Its blood, sweat, and tears for the students on this team. Well, maybe it’s not quite like that, but they worked pretty hard to come in 15th in the league championships. Started by head coach Joe Tucker during the 2018-19 school year, the Tahoma Mountain Bike Team now has over 50 members, welcoming students from not only Tahoma High School, but Summit Trail, Maple View, and students from other districts.

One of the team’s out of district riders, Kentwood junior Keaton Griglio said his favorite thing about being on the team is, “Being encouraged to do things you don’t think you could do and riding in new areas I may have never known about.” There are lots of benefits to this team other teams don’t have. Nobody rides the bench, nobody gets cut, you don’t even have to come in with any biking experience. It’s all voluntary, if you have to miss a practice that’s okay and if you don’t want to race, you don’t have to.

Tahoma races in the Washington Student Cycling League. At the 2019 league championships in Wenatchee the high school division of Tahoma MTB came in 15th place. “League races are fun, you have endless support and a constant reminder you aren’t alone, you have a family to ride and race with. Honestly the things that having a team does for your morale are beyond English words. There’s just a strong as steel brotherhood that comes with riding with the Tahoma team,” says sophomore Anthony Ottinger. Besides league races, there are lots of other team activities to participate in. Mainly practice is at local trails, but often the team goes other places such as Duthie, Tiger, or Raging River. In the summer, lots of coaches and students race in the Wednesday Night Worlds races, there is also a camping trip. Just recently some of the coaches and students participated in the Ride the Mountain charity ride, raising money for people and families suffering from neurological diseases. Coach Gregg Collette said, “I think the stuff outside of practice is more to try to connect to the social part of riding, not the team stuff, stuff that you just do with the friends we try to create on the team… It’s just about going out and enjoying riding together.” On the case of our team as a community he says, “I think what we’ve done a good job of, maybe almost too good, is actually like building a kind of biking family.”

For more information on the team check it out on Facebook or Instagram @tahomamtbteam.