Three times a week, the Eastlake High School and South Bay Composite mountain biking team meets for practice at the Lower Otay Reservoir. They compete against other teams in the Southern California league.
“At the start of the race, you just feel so scared and your heart is beating,” said Delilah Gonzalez, 11. “When you hear them count down, ‘Three, two, one,’ it's so scary. And you just race ahead and you fight to keep that spot.”
The team is open to kids in sixth through 12th grade throughout South San Diego County. Many of the coaches are parents of the athletes. Kendra Gonzalez is Delilah’s mom.
“I don't think there's ever a practice or a team training that I come back from where I'm in a bad mood,” she said.
That’s true for the kids, too, said team director Allyn Olsen.
“There's a lot of research about the benefit of being in nature with mental health and emotional well-being,” she said. “We really see that in our kids.”
Olsen said they’re working on building their inventory of bikes they can loan to kids who don’t already have them.
“One of the challenges is, as kids grow really quickly, making sure they've got a bike that fits,” she said. “We are 100% volunteer and rely on some donations and sponsors to provide some of our kids with bikes who might not have those.”
On Saturday, Ride 4 Autism is hosting a fundraiser for the team. The local group of mountain bike riders began organizing charity events for nonprofits that support the autistic community in 2022. Olsen said proceeds will help pay for things like equipment and team fees.
“Our team will be the recipient of those proceeds this year because they've recognized how much our team has done to be really inclusive of kids of all abilities,” she said.
Some of the team members are on the autism spectrum. Andrew Schmidt, 12, is one of them.
“I love how, when you're going up hills, you feel this burn in your legs,” he said. “I like that because I know my muscles are growing.”
He likes knowing that, with each ride, he’s getting stronger.
“Sometimes I'm like, ‘Hmm, I think we should get this ride over with so that I can go home and eat macaroni and cheese,” he said. “But other times I'm like, ‘I hope this ride never ends. I'm having so much fun.’”
His dad, Jason Schmidt, is a coach.
“A lot of children on the spectrum really do individualized sports, ones that require less interaction,” he said. “A lot of the traditional team sports just really don't work for him. This team's been great because he's able to be outside and enjoy the outdoors, and he's made friends on the team. It's been awesome.”
He’s seen his son grow in his first year on the team.
“When he first joined, he was just really not confident in himself, and now he's just so much more confident in his abilities,” he said. He couldn't conquer this one little hill, and now he's going up hills ten times that. It's truly a wonderful thing, this team.”
Andrew shared his advice for kids thinking about trying mountain biking.
“It may seem hard at first,” he said. “But don't give up.”
Sign-ups for next year’s season begin in October.
