our vision

Enable every Utah teen to strengthen body, mind and character through the life-long sport of cycling

our mission

Establish a fun, enduring, and relevant interscholastic mountain biking program to improve Utah's communities and the lives of Utah's teens 

our core Principles

Fun, Inclusivity, Equity, Respect and Community

League History

In 2023, the Utah League will celebrate its 12th year of racing. The league held its first race in 2012 and that same year became the largest first-year league in NICA history. By 2014 the Utah League grew to become the largest league in all of NICA. In 2015 the Utah League became the first league to develop an Elevate program. By 2016, and due to continued exponential growth, the Utah League split into two regions, and hosted a record 9 races. In 2018 the league split into three regions and hosted a record of 13 races. In 2020, even with the difficulties of the coronavirus, the Utah League grew again with almost 5,000 participating student-athletes and over 2,700 registered coaches. Once again, the league needed to expand, and a fourth region was created. Last year, in 2022, the league expanded to 6 regions and conducted a record 25 races.

dallen atack - board president

Dallen joined the league in 2018 and served as League Director for six years. During his tenure, the league grew from two to six regions and from 3,100 student athletes to 7,300. The credit for the success of the league belongs to the passionate coaches, amazing staff and dedicated race crew. “We are an awesome community. As a youth development organization, we can take great pride as we strengthen the bodies, minds and character of Utah teens through the sport of mountain biking.”

Prior to joining the league, Dallen served in the United States Army for 32 years. He retired as a Brigadier General and his final assignment was the Commander of the Utah Army National Guard. The most rewarding aspect of his military service was training young men and women to accomplish more than they thought possible. Dallen got hooked on mountain biking over thirty years ago after spending a weekend in Moab. His department store bike fell apart on the first morning, so he rented a bike for the remainder of the trip and has been a recreational rider ever since.  “I have been all over the world, but when I see the Utah mountains from the airplane window, I know I’m coming home.”

jim wedge - Chair of governance committee

Jim has been a part of the league since its inception, first as Head Coach of the fledgling Alta team for 2 years and then as a part of the Race Crew helping set courses.  When asked in 2016 to continue his involvement as the board president, Jim didn’t hesitate, as he continues to believe (and has seen) that high school mountain biking has an amazing effect on kids and is a positive force for all that become involved.  Jim has his wife Shelly to thank for sparking his love of mountain biking as she bought him his first mountain bike in 1990, and he has been riding ever since.  He enjoys riding endurance races and has participated in the Breck Epic and Translyvania Epic stage races and the Crusher in the Tushar to name a few.  

Jim brings an extensive leadership background from his 20 years of service as a Marine Corps officer.  While serving, Jim also received his Master’s degree in IT Management from the Naval Postgraduate School in 2001.  Following his retirement from active service in 2006, Jim has worked in the private sector as a Program Manager for a software company that provides airline reservation systems to customers throughout the globe.  Jim is also a board member for the local chapter of Free Bikes for Kidz (FB4K) which refurbishes used bikes for kids in need. Jim and Shelly live in the Sugar House area of SLC and most times can be found on skis or bikes somewhere along the Wasatch front.

Sarah Kaufmann - Pro athlete representative

Sarah is the pro athlete representative on the Board. She is a member of the DNA Pro Cycling Team and the owner/operator at K Cycling Coaching. Sarah has raced mountain bikes at the professional level all over the world and she is thrilled to be providing the highest level possible mountain bike experience to high school students in Utah. She coaches a number of elite junior racers who compete in the league and beyond, including domestic and international UCI races. Originally from Massachusetts, Sarah now lives in Salt Lake City. 

Jamie Pogue - Chair of Trails Development and Advocacy

Jamie gained a love of biking when he was young, riding bikes around the rural Kentucky roads with his dad and brother.  When he was introduced to mountain biking after dental school he truly had found his passion.  Since then, he’s ridden mountain bikes, road bikes and single speed mountain bikes continuously looking for new challenges.  He’s completed several LOTOJA races, road races, criteriums, The Leadville 100, Park City Point to Point, 24 hour relays, 12 hour relays ICUP races and even managed to get on the occasional podium. 

Jamie also serves as Chairman of the Draper City Parks Trails and Recreation Committee which helps to build and maintain the trails in the Corner Canyon Regional Park.  His biggest accomplishment on that committee was developing the idea and overseeing construction of the “Rush Trail” which is a bikes only flow trail in the canyon.

In 2012, his wife Whitney, also an avid cyclist, started the mountain bike team at Corner Canyon H.S. and Jamie became one of her assistant coaches. That team has had the title of "The largest NICA team in the country" since its inception. Jamie and his wife agree that it’s the most rewarding thing they have ever done on bikes.  “It’s so amazing to see the change in these kids and we are so grateful to be a small part of that change”.   They have 2 daughters that have been on their team and 2 sons who are already shredding the trails in preparation for their high school careers.  Jamie is honored to have been asked to serve on the Utah League Board of Directors and looks forward to doing whatever he can to help put more kids on bikes and introduce them to a lifelong sport.

Jamie earned his Dental degree at the University of Kentucky and subsequently received his Specialty Certificate in Endodontics from Boston University.  He supports his bike habit and garage bike shop as the owner of Redwood Endodontics

Lori Barrett

Hailing from Austin, Texas, Lori found both her community and her professional home in the cycling industry. Two wheels has always equaled freedom for Lori, having raced everything from road and track bikes to cross country and enduro mountain bikes.

Lori transitioned into working in the bike industry from a modest career as a road racer and director of a women’s elite development team, where she found pro team rides for other talented ladies. From managing event and athlete sponsorship for Clif Bar in Texas, she moved into sales roles in the bike industry, eventually accepting a Sales Manager position with a carbon wheel company in Utah. Cut to the present, where she is the Managing Director for Spanish brand ROTOR Bike Components, running their North American subsidiary, based out of Salt Lake City. 

Lori still loves flying through the air on her mountain bike, and is stoked to help bring her love of bikes to future generations with the Utah High School Mountain Bike League.

Spencer millerberg

If NICA had been around in 1990, Spencer would've been its first fanboy, but he had to wait until 2016 when his kids joined. Since then, he's been a coach, trail builder, donor, volunteer, and probably the guy who brings the best team snacks. Spencer led the creation of the Butterfield Canyon trail system, the only NICA racecourse in the Salt Lake Valley. Spencer and his family also love supporting every biking initiative under the sun in Utah: The Utah Bicycle Collective, Trails Utah, The Oquirrh Foundation, and more. And just for kicks, Spencer races in Leadville, TrueGrit, Frog Hollow, and more.

Professionally, Spencer's resume reads like a retail thriller: Walmart, Amazon, and then the world of startups, founding more companies than he has bikes… well… not quite. Speaking of kids, Spencer & Amanda are raising a mini peloton in South Jordan – four biking enthusiasts and one rebel who thinks running track is cooler.

Bryce Owen

In the early 90’s Bryce’s playground was Slick Rock, the White Rim trail and anywhere with red dirt.  His riding, hiking, backpacking, fishing, canyoneering, jeeping, boating, and triathlon experiences has led to years of outdoor fun with family and friends. Yesterday bikes were fun, but today’s bikes and NICA teams are something that couldn’t have been dreamed of in his early riding days. His mantra “if you haven’t crashed, you’re not going fast enough” has changed a bit in recent years with some more that fun experiences.

Now as a father of riders, a coach on his local team, and a business owner (of a cycling brand) his time is spent supporting families, riders and teams in their adventures outdoors.  His company is an ongoing sponsor of NICA UT and NICA National and has been for many years.  His love is to be outdoors enjoying the good weather and battling the bad.  Bryce can be seen around the world at cycling events, but nothing is better than being with the teams on the trails and at races right here in Utah. 

Jay Morgan - Chair of finance committee

marc rasich - legal counsel

Jason Munns - region 1 coach representative

Jason loves sports and outdoors, no matter the activity. He is a very avid fly fisherman and fly tyer, loves time in the backcountry on backpacking adventures. During the winter, he enjoys racing fat bikes, snowboarding, skiing and guiding snowmobile trips in Island Park, Idaho. He began his bike racing early in his elementary school years racing BMX (yes, with cool white mag wheels on a chrome Redline) and raced for several years; however, a significant bike crash ended his bike racing due to severe head injuries (back when helmets were not the norm). He picked up golf at that point (pretty much the only non-contact sport he was allowed to do) where he golfed competitively throughout the country for many years. Racing bikes came back into play out of high school and through college where he rode and raced road bikes with all his friends. After college and a few years of playing around, he married his best friend and now wife Holly in 1998 and started a family where they have 2 boys and 2 girls. He owns and enjoys a few business ventures with some close friends. After many years of raising a family and working in these business adventures, he started the Box Elder Comp in 2015 as a way to give back to the community that had given so much to him and has been the Box Elder head coach since then. He still loves riding and racing bikes and can be found attempting to maintain some level of "fitness" during the year and you can find him and his family at most of the non-NICA road, gravel and MTB races that are held in the western states throughout the year.

Ben butterfield - Region 2 Coach Representative

Ben path started with Nica and the Utah Cycling League in 2017, disenchanted with most organized sports, his family was looking for better options. Luckily his nephews had invited him to a race at Round Valley, it was love at first sight. Ben has ridden bikes his whole life and measures various life milestones with the make of bike he was riding at the time. The yellow huffy, his grade school crush. The Specialized Rockhopper Comp, his high school sweetheart. It had a Tioga Farmer John tire on the rear and Farmer John’s Cousin on the front. The red stumpjumper he bought right after getting married and the black Felt F55 he bought after his first child was born. The list goes on and on. The things he loves more than his bikes are his kids and his wife Camille. Incidentally, his wife Camille has no desire to ride bikes, but is so incredibly accepting of his obsession she often encourages him to buy more bikes. Bikes have given so much to Ben and his family. He loves to share them with others, as he coaches one of the leagues largest teams, the Farmington High Mountain bike team.

ROCHELLE BARTSCHI - REGION 3 COACH REPRESENTATIVE

If you want to see Rochelle’s eyes light up, just ask her about riding bikes. She started her journey as a
road cyclist, but quickly fell in love with mountain biking when she signed on to be a coach with her son
for West Granite Composite in 2014. She has found her passion for coaching student-athletes and is
delighted to see them achieve their goals as they grow throughout each season. This will be Rochelle’s
third year serving as the Head Coach for West Granite, and she is loving it!
Rochelle loves to travel and is always looking for an opportunity to ride her bike in new places. She also
loves to hike, read, and bake in her spare time.

jo darton - region 4 coach representative

Jo has been riding and crashing on bikes for as long as she can remember. Her passion for mountain biking led her to join the Herriman Trails Committee in 2014 where she helped fight for open space and trail planning. She became Chair of that committee in 2017 and has been instrumental in the building of many new trails in Herriman. In 2018 Jo founded the Herriman Hills Trails Alliance, a non-profit partner of Trails Utah dedicated to the planning, funding, and building of trails in the southwest mountains of Salt Lake Valley.
Jo’s relationship with the Utah Cycling League began when she pitched a Trails Day at the season kick-off of the Herriman High School MTB team. The team worked on the trails, Jo’s son joined the team and Jo’s family was hooked. She served as a parent volunteer, then a ride leader and assistant coach with the Herriman HS team. She now serves as the Co-Head Coach of the new Mountain Ridge HS MTB team. Jo loves to ride (and crash) with the kids and share her love of mountain biking with all the enrichment and life lessons that come from being on a bike.

JORDAN NIELSON - REGION 5 COACH REPRESENTATIVE

Jordan has been sending it on dirt since he took the training wheels off his own BMX bike when he was four years old.  Testing out the mountain bike became a priority in teenage years where he put helmets to the test as well.  Jordan has been coaching high school mountain bikers in south Utah County since 2015 and took over as head coach of Nebo Composite in 2019.  He has enjoyed dreaming up ways to test kids' limits for the past five years and make them think it's fun while they're doing it.  Motivated by building a community first  and then building racers second, Jordan has watched Nebo Composite grow to five separate high school teams.  Not willing to let the large and vivacious community of mountain bikers in south Utah County go by the wayside, Jordan took the role of President of Nebo Goats MTB, a mountain biking non-profit,  to provide support and community for all five high schools in the Nebo School District and remains head coach of the Spanish Fork team.  Jordan loves to work with kids to help them learn mental and physical toughness, build a positive mental game, achieve goals, and learn to be a valuable asset to a team in whatever way they can. Go Goats!

Monica Nielson - region 6 coach representative

Monica got involved in mountain biking in 2015 when she was asked to help start a mountain bike team. She was thrilled to help develop a program that she knew her oldest son would be excited to be a part of. Later that fall, she was invited to ride in Moab with some team members’ moms and she was hooked.

She has come to appreciate the uniqueness of the mountain biking community. She has met so many amazing and talented people and is excited to be a part of getting more people, of all ages, interested in this lifelong sport.

When she’s not on her bike, she’s at the lake, on the river, camping in the mountains, snowboarding or snowshoeing.

Chris Best - league director

Chris started mountain biking back in grade school when the only option you had was to build your own "klunker," as the mountain bike had yet to be invented. Push uphill, bomb downhill, crash. Repeat. Those early experiences led to a lifetime of messing around with bikes. You name it - if it has two wheels and pedals, Chris has probably built, raced, and crashed it more times than he can remember. Most of his faster years were spent racing track (velodromes) as a sprint and kilo specialist. Raced up and down the west coast, doing pretty good on the national level. But Chris never lost his love for riding dirt. Fast forward to 2015, Chris has two daughters and heard of this NICA thing. He and his daughters check out a pre-ride at Soldier Hollow, and his jaw drops. Chris was expecting 20-30 kids (a big race when he was a junior) but not this. 100's of kids riding, and he knew right then he and his daughters found their people. Very soon it became a family affair with both daughters racing, and his wife Lucy coaching as well. A few years later, Chris got tagged to run the Park City High School team, and that was that. He found where he needed and wanted to be. Been head coach, chief mechanic, bottle washer and counselor for the most amazing group of people he has had the good fortune to know for 5 years now. While for most people 2020 is a year best forgotten, Chris feels much differently. The challenges of COVID-19 presented us with the necessity to see and do things differently. Our perspective as individuals and a team changed to best face the challenge, we grew and learned, and as a result we had our most rewarding season ever. Chris did not expect this but will always remember this lesson. Prior to taking this position, Chris was a designer for Black Diamond Equipment for 18 years, making all sorts of fun stuff for mountain adventures. Recreation is typical for Chris. Bikes on dirt, skis on snow. And little skijouring with the dogs to keep things interesting.

brad thurgood

Director of Operations & Logistics
Brad was introduced to cycling at a very young age by his family. As his passion for cycling grew, he expanded his interest into different disciplines (gravel, cyclo-cross, road and enduro) and was involved with racing different disciplines across the country. When NICA branched out to Utah, Brad become a student-athlete and raced during the first two years before graduating high school. Afterwards, he went on to become a rider leader for his high school team. Beginning in 2017, he worked for the league as a Chief Course Marshal for two regions. Brad continues to spread the love that he has developed for cycling to all upcoming and seasoned student-athletes.

Tera Frank

Region 1 Race Director
Tera took up mountain biking in 2015, she instantly fell in love with the sport and got her family involved.  She has been working with the Utah High School Cycling League since her children started racing in 2017.  Tera’s oldest finished her senior season in 2021, she has a junior that races, and her youngest will start his 6-year career with the league right after her junior graduates, so she’s here for the long haul!  Tera has worked with the Copper Hills Team and Herriman HS Team throughout the years her kids have raced as well.  When Tera isn’t doing anything mountain bike-related, you can find her working on the Reentry Team at the Utah State Prison, where she manages and coordinates the benefits given to those that release into the community weekly. Tera’s passion for mountain biking and the good that comes from participating in the league is evident when you talk to her.  She’s excited to take on the role of Race Director and to get the season kicked off! 

Michelle Lyman

Region 2 Race Director
Michelle has been involved with the Utah High School Cycling League and NICA since her oldest son raced as a freshman in 2012.  All 4 of her children raced, ending with the youngest finishing his senior season in 2021.  She will forever be grateful for the positive influence the league has had on her family.  She taught high school before taking time off to raise her kids, and has been involved in directing several road cycling events.  After finishing 10 years with the Morgan MTB team she was thrilled to come on as the Region 2 Race director in 2022.

Cortney Thurgood

Region 3 Race Director
I have been working with the league for the last 8 years.  I started with the league helping with merchandise and moved from there over to the course marshal tents!  I have been working for a hospital for the last 10 years and with covid I just am not loving the healthcare field anymore!!  My hope is to grow my passion for these young athletes and help them build the confidence they need to continue for the rest of their lives!

Kristine Peterson

Region 4 Race Director
Kristine started her biking career on the road but made the jump to mountain biking after her oldest son joined their local high school bike team.  Since that time, she's been a dedicated team mom, ride leader, and co-head coach of the Jr Devo team.  Her oldest son has since graduated, her 2nd son will be racing as a Freshman and her youngest will be joining the Jr Devo Team in the 2021 season.  Kristine came to the league after spending 6 years as a race director for a running event company that hosted events all over the US.  She's happiest when she's helping huge groups of people have a good time.  When not on her bike, she loves to spend time with her family and friends.  One of her favorite things to do is travel, she wants to see and do everything she possibly can. 

Brooke Howard

Region 5 Race Director
Brooke joined the UHSCL staff just in time for the 2017 season to kick off. She has been on the sidelines cheering on her boys who have been racing in the league since the junior devo program's conception. Her oldest son is now racing Varsity and her youngest will race Freshman in 2018.

Brooke fell in love with mountain biking after watching and supporting her husband and two sons race. This inspired her to be involved in the sport and help grow the mountain bike industry. She has over 7 years of experience as a race director with the Midweek MTB- race series and has spent countless hours working on trails to give back to the community.

In her off time, you can find Brooke out riding bikes, enjoying time with her family and friends or cruising around in her Razor.

Ginger Hall

Region 6 Race Director
Ginger began cycling over a decade ago, but found her true love when she first touched dirt.  She has been involved with NICA since her oldest son raced the inaugural season in Texas in 2012, first as a race volunteer, then an assistant coach and finally head coach of the Lubbock Bombers (8 kids strong!).  Following the allure of unlimited singletrack, Ginger and her husband, Danny, moved their family to Cedar City in August 2014 and quickly signed their middle son up for the race season.  Together, they formed the Iron Giants mountain bike team in 2016.  Her youngest is a member of the Iron Giants and loves forming friendships with kids from other teams.  Coaching the mountain bike team has been one of her biggest joys and there's simply nothing better than cheering each and every kid on as they start and finish their race.  What Ginger loves most about NICA is the community that it provides. 

When not on her bike, Ginger loves hiking, fishing and sitting in the middle of rivers.

Ben Becker

Coach Licensing
Ben has been working with the Utah League since 2019 as a Chief Course Marshal and he has also supported the league as an OTB instructor.  Additionally, Ben is a Regional Instructor-Trainer for NICA, teaching new OTB 101 & 201 instructors.  Ben has been a coach with the Weber HS & JD teams since 2017 and has had 3 of his kids on the team, along with his wife Hollie who also coaches and works on the race crew.  Ben recently retired from Target where he spent 35 years, specializing in loss prevention and investigations leadership roles.  Ben founded the non-profit Utah Organized Retail Crime Association in 2012, and now runs a small non-profit supporting the Weber MTB teams.  

League staff

Executive Director - Chris Best

Director of Operations and Logistics - Brad Thurgood

Coach Licensing - Ben Becker

Region 1 Director - Tera Frank
Region 2 Director - Michelle Lyman
Region 3 Director - Cortney Thurgood
Region 4 Director - Kristine Peterson
Region 5 Director - Brooke Howard
Region 6 Director - Ginger Hall

MAILING ADDRESS:

Utah High School Cycling League
758 South Auto Mall Drive
Unit #3
American Fork, UT 84003

National Interscholastic cycling association

NICA Contact Info