The Salinas Valley Composite biking team is a local mountain biking team for middle school students. This team is run by Laurie Banks and Matt Young along with many other volunteer parents. Mountain biking is a great way to be outside and have fun while challenging yourself to get better at the same time. No matter the experience level, mountain biking can be fun for anyone.

The Salinas Valley Composite biking team was started by Laurie Banks in the 2022/23 season. Laurie was inspired by a local high school mountain biking race that she had seen. She knew that there was nothing like that in this area for middle schoolers so she started the team. Laurie also had in mind that she had a son who would be going into middle school the next year and would be riding for the team. Starting the team wasn’t easy though. There were many challenges she faced. First of all, she had to undergo training to be a coach through NICA, short for the National Interscholastic Cycling Association. NICA is the governing body for a lot of the biking leagues in the U.S. including the NorCal Interscholastic Cycling League which is the league that Salinas Valley Composite is in. Another big challenge with starting this league was getting the word out. It’s not easy to spread the word of a new biking team to all of the nearby schools. There were also other challenges like finding help to coach the team and recruiting parent riders. 

There aren’t any restrictions or limitations to joining the team except that you have to be in 6-8 grade. There also aren’t any specific schools that you have to be in. They have 4 races in the season. 2 of them are local races at Ford Ord while the other 2 are farther away.

Cooper Peterson was a member of the biking team last year and is on the biking team this year. He told me that before he started on the biking team last year, he had very little experience. He also said that he would rarely even ride his bike, but by the end of the season, he had improved a lot and started to ride a lot more. He said that something he likes so much about this biking team is the challenge that comes with it. Cooper also enjoys the trails and scenery that he gets to bike in. 

Another member of the biking team is Jett Hernadez. Jett participated on the biking team in the first season and is on the team again this year. He said that the part that he likes so much about the team is getting to be with his friends while also having a challenging activity that he is doing.

If you are looking to join the biking team either this year or next, please contact Laurie Banks at laurie.banks00@yahoo.com. Since the season has already started, it will be hard to join this year but you can always join next year. The team has grown a lot since last year from 13 people to 34 people and they’re always looking for more people to join so if you're interested, don’t hesitate to contact Laurie and see if you can join.