Cycling Team participates and advocates for strong sportsmanship

With football season and postseason baseball on the horizon, it can be easy to overlook other athletic contests.

However, one sport continues to grow throughout Clark County.

The Clark County Cycling Team, an area youth development team, showcases many young athletes and continues to seek more.

“We’re a community-based organization building kids that can do a sport for the rest of their lives,” said Head Coach John Otte. “We’re basically a youth development league.”

The team is currently associated with NICA or the National Interscholastic Cycling Association. This non-profit organization, which has its origins in southern California, promotes youth mountain biking programs across the United States.

For Otte, a long-time road cyclist and mountain biking enthusiast, a question was posed approximately five to six years ago.

“I had a friend come up to me…he [asked], ‘Do you want to become a coach for a mountain bike team?’. I [said], ‘I have no idea what I’m doing, but sure,’” he said. “I went to this training…he was teaching the course, and it kind of went from there!”

Development took a few years – Kentucky didn’t yet have a team.

“We started practice…I think we had three or four riders, and we didn’t even race,” Otte said. We were just practicing in Winchester [at] Lykins Park. We went on a couple of trail rides and stuff.”

However, plans began to change after the Kentucky Interscholastic Cycling League (KICL) was founded in 2019.

Having raced in Tennessee beforehand, the group now finds opportunities to participate in competition throughout the Commonwealth.

There are 14 teams throughout the KICL, with competition encouraged by riders, though not required.

Youth from sixth through twelfth graders are welcomed to race within the KICL.

Fifth graders will be welcomed on trail rides in the coming year, though eligible racers are of the same age.

Sophie Mullins, Gabe Graul, Audra Hoefner, Rowan Wagner, Miles Malear, Maggie Manley, Oliver Hutchens, Nathan Otte, Logan Kildea, and Hannah Manley are current competitors.

The team director is Eric Hutchens, with assistant coaches Lisa Manley, Laura Mullins, and Tim Graul.

As might be expected, the team is always looking for growth and development in more ways than one.

“Clark County is the only team…in the entire league that doesn’t have a home trail yet,” Otte said, noting that he’s working alongside Winchester-Clark County Parks and Recreation to create one. “We’re hoping to remedy that here very soon.”

Still, Otte – who acknowledged wanting to create a family-friendly atmosphere – points out many benefits.

“Cycling’s a sport that you can do for basically your entire life. I know there are fifty, sixty, [and] even seventy-year-olds that I’ll see out riding their bikes,” he said. “The benefits are not just health-wise. It’s for health and building a community of people.”

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