Greetings Parents & Student Athletes!
This is Shawn Gentry, Head Coach of the Myers Park MTB Mustangs. Please accept my apologies for not being in touch sooner. It’s been a very busy November for me so far, but I am eager to start the NICA season with you all! Once again, there is a lot of information below, but please take the time to read it and respond to me with any questions or with the feedback I request. It has also come to my attention that several of you are not receiving my emails, so please take the time to network with each other and ask your fellow Student Athletes if they got this email today.
PreSeason Activities
Since we have not had the opportunity to meet for the last few weeks, I’d like to try to make up for that with two activities next weekend, November 24 & 25. I hope you all can attend one, if not both of these pre-season activities. These will be our last chance to get together before the official beginning of the season, December 1 - when we can start a true practice schedule. Not to mention, a great opportunity to pedal away some turkey and gravy : ) SO, mark your calendar - and please let me know if you plan to attend.
Saturday, November 24th, 1:00pm - 4:00pm
Marion Diehl Center, then ride to BYT -look for my Black Jeep with CLT MTB branding to the left of the entrance to the Queens University Sports Complex, 2229 Tyvola Rd, Charlotte, NC 28210
I’d like us all to meet at the Marion Deihl Center -the same spot we met last time in the large grassy area next to the Queens University Sports Complex for a Skills Clinic where we will cover many of the skills used in a solid foundation of good riding. We will also have a short maintenance and trailside repair clinic where we will cover all the basics of taking good care of your bike, and fixing it quickly to get back on the trail and back into the race should one of the usual things happen while riding (flat tire, broken chain, etc.)
Sunday, November 25th, 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Sherman Branch MTB Park, 12435 Rocky River Church Rd, Charlotte, NC 28215
Group Social Ride with Sur de Charlotte - We will meet in the main parking area to break into groups with Sur de Charlotte and head out for a ride of the full trail system at Sherman. This is a great, flowing trail system with a huge variety of terrain and the perfect place to practice and reinforce the skills we cover on Saturday. Every ride at Sherman is fast and fun.
Practice Schedule
Please respond to this email letting me know what your schedule is and when you will be available for practices. Currently, I am hoping to schedule us for practice 3 times per week, Monday, Thursday, and Saturday each week throughout the season, weather permitting. Practices will start at 2:30 each day, Monday and Thursday we will ride BYT and Saturdays we will go elsewhere, USNWC, Sherman, Beatty, or North Meck.
Register in PitZone
I recently Sent invitations to all 19 Student Athletes who have shown up to meetings and voiced an interest in joining our team. The invitation was sent to one parent for everyone I have contact information to join PitZone . Only parents can register a Student Athlete for the team in PitZone, so if you are receiving this email and your parent did not receive the invitation, please let me know so I can add you and send your parent an invitation to register. You must be registered in PitZone to be a member of the team. https://pitzone.nationalmtb.org
Deals from TREK of Charlotte
Remember as you prepare your Christmas wish lists that if a new bike is in your future, TREK of Charlotte has offered us some amazing deals. You must be a registered team member in PitZone before you can take advantage of these offers:
25% off full retail of any Trek mountain bike, Bontrager helmets, and Bontrager shoes
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
A final proposed budget for the team is in the works, but to get things started - we will be looking for at least 3 bigger corporate sponsors to take on the majority of the expense of starting up our new team. Ideally, we would like to find a top tier sponsor who will contribute $5,000 and two other second tier sponsors who will contribute $2,500 each. This will put us well on our way to being able to have everything we need to establish the new team. So, put this out to your employers - or think about it if you are a business owner and let me know if you are interested!
Parent Volunteers
Assistant Coaches
NICA is organizing an "On the Bike 101" skills training for assistant coaches, either January 5th or 6th, so if you are interested in lending a hand as an Assistant Coach for the team, please mark your calendar and plan to attend. I will let you all know as soon as the final date is announced. If you ARE interested, please respond to this email and let me know so I can submit a list of interested volunteers from our team. I will also send you an invitation to join PitZone as a coach for our team. You do not have to commit to attending every practice or every race to be an Assistant Coach.
Background Check
Also, if you plan to be an assistant coach and participate in any of our practices or pre-season rides, you must submit to NICA's background check. You are only allowed to attend one activity or practice before completing the background check, so please keep that in mind. We can not have too many assistant coaches, so if you are interested, please step up, let me know, and get the background check out of the way. If you ARE interested, please respond to this email and I will send you a link to the background check.
Upcoming Races
Charlotte Youth Cycling League (CYCL) - Final Race of the Fall Season
This Sunday, November 18th is the final race of the Fall season, held at Harrisburg Park. CYCL is a super-friendly organization and perfect for first time riders. The age groups will not be too full, and you will have the opportunity to race against other riders, many of whom are on other NICA teams. I know it's short notice, but I would love to see as many of you come out as possible. Please visit the CYCL website and reach out to me personally if you have any questions.
https://www.cltyouthcycling.com/registration/cycl-fall-2018-race1-harrisburg
Winter Short Track Series, January 20 & 27, February 3, 10 & 17
Renaissance Park Short Track (near the Disc Golf course and old Baseball complex)
The most fun I've ever had racing my mountain bike is at the Winter Short Track series. Its fast and fun. It will push you physically, and mentally as the races are held rain or shine in the Winter. Last year, my favorite race was on a day when it rained the whole day and the temperature never made it to the 40s. Crazy?... yes, a little - but trust me, it was great. My 10 year old daughter had just as much fun as I did. We can not attend these races "as a team", but we can certainly all go race together, support each other, and pit together. Please plan to sign up for this series!
https://wintershorttrack.racesonline.com/
COMMUNICATIONS
EMAIL
I will continue to grow this distribution list and will send out regular updates via email. 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
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
Okay... That's it for now! I hope to hear from ALL of you soon with feedback and answers to the information I requested above. Again, please network with others and make sure everyone received this email. Keep trying to find other Student Athletes to join the team and send them this and other emails I've sent. AND, have a Happy, fun Thanksgiving with your families.
I look forward to seeing you all soon,
Coach G
Shawn Gentry 704-266-2581 shawn@CLTMTB.com
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