With only one more major race on the horizon, the Eagle High Mountain Bike Team is gearing up for a spectacular finish to their 2024 season.
The team attends a total of five races each year including a race at Brundage on Aug. 17, Grand Targhee on Sept. 7, Soldier Mountain on Sept. 21, Jug Mountain on Sept. 28 and Bogus Basin normally on Oct. 5.
However, the race at Bogus was postponed to Oct. 12 due to fires in that area. Many members of the Eagle High team as well as others are no longer competing in this race due to prior commitments. This has caused significant frustration for many teams that hoped to compete at Bogus.
The team is broken up into four main categories: Middle School (which is subdivided into sixth, seventh and eighth grade levels), junior varsity one, junior varsity two and varsity.
The head coaches for the team are Lee Scott and Brian Graham. Their mission statement describes their objective to teach the athletes core values that will be helpful to them in their day-to-day lives as well.
“It’s very connecting and social. You really learn a lot about yourself and what you can do. You really learn your limits and how you can test them,” said sophomore Finn Tingey. Tingey has been a member of the team for three years and is currently in the top spot of the junior varsity two skill division.
The team has obtained a podium placement at almost every race they’ve participated in this season, many members describing the intense competitiveness present this season that they felt was lacking in previous seasons.
“If you feel like you want to stop, don’t. Just keep pushing. That lactic acid isn’t what’s going to stop you… The only thing that can stop you is your own mind,” Tingey said.
Members of the mountain bike team are always pushing and striving to achieve greater and greater achievements. The team teaches perseverance and grit, striving to engrain this positive stubbornness into their athletes through rigorous training and an extensive training regimen.
This mental fortitude is what careers the team consistently towards success and will likely continue into their next season and into the future.
If one wants to join the Eagle High Mountain Bike Team, they need only find the date for an upcoming team meeting or practice on the team’s website at eaglehighmtb.org.
