Greetings Parents & Student Athletes!
This is Shawn Gentry, Head Coach of the all-new MPHS MTB Mustangs. Today is the first official day of the NICA Pre-Season and I want to tell you all how excited Team Director, Mark Dombroski and I are for the coming season. We have an additional interest meeting scheduled on campus after school for this Thursday, October 18th at 2:30pm. I’d like to challenge each of you to bring at least one other potential Student Athlete with you to this meeting. Even if you attended our first meeting, please come so we can all meet as a team for the first time!
We need female riders to join our team. Ideally, NICA wants to see 25% of the team represented by female riders. Perhaps there may be female athletes at MPHS who have not yet had the opportunity to try the sport of mountain biking. Believe it or not, NICA is such an all-inclusive organization that student athletes who do not have their own bike may be eligible for NICA to provide a bike for them so they can also experience this amazing sport. Please keep that in mind when discussing NICA with potential female team members. There is also a very generous discount offered by TREK of CLT in this email, below.
Saturday, October 20th 9am - Noon
Location TBD - possibly have Clinic on Campus, then ride to BYT
This will be our first official team meeting and pre-season activity. I’d like to see everyone who plans to be on the team to attend. During this session, I will conduct a Skills Clinic which will cover the fundamentals of good riding. These are all skills that everyone should constantly work on to improve their riding - it does not matter how skilled you are - the fundamentals are always important. I am open to suggestions for where we should meet. I’d like to see us be able to complete the skills clinic, then go for a trail ride together.
We are not allowed to formally “practice” until December 1, but over the next 6 weeks we will have at least one such activity per week (skills clinics, maintenance clinics, trailside repairs, etc.) I also encourage you all to meet up to ride together as much as possible over the next 6 weeks.
Sunday, October 21, 2:30pm - 4:30pm
Sur de Charlotte Get-Together & Group Ride - USNWC
The established Sur de Charlotte team is hosting a pre-season “get-together & group ride” at USNWC. The ride coincides with an Outdoor Market, so parents who wish to come along will have something to do while student athletes are out on the trail.
Here’s their plan:
Oct 21st at 2:30pm.
The Sur de Charlotte group ride will meet at the main parking lot bathrooms area starting at 2:30 for a 2:45pm roll-out.
We should be back at the starting area by 4:30pm at the latest.
This will be a social ride with invites to prospective & possibly new riders. Thus, we will start by riding together on the lake loop & then break off into groups to ride main, Tower 29 &/or East Main.
This ride coincides with the “Outdoor Market” event at the USNWC. Sunday’s Outdoor Market goes from 10am to 4:30pm.
more info on their website: https://usnwc.org/relax/festivals/outdoor-market/
Recommended Equipment
Some of this you will see is also covered on the NICA website, but I just wanted to give a quick overview. The most important part of this is: it is NOT a requirement that student athletes own a super-nice mountain bike to join the team. Everyone is welcome, as previously stated, it is not even required that a student own a bike as NICA has a loaner program that will supply them with a bike they can ride for the season. Any kind of mountain bike will do - the most important part is to have an enthusiasm for the sport and the will to give it your all. NICA is a cross-country racing league, so this is an endurance sport similar to cross-country running. We will all (including me) be working on our endurance with each practice and team activity leading up to our first race.
The following equipment is required:
Helmet - new advancements in helmet design have come a long way in the past couple years. I highly recommend a well-vented helmet with MIPS technology that provides significantly improved protection from lateral impact, as well as front/rear impact. Additionally, a helmet with a visor helps to protect your face as well as keep the sun out of your eyes. Full-Face helmets are not required.
Hydration System - be it a CamelBack, or other backpack hydration system, a fanny pack, or simply water bottles and cages on your bike - hydration is KEY. I will easily go through 100oz of water in less than 2 hrs on a ride.
Additionally, I strongly recommend the following as well:
Gloves - if you fall, 90% of the time the first thing to hit the ground is the heal of your palm. Wearing gloves is a great way to protect your hands so you can get right back up and keep riding without injury. They also provide better grip and help to be able to manage sweat/having a nice soft thumb to wipe your brow, etc.
Eye Protection - any kind of safety-rated glasses - you can get 3M safety glasses at Home Depot for $5-6, or nicer cycling-specific glasses are of course available.
Clipless pedals/shoes - I know this is a “hot button” in the MTB community “flats vs clipless” however, if there is any discipline where clipless pedals really provide nothing but a huge advantage to the rider, it is Cross-Country Racing!
Chamois (padded riding shorts) - for many obvious reasons, there is a huge benefit to riding with chamois. If you don’t like the look of tight-fitting pants, just wear baggie shorts on top of them, that’s what I do!
Sweet Deals from TREK of Charlotte
I have a relationship with Trek of Charlotte and they sent me the following offer for ALL MPHS MTB Mustangs. The offer includes:
25% off full retail of any Trek mountain bike (hardtail or full suspension - only excludes e-bikes such as the Powerfly)
25% off full retail on Bontrager helmets, and Bontrager shoes
If a student athlete wants a road bike or hybrid, the same discount does not apply, but would be something they could work through on a case-by-case basis.
20% off of basically everything else: labor, parts and accessories that are not Bontrager, etc., just not bikes.
Once we have a complete roster of athletes, I will submit it to TREK of Charlotte to load into their database so that your discounts will be automatically applied.
Sponsors
We will be developing a detailed budget and tiered sponsor sheet over the next few weeks, but just to give a quick overview of what the team will need and what sponsors can expect to get for their money: We have the opportunity to enter into the league, not only with an impressive number of athletes, but also an established, polished presence. I’d love to see us have the following, and sponsors will significantly offset the expense for the parents of student athletes. I highly encourage any of you who are business owners to consider sponsoring the team. Similarly, any parent who would be willing to run this up the chain of command at their place of employment for sponsorship opportunities should do so.
Budget (initial estimates / not all-inclusive)
Team Branded Popup Tent/Canopy/Etc:
Through an “in-Kind” Sponsor, Carolina Stickers & Signs, We can get our PopUps/Flags at Cost 2 10x10 pop up tents with full color printing. Includes carry case and sandbags. $1100
1 10x8 backing sign that attaches to create a wall on one of the pop ups - $200
2 8ft flags with hardware and carry case with full color printing. - $156
Logos for all sponsors will be conspicuously placed on popup canopies.
Uniforms (Kits)
Each student athlete is responsible for purchasing their own uniform, which can cost as much as $250 per rider. However, if we can secure a significant number of sponsors for the team, I would love to see us provide all team members with their uniform (kit) covered by the sponsors, or at a significantly discounted price.
Logos for all sponsors will be conspicuously placed on each student athlete’s kit.
Team Kits from PodiumWear (approx. price each)
Jerseys are $60 - $100 / Bibs are $90 - $145
https://www.podiumwear.com/uploads/manager/5ca18cb2dd.pdf
https://www.podiumwear.com/sports/cycling/nica/
Next week, I will start on some design concepts for the team kits.
Transportation/Trailer
I have a 12’ enclosed box trailer that can help us transport everything we will need at each of the races, however my ability to transport more than a few bikes will be limited. We may want to consider purchase of a trailer specifically for the purpose of the MPHS MTB Mustangs… Similar trailers cost about $2,500 and can be wrapped with our team logo and sponsor logos for more visibility on the trip to each race, as well as at the race.
Food/Travel/Incidentals
We will be camping out at each race. We should plan to eat together as a team and have all the necessary gear needed to transport, cook, and feed a team of hungry mountain bikers! It would be amazing if we can have this expense covered by donations and sponsor dollars. I have a couple connections I’m going to reach out to regarding food donations/in-kind sponsorships, but as with all such sponsorship opportunities, the more - the merrier!
Parent Volunteers
We will need several parent volunteers to help out with a variety of roles:
Assistant Coaches - having at least one coach per 6 riders at every practice and every race is required by NICA. Parents who are active mountain bikers who wish to participate on this level will be required to submit to a background check through NICA’s preferred source. Ideally, you can also get your NICA Level 1 Coach certification that will allow you to learn the technique and vocabulary used to teach and reinforce the fundamentals of good riding.
Race Day Volunteers - there are a variety of ways parents can help at races/ on race days. Please let Mark or I know if you are interested in helping out.
Accounting - If any parent is a CPA or skilled bookkeeper, I’d like to see us have a parent volunteer take charge of our accounting to help us stay as organized as possible when managing our expenses, specifically during our crucial startup period when we will be signing up sponsors and buying all the things we will need to upfit the team.
Races
Each venue is set up for the riders to pre-ride the race venue on Saturday. Then, the races are held on Sunday, beginning with 6, 7 and 8 graders at 9:30 AM. Then female student athletes race. High School racers start around 1:00 PM.
I’d like to see us all at each race the Saturday before the race to pre-ride, help with set-up, and camp out to create a strong team bond among all riders. These 5 weekends will be a LOT of fun. We will have plenty of time off the bike to hang out and enjoy each other's company. The race schedule is as follows. Please save these to your schedules and plan for each race to be a full-weekend activity.
2019 NICA Race Schedule
Race 1 March 10 Browns Creek, Elizabethtown
Race 2 March 24 Fisher Farm, Davidson
Race 3 April 7 Bigleaf Slopes, Statesville
Race 4 April 14 Dark Mountain, Wilkesboro
Race 5 May 5 Farris Memorial, Park Mayodan
NICA and NCICL
Please review these websites, and check out the FAQs to answers your own questions and learn more about the organization before our next meeting on Thursday.
NICA https://www.nationalmtb.org/
NCICL http://www.northcarolinamtb.org/
COMMUNICATIONS
EMAIL
I will continue to grow this distribution list and will send out regular updates via email, though I hope none as long as this one in the future : )
If anyone is missing from this list, please forward this email to anyone you like, and ask that they reply to me at shawn@CLTMTB.com so I can add them to the list for future emailers.
REMIND
We will be using the REMIND App to send out reminders, schedule practices and events in the future. If you already have the remind app on your phone, simply add MPHS_MTB using the code @be874b
If you do not already have REMIND, please use the following link to get started: https://goo.gl/ijmc7E
STRAVA
I rode a bit of BYT (the Back Yard Trails) today, encompassing most of the trail system I think would be appropriate for us to ride for practices. I think it would be a great addition to our team communications and team-building if we all join the Strava Club I’ve started, MPHSMTB. Once you join the club and follow me, you can see the route I'm talking about.
Please use the Strava website to join this club: https://www.strava.com/clubs/mphsmtb
My profile on Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/19379159
WEBSITE
I will also create a team website sometime soon. Today I purchased “MPHSMTB.com” that will be the URL for our team site.
Okay, that’s all for now. I know this was the world’s longest email (sorry), but I wanted to get all this information out to everyone today. Please do not hesitate to email me at shawn@CLTMTB.com or call me at 704-255-2681 if you have any questions or concerns. I'm sure I forgot something...
See you all on Thursday!
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