by Katie Binder
In the 3 years I have been involved with Oakland Composite High School MTB Team and Oakland Devo Middle School MTB club, the number of kids mountain biking with our team has tripled. However, only 9% of our riders and coaches are girls! This season we are going to change that! We’re confident that if they’re introduced to mountain biking and our teams, many girls will LOVE it!
We want to make it possible for any girl to try it out regardless of whether they already have a bike. And girls that want to commit to riding with us for their first season can do so without having to first invest in a bike. So last Spring, Oakland Composite & BTCEB partnered together with Specialized Outride Foundation to raise money to purchase a fleet of bikes. With 43 donors, Oakland Composite raised $5,600 and then Outride matched with $5,550 to surpass our goal of $11,000. We are stoked that we can now loan bikes to more girls interested in joining our team!
This weekend, on Nov. 8th, Oakland Composite’s female coaches will be hosting a clinic and fun ride for high school girls. We’ll teach mountain bike skills and go have some fun on the trails! If you know a high school girl who may be interested, have them sign up at here.
Our mountain bike teams get kids outdoors, away from their screens, and engaged with each other in nature. We teach them self-reliance and life lessons in the guise of mountain bike skills. The girls on our teams bring a different passion, work ethic and sense of fun to the mix and it makes everything we do twice as good! Also, we get to see first hand the positive impact it has in their lives.
Help us find girls to share the fun of mountain biking!
Thank you for your support.
Katie Binder, Oakland Composite Team Director
Justin Binder, Head Coach Oakland Composite
