10 months ago
30
He may not realize it, but long-time Mountain Brook resident and Mountain Brook Elementary School fifth grade teacher Bill Andrews is a trailblazer. Literally and figuratively.
An avid cyclist and an active member of Birmingham’s mountain biking community, Andrews has been a constant sight on two wheels around town over the last two decades.
Andrews is accustomed to a challenge, having ridden and raced on some of the toughest terrain and courses throughout the region. However, from a mountain biking perspective, Andrews may have accepted his toughest challenge yet when he was tapped to lead the Mountain Brook High School mountain biking team three years ago.
A relatively new sport for middle and high schoolers, mountain biking has been gaining popularity throughout Alabama, but particularly around the Birmingham metro thanks to an abundance of exceptional trails at such locales as Oak Mountain State Park, Red Mountain Park and Tannehill State Park.
While many area high schools have formed teams and captured championships since the sport was organized into a league a decade ago, Mountain Brook High School just started their program in 2021. Andrews has recruited athletes and volunteer coaches and built awareness and support for the program within the school system and the community at large. The team has grown largely under the radar, but he credits the Mountain Brook community for supporting the fledgling program during its humble beginnings.
“Not many people know about us, but I think the Mountain Brook community is so gracious, and when they learn about something, they support it whole-heartedly,” Andrews said. “The community is really my first priority.”
Not yet sanctioned by the Alabama High School Athletic Association, mountain biking is technically a club sport governed by an independent body. For almost 10 years, high school mountain biking teams competed under the auspices of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association. However, in 2023, state programs began competing in the newly formed Alabama Cycling Association.
While training and informal rides begin in the fall, the official Alabama Cycling Association season begins with time trials in February and typically includes five events at state parks from March through May. Like most other high school mountain biking teams, the Mountain Brook program is not officially part of the high school athletic department, which means the team has to raise money for its own budget, arrange its own travel plans and rely on volunteer coaches — mostly parents — to run practices and competitions.
“It takes a village, for sure, for this team,” Andrews said. “There is a lot of parental involvement. As head coach, I rely on mothers and fathers who ride to be assistant coaches so we can have enough people out on the trail to make it safe.
“So, we have lots of dads and moms who ride with us, which is a really neat part of this sport because if you’re playing football, your mom and dad aren’t out there with you,” he added. “That makes it unique because you can have that straight parent interaction. We have a great group of parents that are ready to take us to the next level.”
The Mountain Brook High School mountain biking team officially launched in 2021 with five athletes in high school — the minimum number to qualify for a team in the league — and a solid group of middle schoolers who were allowed to compete as sixth graders under National Interscholastic Cycling Association and Alabama Cycling Association rules. Andrews said the middle school cyclists are the lifeblood of the program, functioning as the feeder system for the high school team.
“I always say you need to get them before they get their driver’s license,” Andrews said. “It's been really neat to watch them grow from middle school to high school.”
While the team is growing in numbers, there is one demographic in which the program is struggling: girls. In order to encourage teams to diversify their rosters, additional points are awarded to team totals at competitions in the girls’ categories. Andrews said he would like to see more girls join the team not only to help the program be more competitive, but also to provide a better experience overall.
“We definitely need some more females on the team. That would help with points but would also make the team more diverse and fun,” Andrews said.
Entering the 2023-24 school year, Andrews expects to have two seniors on the team, including Perry Stringfellow, a cyclist whom Andrews has seen develop into a fierce competitor and leader since he was a freshman.
“When he came onto the team three years ago, I was beating him up climbs and I was a good bit faster in a lot of areas than he was,” Andrews said. “We just got back from a Utah trip, and I just told him to wait at the next intersection for me.”
While Andrews hopes to grow the program into one that will contend for multiple team and individual championships, his primary focus is getting more kids interested in off-road cycling.
“We just feel it’s such a positive for the community of Mountain Brook and it gives these kids another outlet, which I think is so important in these days of social media and technology,” Andrews said. “It’s a good, healthy lifelong skill. You’re not going to play football or soccer forever, but mountain biking is something you can do well into your older years.”
Learn more about the Mountain Brook High School mountain biking team at mtnbrookmtb.org.
English (US)