public school varsity team in the state
Mountain biking has been such a popular club sport at Woodstock Union High School that next fall, it will be a varsity sport for the first time. The Woodstock School Board voted unanimously in January to elevate the club sport to varsity status.
“They’re very serious athletes competing at some of the top national levels,” School Board member Matt Stout said at the January meeting. Stout is also on the board of the Woodstock Area Mountain Bike Association. “It’s a tremendous opportunity that we offer the kids. It’s not offered in every school. Aside from the budget, these kids deserve to be recognized like all other athletes.”
Woodstock mountain biking coach Todd Uva said the varsity level recognition will allow the team to have more funding and opportunities. “It finally gives us a budget,” Uva said. “We’ve been operating for a number of years with no budget and no transportation. All the coaches were volunteering their time.”
Uva launched the Woodstock High School Cycling Club in 2017. To get it off the ground, they did whatever they could. He and his wife loaded up bikes in their cars and drove kids to competitions.
Uva, who led mountain biking programs at Woodstock’s summer SOAK camp, presented the concept of the club to the WUHS school board that year.
“I’m just a lover of cycling,” Uva said. “I wanted to share this passion with adolescents.”
When the club team debuted in 2018, there were 13 riders. Now there are 33 athletes in the club, making it one of the largest programs in the school — only behind girls’ varsity soccer in numbers. That program has about 44 student athletes.
“Being a varsity team will lead to a more serious attitude, more frequent practices, and easier transportation to races,” said captain Levi Halley.
Next fall when the Woodstock varsity mountain biking team meets for the first time, it will be the only public school varsity mountain biking team in the state to do so.
They’ll compete in the Northern New England High School Mountain Bike Series, which includes about 30 teams in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Maine. About 2/3 of the schools that compete in that series are from private schools/academies.
“It is definitely growing,” Uva said. “There are about 320 to 400 [students] from middle school to high school.”
There are three divisions in the series — Western, Central, and Eastern. Woodstock competes in the Western division with private schools like Killington Mountain School, Stratton Mountain School, Vermont Academy. Green Mountain Union High School (the only other public school in the division) supports a small club team, while Burr and Burton Academy (BBA), an independent non-profit school in Manchester, has had a varsity team for the past eight years.
Jon Mowry, one of the coaches at BBA, said the team started with around 12 athletes and it has grown to about 34-45 in the past two years.
“Mountain biking as a sport has grown, and in Vermont in particular, better trail access has led to a corresponding growth in participation,” Mowry said.
BBA has 12 coaches, most of whom are volunteers who ride with kids 2-3 days a week.
The team has access to a trail network at BBA and athletes travel to other networks at least two times a week.
Like other varsity sports, the Woodstock team will start preseason in August and continue until the championship race in October. Levi Halley, 16, of Woodstock, will be the captain of the varsity team his senior year.
“Being a varsity team will lead to a more serious attitude, more frequent practices, and easier transportation to races,” he said.
Halley started mountain biking when he was 6 years old.
“I enjoyed the aspects of being in nature and having fun with friends and family,” he said. “As I progressed, the competitive aspects of it also became a top priority. Now, I enjoy racing on the bike team the most.”
While the sport remains male-dominated, Uva said Woodstock has about 12 female athletes — which is a greater proportion of the team than most other schools.
Ada Mahood,16, has been on the mountain biking club at Woodstock since she entered high school. She had grown bored with soccer, she said.
The rising senior is excited to compete on a varsity team.
“We’ve worked so hard these past few years and brought home some incredible wins. We deserve the recognition of a varsity sport,” Mahood said.
Mahood, who lives in Thetford, started mountain biking as a child with her family.
“I’ve had so many incredible teammates over the last few years, especially on our girls’ team we have grown so close we even call ourselves a family,” she said. “Even on days where I don’t feel like doing the tough workouts they always manage to make it super fun and joyous … For me, our team dynamic is one of the best and I look forward to every fall when I get to see everyone back in action again.”
Mahood said the sport is about camaraderie, whether she wins or loses. She remembers a race she won her freshman year, when she was trailing in third, she heard her coach yelling, “It’s all you Ada, it’s all you.”
“I finished that race in first and my team surrounded me,” Mahood said. “It was just amazing. It felt nice to stand on top of the podium. But at the end of the day, it was my team that really pushed me to the finish line.”
