2018 Season Starts NOW!

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note to say HI and welcome you to the 2018 SoMont Youth MTB season! We've been working hard behind-the-scenes since Jan 1 to get things moving and we are really excited about this season -- our 3rd! 

Welcome also to those of you new to SoMont and youth mountain biking.

I'll keep this first email short and sweet.

- Our pre-season and main event schedules are live on our website and in Facebook. Check out the dates and times either below or online. We hope to see you all at either the Keswick (this Saturday) or Circle Cycle kick-off events!

http://www.somontcycling.org/

- We are anticipating another season of growth this year as far as number of athletes . As such we are looking for your help with event planning, team coordination and other activities. If you are interested in being part of our new Parent Council, please get in touch with me. 

- We will be sending out a survey very soon to collect feedback and help guide us in 2018. Your feedback is important to us, so please fill this out when it arrives to your Inbox.

We are really looking forward to reconnecting with everyone soon. Let me know if you have any questions, otherwise we'll see you soon at one of our kickoff events.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO ANYONE YOU KNOW THAT MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN JOINING THE TEAM!

1-2-3 SoMont M-T-B!

The SoMont Coaching Staff

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PRE-SEASON EVENTS

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Keswick Meet-N-Greet

Sat April 14, Noon to 3pm

Keswick Cycle Glenside

Circle Cycle Meet-N-Greet

Thu April 26, 6:30pm

Circle Cycle Bike Shop

MTBBQ PRESEASON KICKOFF: Meet-N-Greet, Beginners Clinic and Ride

Sat May 5, 10am-3pm

Lorimer Park

Philly PumpTrack Opening Day Jam 2018

Sat May 12, 10am

Philly PumpTrack

Arts in the Park Bike Corral Hosts

Sun June 3, 9am-4pm

Friends of High School Park, Elkins Park

Philly MTB Festival

Sun June 10, 10am

Salvatore Pachella Field

6839 Henry Ave, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19128

2018 First Official Practice

Sun July 1, 10am

Lorimer Park

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EVENT SEASON

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- Sept 8/9 Michaux Family Camping weekend

- Sept 15/16 Fair Hill (Maryland/near Newark, Delaware)

- Sept 22/23 Gettysburg

- October 6/7 Johnstown

- October 27/28 Boyce Park (Pittsburgh area)

- Nov 1/2 Jordan Creek (Allentown)

SoMont Cycling Youth Mountain Bike Team Gears Up For Third Season

The SoMont Cycling Youth MTB team, a youth mountain bike team founded in Glenside/Wyncote, is looking for youth athletes to join their team. The team has local promotional events this weekend Saturday April 14 at Keswick Cycle in Glenside and next week Thursday April 26th at Circle Cycle Bike Shop in Huntington Valley.  

SoMont (Southern Montgomery County) Cycling Youth MTB Team is a chartered composite team of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Cycling League (PICL) and the National Interscholastic Cycling League (NICA). 

Co-founders, Wyncote/Cheltenham neighbors and friends, John Raisch and Thuong Nguyen are mountain biking enthusiasts.  Raisch, a Rockledge-native and Abington High School graduate, grew up mountain biking in Lorimer Park while Nguyen, who grew up in Lancaster, became an avid Fairmount Park rider while earning his BA at the University of the Arts. 

Today, both are also fathers with children developing their own affinity for cycling. During the league’s inaugural season in 2016, Raisch and Nguyen planned and conducted learning experiences, training, and practices for the youth in Lorimer Park, Baederwood Park, Tookany Creek Parkway, Pennypack Park & Rail Trail, Forbidden Drive, and at the Philly Pumptrack.  Along the way, they picked up new team recruits and supporters. For the 2017 season, the SoMont Cycling Youth MTB Team attracted over 25 student-athletes, spanning grades 6 through 10,  from public and private schools throughout southern Montgomery County (Cheltenham, Abington, Springfield, Lower Moreland and other areas).  The team is also enthusiastically and financially supported by many community businesses.  “

Our athletes impress me every time we’re out on the bikes,” said Nguyen. He further added, ”Last year, their confidence grew off the charts, but, more importantly, they developed meaningful friendships. They’re just a great bunch of kids.”

“We have a fantastic group of dedicated community based sponsors, coaches, student-athletes and families. I am so proud of what we’ve collectively accomplished and I look forward to seeing our team race and represent Southern Montgomery County this season,” remarked Raisch. However, Raisch is boldly looking forward to this new season, “We are actively recruiting more student-athletes, preparing for a time when Abington, Cheltenham, Lower Moreland and other school districts adopt mountain biking as an interscholastic sport. This wonderful sport promotes physical and mental fitness, equality, inclusivity, and an appreciation of the great outdoors. We don’t think it gets much better than that.”

Founded in 2009, the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) develops interscholastic mountain biking programs for student-athletes across the United States. NICA provides leadership, services and governance for local leagues to produce quality mountain bike events, and supports every student-athlete in the development of strong body, strong mind and strong character through their efforts on the bike.

The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Cycling League (PICL) is a non-profit 501(c)3 NICA Project League. The league was organized in 2014 with the goal to provide fun, safe, and competitive mountain biking opportunities for middle (grades 6-8) & high school students in the Commonwealth.

SoMont Cycling Youth MTB Team is a PICL sanctioned composite team, organized in 2016.  It is an independent youth mountain bike team in the Cheltenham, Abington, Rockledge, Lower Moreland, Upper Dublin and Springfield areas of southern Montgomery County. The goal of SoMont Youth MTB is to introduce boys and girls (6th to 12th grade) to the sport of mountain biking and to help them use the sport as a way of developing a new life-long athletic interest.  The team and coaching philosophy is to use cycling, and the mountain bike itself, as a way-of-thinking to transport our riders to a sense of adventure, exploration, excitement, friendship and good health.

Learn more about the team at these upcoming promotional events:

Saturday April 14, Noon to 3pm

Keswick Cycle Glenside

408 N Easton Rd, Glenside, PA 19038

Circle Cycle Meet-N-Greet

Thursday April 26, 6:30pm

Circle Cycle Bike Shop

2525 Huntingdon Pike, Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006

For more information please contact:

John Raisch, Director, SoMont Cycling Youth MTB Team

jraisch@gmail.com

215 704-1556

www.somontcycling.org

2018 PICL Leaders Summit

This weekend a number of SoMont coaches attended the 2018 PICL Leaders Summit. The league announced the 2018 schedule which includes the race calendar, new adventure events, summer camps and Teen Trail Corp. We'll be passing these details out soon. Coach John gave a presentation on How to Structure & Run a Mountain Bike Practice. You can have a look here
 

Happy Living in MontCo Features Team on Facebook

On September 7th we had a visitor to practice -- Jeff Chirico. Jeff is a realtor, Emmy award-winning reporter and social media publisher. His "Happy Living in MontCo" Page is his Facebook-based social media platform for all things Montgomery County, specifically the areas of Glenside and Elkins Park.

Jeff stopped by practice to learn more about the team. He caught a glimpse of one of our skills-based practices and conducted some interviews.

We want to thank Jeff for stopping by to learn more about the team. Check out his video below and be sure to LIKE "Happy Living in MontCo" on Facebook.

NICA Youth MTB League Thrives in VA - PA too!

PBS recently produced this great overview of youth mountain biking in Virginia. Pennsylvania, having started a few years after Virginia, has a similar story.

Southern Montgomery County Trail Efforts Gearing Up

These are exciting times for trail building in Montgomery County.

For a few years now the PennyPack Rail Trail, part of the Circuit Trail network, has provided local MontCo residents a safe and beautiful recreational opportunity to get outside and enjoy nature. Running from Rockledge Borough to Byberry Road (near Mason's Mill Park) the 5.4 mile trail is in the process of being extended through the rest of MontCo north into Bucks County. As you know, this Rail Trail is home to SoMont Cycling Youth MTB team. It provides a safe haven for our athletes to train, even at dusk, now that we experience less and less light with each passing day.

In other parts of the southern Montgomery County area we are seeing organizations and citizens continuing to pursue Circuit Trail expansion.

In Cheltenham Township, there are numerous trail related efforts, with multiple organizations working together to continue this expansion. At the southern end of Cheltenham Township, along the Tookany Creek, ideas and plans are coming together in support of connecting Tacony Creek trails with Tookany Creek trails. Additionally, Cheltenham's long standing sewer replacement project, which currently has much of the Tookany Creek trail off-limits, is making progress. As the core sewer replacement project comes to a close, residents are beginning to inquire about the future of the Tookany Creek Trail. While the plan is to return the trail back to what it was, it wouldn't take much more to make it better and to make it a certified "Circuit Trail" trail.

Recently, a number of groups interested in trail building did a quick tour of the conditions in and around the Tacony and Tookany Creeks. Members of the Tookany-Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership (Julie Slavet), Pennsylvania Environmental Council (Patrick Starr), Montgomery County Planning Commission (Henry Stroud) and the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia (Leonard Boranek) toured Tookany Creek, High School Park and a number of other areas along the future, proposed trail. Patrick Starr of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council had this, and more, to say about the future of the Circuit Trail in Cheltenham Township...

"With effective partners like Cheltenham Township, which recently adopted a municipal resolution endorsing 500 miles of Circuit Trails by 2025, the capable MCPC staff, and the indefatigable TTF Watershed Partnership, well, I hate to make predictions, but I think some of it could be built by 2025!"

At the other end of the township, we are seeing some developments with extending the Cresheim Trail up to Cheltenham Township. If you are not familiar with the Creshiem Trail, it connects into Fairmount Park along the Wissahickon Creek and Forbidden Drive, and provides a network of trails from the "Wiss" currently up to Germantown Avenue to just about the front door of the Trolley Car Diner. If you have not experienced the Cresheim Trails starting at Germantown Ave you will not be disappointed when you do finally visit! The plan is to extend the trail over Germantown Ave across an old train bridge and up to Cheltenham Avenue along a power line. From there Cheltenham will pick up the trail for a brief time through the Laverock neighborhood. The trail will then continue to the north up to the Green Ribbon Trail. There will also be an option to go south back toward Glenside eventually back toward the Tookany Creek trail mentioned above, connecting the rock gym to the little league.

In a recent development, Philadelphia City Council member Cindy Bass recently came on board with the existing plan to extend the Creshiem Trail up to Cheltenham Avenue.

Many thanks to Friends of the Cresheim Trail for your support as we prepare to extend the trail! Can't wait to walk! pic.twitter.com/FYNwCcTc8A

— Cindy Bass (@cindybassphilly) October 18, 2017

To top all of this off, Cheltenham Township's Environmental Advisory Council recently named a sub-committee to build community support for Mobility and Healthy Living goals of the township's sustainability plan. The mission of the Mobility & Healthy Living sub-group is to champion residents' support for programs and activities that promote:

• safe, secure, pedestrian access to local town centers, transportation hubs and parks (walkability)
• active, outdoor-oriented lifestyles (running, walking, outdoor sports)
• natural-area, recreational activities & opportunities (hiking, biking, fishing, access to parks, park features)
• healthy living programs with local, organic, sustainability-based, environmentally-friendly focus

The sub-committee is meeting this week at Creekside Coop for their first informal meeting.

2017 Race #1 Recap: Blur at Gallaher

On Sunday, September 10 we officially kicked off the 2017 race season. After months of practice, which included skill development, endurance and power/strength training, 21 youth athletes from our team raced in the Blur of Gallaher event in Fair Hill, MD.

Our team had a number of individual accomplishments, most notably 3 podium placements. All of our athletes finished their races and we had a total of 9 TOP 10 finishes. Here is our top 10 summary:

• Bennett (Springfield Twp) - 8th place of 88 - 8th grade
• Elsa (Cheltenham Twp) - 3rd place of 23 - 8th grade
• Henry (Cheltenham Twp) - 7th place of 51 - 6th grade
• Lucas H (Springfield Twp) - 10th place of 51 - 6th grade
• Maris (Cheltenham Twp) - 9th place of 23 - 7th grade
• Megan (Upper Dublin) - 6th place of 15 - 10th grade
• Miriam (Cheltenham Twp) - 6th place of 16 - 9th grade
• Oskar (Cheltenham Twp) - 4th place of 68 - 10th grade
• Junior (Lower Moreland) - 1st place of 88 - 8th grade

We want to also congratulate all of our other races for their performance at the first race of the 2017 season - Casey, Duncan, Ethan, Evan, Lucas G, Luke, Matt, Max, Rigel, Stella, Sam and Tyler.




Our next race is Sunday September 17th at Highland Park in Johnstown PA.