Finding people to coach kids’ sports can be tricky, which is why Terrance Hawley was so surprised when, upon starting a brand-new mountain biking team – Silver Falls Mtb – the volunteer coaches showed up in droves.
“We had so many coaches,” Terrance laughed. Noting that his team has a whopping 13 coaches for only seven riders.
“But our coaching staff is awesome,” Cindy Hawley, Terrance’s wife and coaching assistant, enthused. “It’s a really neat group of adults and kids.”
And their daughter, 15-year-old Trillian, agrees.
“You get really close with the coaches, which doesn’t usually happen,” she noted. “And because the team is really small, the community among us is really tight. That makes me really happy.”
That team spirit, no matter the level and no matter the experience, is what the Hawleys think makes mountain biking such an approachable sport.
“We have a huge range of skills,” Terrance said. “We have a kid that’s an expert BMXer at state and then we have kids that it’s their first time.”
“It’s a place for everybody,” Cindy agreed. “Everybody’s welcome.”
Even those who find competitive sports intimidating. Because mountain biking, unlike many team sports, is largely based on personal performance.
“It’s a bit like swimming in that you have a tight team but you compete individually,” Terrance described. Adding that, similar to swim meets, “Typically there are races set up with mass starts in an age group.”
Of course, this is not a typical year and, as such, large groups of riders – and spectators as well – are currently out of the question.
“This year they were going to do time trials,” Terrance noted. “But it was hard to keep everyone distanced and apart. And, if there was a race here, [at Silver Falls State Park] it would fill up five or six parking lots. So, this year they’re going to do challenges.”
And so, while the coaches wait to find out what those challenges will be, the Silver Falls Mtb team – better known as the Sasquatches – have developed their own time trial competition.
“We’ve been preparing our kids to do one loop around the Newt Loop,” Terrance said of the course – a 2.2-mile trail designed specifically for mountain biking at Silver Falls State Park.
“We did awards for the three top improvements,” Cindy added. “That’s our little built-in competition. And when we’re doing the time thing, [the Newt Loop] becomes the Sasquatch Loop.”
While the Sasquatches were enjoying the 2020 season, despite the lack of organized competitions, both Terrance and Cindy are already planning for next fall, when things will hopefully be a little more normal. That planning includes team sign-ups – which will be held in the spring – and fundraising – which, in a sport with entrance fees well over $200 and expensive equipment – is a very big deal.
“We’re a nonprofit currently sponsored by Fall Line, Skyline Construction Services and Cascade Financial,” Terrance said. “They really made a lot of this happen. The finances to get this started is tough.”
“So, if anybody wants to be a sponsor, email [email protected],” Cindy said. Adding that one of Silver Falls Mtb’s goals is to eventually sponsor bikes and bike maintenance for kids who cannot afford the cost of getting into the sport.
“Even now we have kids with bikes that are not quite right,” she admitted. “And [sponsors] would get a lot of gratitude for helping get kids on bikes.”
