When nearly ten per cent of a school population is on a sports team, the numbers alone will ensure the team does well.
That is precisely the case for the Don Ross Secondary School (DRSS) mountain bike team. Every year, the school fields a large team of competitors and then dominates the events that make up the North Shore Mountain Bike League race series.
The high school race series wrapped up last week and based on the total points accumulated over the seven race series the DRSS grade 8 and grade 9 boys' teams were declared the champions. The DRSS girls in the same age group were given the same honour.
At the senior level, the Howe Sound Secondary School (HSSS) girls proved the best of all the schools in the region made up of Howe Sound, the Sunshine Coast and the Lower Mainland's North Shore.
The HSSS senior boys didn't take the team championship; however, the team leader cleaned up by winning six of the seven races in the series. Neal Kindree collected 600 points and ran away with the prize as the top North Shore senior boys' cross-country rider.
Heather Rochetta also registered a clean sweep of the senior girls' division. Like Neal, she collected 600 points.
Neal didn't win the very last race in the series because he crashed and did not finish.
"It was the same course last year that I crashed and broke my kneecap," said the grade 11 student. The league champ follows in the footsteps of his sister, Megan, who won the senior girls' title last season. Neal won't be taking the same scholastic path as his sister as he hopes to complete grade 12 in January so he can train in California in February. He plans to dedicate a full year to training.
"Most of my training is on road and my racing will be on mountain bike," Neal said. He has Olympic dreams but to get there he knows that many things have to happen. First, there is the provincial high school mountain bike championships this weekend at Buntzen Lake.
"I'm going to try my hardest," Neal said Wednesday night. "I'll be looking forward to a win but that will depend a lot on how things go race day. It is a new course this year. I'll kind of be going into it with a blindfold on."
Once the high school events are out of the way, he'll concentrate on the B.C. Cup Mountain Bike race series. The first race in the series was held last weekend near Penticton. Neal placed second overall and first in his category with a comfortable 17-minute lead over the second place rider in his grouping.
One of the B.C. Cup races will be held in Squamish this July. Neal will be one of more than 100 riders expected to participate in the Gearjammer.
The North Shore champion is one of the riders who registered for the Test of Metal before it sold out in record time.
His travel plans also include a trip to Quebec later this year to take part in national-calibre events.
"I plan to go to nationals," Neal said. "Hopefully, if I do well there I'll be going to France for the world junior championship."
