# Why do we need two competing HS MTB leagues in New England?



## Endosch2 (Dec 31, 2019)

So I have been meaning to create some discussion about this. Since 2009, there has been a "Northern New England High School Mountain Bike series" which puts on 14 or so races in the fall in Maine, VT, and NH. The races are on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Its split between an East and West conference and is composed of both private and public schools, but is more of the private schools. I think there are around 26-28 teams with 700 or so registered riders, middle school age but also HS. The kids can race A, B, C, or Novice. They allow anyone to race as an independent. Many of the schools have full time programs and practice every day. There are a bunch of ski focused schools that have really good teams like SMS, Proctor, Holderness, KMS, Gould, and also some really good public school programs like Burr and Burton and Kennett. It was organized by a teacher at one of the schools and is run at almost no cost for riders.

In 2016 along comes another league from mass and rhode island, the "New England High School Cycling Association" They have a different approach, much more heavily promoted, much more expensive, designed around town and multi town clubs vs schools, etc. They also have racing for all grade levels starting at grade 6. They have recently spread into NH, and VT. They race in the Spring on Sundays so that their members can do other sports at school. I think they have around 25 teams and 600 or so riders. 

My question is in an ideal world the two should be blended. Schools should be encouraged via peer pressure to create MTB teams like you see in the northern league and kids should get to practice every day. Maybe the northern league needs to quit doing as many races on Wednesday afternoons to allow for more public school participation. You could also have a spring and fall calendar. The southern league needs to lower costs a lot. There is only one school that races in both leagues. To me it looks like the new league wants to expand, why be so competitive? Why not collaborate so the kids win?


----------



## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

Well, I think part of your answer can be answered here:

https://www.nationalmtb.org/nica-leagues/

Neither of those race series is a NICA league.

Digging a little bit to find the leagues you mentioned:

https://sites.google.com/site/lakesregionmtb/Home

https://nehsca.com/

My suspicion is that the new league has the goal of becoming a NICA league, simply based on the way you've described that they operate. Many NICA leagues (not all) have both middle and high school divisions. When new, these leagues start out with mostly composite teams for cities or counties, with the goal of getting school-specific teams once a school reaches a critical mass of riders.

The way you've described it, it sounds like the second league popped up because the first one wasn't serving their needs (other states, other age groups). Will/should they merge? Maybe. Will that happen? Who knows? It really comes down to the desires of each team/school and what league they want to participate in. Does it matter in the grand scheme of things? I don't think it does. As long as the kids are having a good time in either, then what's the problem? I don't see any reason why the two race series can't coexist, or even why kids couldn't race in both series if they wanted.


----------



## Endosch2 (Dec 31, 2019)

I don''t think there is any ambition to be a NICA league with either one. I just would like to see them take the best of both. The new league is trying to expand into the territory of the older league. The Northeast is flooded with private schools and MTB racing has so far been one of the few areas where the kids mix which is healthy. A lot of the other sports the kids are in opposite universes. Kids never get to see a different realm of competition. 

The reasons they should merge would be to standardize on a calendar and to diversify the level of competition among a larger pool. They could also use the precedent set at the public schools in the northern league to convert more public schools in the southern league. 

Also cost of participation is clearly a huge deal. Look at some of the other threads in this series, there are a lot of parents looking at $50 race fees, $300 team fees, and $200 uniforms (In addition to expensive bikes) - is that where we want to go?


----------



## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

Meh. I think you're probably making too much of it. They are definitely doing different things from each other, even if there is some amount of spatial overlap.


----------



## kabayan (Oct 25, 2004)

I do enjoy watching those NEHSCA videos on youtube. Very well made.


----------

