There will be no trips across the province for high school mountain bike racers in 麻豆社国产this year.
One of the casualties of the ongoing labour dispute between the B.C. Teachers' Federation and the province of B.C. was last month's decision to cancel the provincial high school mountain biking championships.
For Squamish, it means a handful of bike-crazy kids of all ages will not have the opportunity to represent their school and test themselves against some of the best in the province.
Brandi Heisterman, Don Ross Secondary School (DRSS) teacher and established mountain bike racer, was to have coached the team but told The Chief that it wasn't in her best interest to continue coaching.
"I chose to withdraw after advice from our teachers' local and union," she said. "There were only a few schools that were going to participate in the Lower Mainland, so only a few races were planned. I did tell my students' parents that I would be the sponsor teacher if the parents would run the program and I could come to some of the races. But after a few weeks, the school mountain biking league folded so there were no races for us to even go to."
Despite the loss of the program, Heisterman pointed out that there are many other opportunities for local kids to compete.
"Many of the students at Don Ross are on Team Squamish, so thankfully there is community coaching, weekly toonie races, and a variety of local races that our students can race," she said.
It ends a nice run of consistently strong medals from both Howe Sound Secondary School (HSSS) and DRSS at provincial competitions over the years. Last year, DRSS student Mikayla Martin and HSSS student Griffin Dare each grabbed silver medals at the provincials in Salmon Arm. DRSS had a dynasty last decade, winning the cross-country provincial title for eight consecutive years from 2000 to 2008 despite competing against Grade 11 and 12 students in those years.
The year 2009 was a banner year for local high school riders, with Teri-Rose Davis, Maia Kilby, Eden Imbeau, Lauren Rosser and Mo Lawrence all dominating their respective divisions.
Despite having no high school competition, 麻豆社国产youth proved their dominance at the Sunshine Coaster race in Sechelt on Saturday (May 5). Quinn Moberg won the 15 to 19 male cross-country division, Martin won the 15 to 19 female short course and Ethan Toom won the 15 to 19 male short course. Martin, Kasper Woolley and Lee Jackson each won their respective divisions in the Mach Chicken downhill race on Sunday (May 6).
Squamish's Neal Kindree took home top prize in the event, winning the Pro Men's cross-country division with a time of 2:06:46.
