The NICA Effect
Your go to source for all things Arkansas NICA.
The NICA Effect
The NICA Effect - Episode 4 with Terry Coddington and Kyla Templeton
In this exciting episode of The NICA Effect Podcast, Anya sits down with two trailblazers in the Arkansas NICA League: founder Kyla Templeton and current league director Terry Coddington. Join us as we delve into the incredible journey of Arkansas NICA over the past 10 years, exploring the challenges and triumphs that have shaped the league.
Episode Highlights:
•A Decade of Arkansas NICA: Kyla and Terry reflect on the growth and milestones of the league since its inception.
•Mountain Bikes Rule: Discover why mountain bikes are considered the best bikes by these seasoned experts.
•Keeping the Fun Alive: Learn tips and strategies for maintaining the joy and excitement of biking for all ages.
•How to Transition League Leadership: How finding the right people for your team makes that handoff easy.
Whether you're a seasoned biker or just starting out, this episode is packed with inspiration and insights that will fuel your passion for mountain biking. Tune in and join the conversation!
Welcome to the Nika Effect podcast, your go-to source for everything related to middle, junior and high school mountain biking in the natural state. Whether you're an athlete, coach, parent or fan, we've got you covered with the latest news, inspiring stories and expert tips from all the voices of Arkansas Nika. Join me as we dive into the exciting world of youth mountain biking, celebrate the achievements of our riders and explore how NICA is shaping the future of cycling in Arkansas. From race recaps to training advice, trail highlights to community events, this is the place to stay connected with the Arkansas NICA family, so gear up and get ready to ride along with us. This is the NICA Effect Podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you to Fat Tire Bike Shop. Fat Tire is a legacy sponsor of Arkansas and Nika since the very first season. Fat Tire has locations all over the state of Arkansas and Oklahoma. They're your go-to for all of your Nika rider and coach equipment and bike service needs. They provide mechanical support at our events. Be on the lookout for even more coming from them in the upcoming season.
Speaker 3:All right, welcome again to the Nika Effect podcast. Once again, I am not Josh, I am Anya, the sponsorship and programming director for Arkansas Nika. I have with me here today Kyla Templeton, who is the former Arkansas League Director and the founder of Bike School Bentonville, and I have Terry Coddington, who is the current NICA League Director. So, briefly, I would love to hear from each of you your superhero origin story and how you got into biking.
Speaker 2:I'm going to start with Kyla, when you say superhero origin story, are you talking about where, where I was born or how I just how I got into biking? How you got into biking? I got into biking because it was the third leg of the triathlon. I was a swimmer and then I became a runner and then I became a biker.
Speaker 4:So you kind of had to finish the race, to finish the race.
Speaker 2:I couldn't do a triathlon without biking, so I got myself a road bike. Actually, I bought a mountain bike first and then, within a month, I bought a road bike because I realized I wanted to ride on the road and I was only a road biker for like the next 10 years, wow. So that's how I got into biking because I wanted to do triathlon.
Speaker 3:Nice, Terry. How'd you get into biking?
Speaker 4:As a kid. Obviously I rode bikes but I wanted to race motocross. Parents would not let me, said it was too dangerous. So I cut grass and raised money, just saved all my money until I could buy a BMX bike. And then I started building features on our property and hitting jumps and all kinds of stuff. And then eventually they started taking me to BMX tracks and started racing at the age of 14.
Speaker 3:Nice, my superhero origin story for biking is much more embedded with tears and blood and rocks. I grew up biking on my family farm and I? Um learned to ride through falling down a lot. Um, my dad taught me and uh, I basically just, you know, squirreled around on a bike on um, on a farm, dirt roads before gravel was cool. So that was that. Um, okay, we're going to move into how NICA got started in Arkansas. So the first part of this is going to be mostly questions for Kyla, but the cool thing is is that all three of us were around from the beginning, and so there may be parts of the story that other people remember or want to pipe in. So while the questions are for Kyla, we can all chip in here. So, kyla, how did Arkansas NICA start?
Speaker 2:How did we start? Well, I am not exactly sure. The super origin, the very beginning part. What I know is that Alan came to me. Alan Lay was the co-founder of the league and he came to me we had worked on some other projects Girls Bike, benville, and some triathlon things and Safe Routes to School and he came to me and he said Kyla, I want you to help me start high school mountain biking in Arkansas. And I said, alan, I don't mountain bike. Remember, I just said I road biked for 10 years. I was leading a women's road cycling organization. And he was like you know, you can fix that.
Speaker 2:And then I'm not quite sure how I got the coaching manual for NICA and I read the first chapter and I knew that mountain biking is something that my kids would do. Like, I knew that mountain biking is for kids, um, because it is safer and they learn skills, and I mean it's just like it's a wonderful way for kids to get on bikes, way better than road biking, which is what I was doing with kids. And so, um, as soon as I read that, I was like, okay, I'm in, we'll learn this thing. And um, and so, so we that was in, like probably December 2014,.
Speaker 2:Um, over Christmas I was thinking about how it was 10 years ago and, um and so in about January we started working on our bid, kind of gathering some community support. We visited the Minnesota Leaders Summit. I met a dear friend of mine, bruce, that weekend, along with, like, the league director. Anyway, we had a great weekend there and I like start. That was my first like step into NICA culture and we turned the bid in in May and also went to the, the NorCal and SoCal state championship race in May. So I got to see my first NICA race and they had so many kids there and they had a high school band at the start line that would play and, um, I loved it.
Speaker 2:The last couple of seasons you've got a band at the end, and so it's just really cool to see how our league has grown up into what I got to see in some of my very first encounters with NICA.
Speaker 3:What was it like trying to get community buy-in in the beginning?
Speaker 2:Well, people didn't really understand what we were, what was going to happen. I think that first season we had to get buy-in. We had to, we had to raise money. Before that we had a grant from Walton Family Foundation. But we went and asked this is not where I put this on my notes we asked every bike shop for $5,000, and so many of them did it. It was an amazing. They believed in us from the very beginning. But then there were really two really magical moments, I think, and the first leader summit, which you were there. You called me right after that.
Speaker 3:You missed it. I missed it because I think I broke my finger and I had to take care of I don't know. I had something going on that I couldn't be there. I wanted to be there, I tried really hard, but I broke my finger.
Speaker 2:um, but you were there and the that weekend the vision went from like a handful of people working on this to I think we had about 40 or 50 people at that first leader summit who really caught the vision of what this can be. And then the first race where we had, I think, 128 kids at the first race and, um, nobody had ever experienced a race like that in Arkansas. It was. It's so a Nike race is different from, like, a regular mountain bike race in Arkansas, and so that was like a really magical weekend because hundreds of people got to see what this was about, and then it just grew from there. So I don't know, did I you?
Speaker 3:answer the question, and it's fine, you're doing great. What were some of the biggest challenges in those early years that you faced?
Speaker 1:Well venues, which I know continues to be a challenge.
Speaker 2:The bigger you get, the harder it is, and it was hard for the small. Even when we were small it was hard to find venues and it continues to be hard. Um, you know, working in central Arkansas was hard, cause I, my kids were, and I wasn't really super flexible to travel down to central Arkansas at that point. We went a few times, but not all the time, and so central Arkansas didn't grow as fast, it was northwest Arkansas and we just focused on that. You know, staffing is always a bit of a challenge. I mean, kind of the staff was like half Girls Bike Bentonville. Girls Bike Bentonville was a women's cycling group and I put Kelsey agreed to be on the staff and she was a volunteer coordinator and Heather and Ramona were the our registration coordinators.
Speaker 2:And you know so. So we didn't, I didn't, and I went Angie she was our chief course marshal and then brought in Mindy, who was like master of course, marshalling for so long, and so, you know, I didn't. Nobody knew what this was going to be like, and so that was hard. And then when we were trying to build a staff that also has Central Arkansas, which I couldn't do and you did.
Speaker 4:Well.
Speaker 2:I would say the foundation.
Speaker 4:One of the key things is that you laid a foundation that we could build on, so an amazing foundation so all right.
Speaker 3:So how did arkansas nike evolve during your tenure? What changed um during those? What was it four years or five years? It's five years, wasn't it? Yeah, I led the five years.
Speaker 2:It was five years, wasn't it? Yeah, I led the first six seasons and seven full years working on this. So because it was, yeah, it was six full seasons and then a whole year before we started, don't cut that short.
Speaker 3:Okay, I'm sorry, time goes fast.
Speaker 2:Well, the first season we had like 168 kids and 49 coaches in the pit zone and I mean you can know every one of those. I mean I didn't know every one of them but I sure recognized most of them.
Speaker 4:I was always impressed at how many kids you knew, a little jealous even how, how like you just knew everybody.
Speaker 2:Well, that was I mean. I wish I could remember everybody's name, but it's like you know, it's important to people and so I try to do that.
Speaker 3:So what key initiatives did you implement during that time?
Speaker 2:did you implement during that time?
Speaker 2:um well, how it evolved was like you get you move to like 750 kids, ish, by the end of my tenure and it's like I can't know all those people and they don't even. They don't know me and don't know that I started this and it doesn't matter. It's like got this life of its own by the time I left, whereas at the beginning it was like it was very grassroots. Um, it's still grassroots. I would say a couple of key things that I I love that I was able to um to implement, as, like the bike loaner program.
Speaker 2:I was you know, having access to more kids, um, that that wouldn't normally have it and the team trail core hours. Really transitioning that to there's one. I making it part of the team competition is probably my favorite decision because it took something that some kids would do to get like their bonus points on the podium to a whole team getting around it and I think that is so powerful. I mean, I coach on the Lincoln Junior High team and our team had over 1,000 hours last year, now helped by an extreme situation that happened in Benville and there was need for a ton of hours, but we got out every Wednesday and all summer um working on trails.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic.
Speaker 3:I love that what was the impact that you saw in communities during that time? Well, what changed within the community from inception of hey, do this mountain biking thing to yeah, they were really onboarded. What did you see?
Speaker 2:you know, I see I watched different communities change in different ways, like I was thinking about Pea Ridge and the time we went and did that trail work in Pea Ridge and build that little trail in the middle of the schools.
Speaker 3:And now they have a whole nother trail. Yeah, and then they built a whole nother system.
Speaker 2:Which we helped with that too. We had another like league wide trail day to do that, and I was, so here's how it makes a difference, though. In in my community. What happened was I go down to the neighborhood market downtown and I started seeing the Nika kids and they had their helmets on and they're in there buying snacks, they're in the middle of a bike ride and it's just a lifestyle to them, and I I knew if that I mean, of course it's Bentonville, so it's happening in Bentonville, but I knew that was happening in other places too, and I think that's it's so cool that they you know, it's like it's a whole day for them and they're not at home playing video games, they're riding bikes with their friends and then they stop for lunch at the neighborhood market. So I really like that they stop for lunch at the neighborhood, neighborhood market.
Speaker 3:So I really like that. So what partnerships or collaborations were crucial to the league's success in those early years? You mentioned that several of the bike shops jumped on board. Um what were?
Speaker 2:some non-traditional partnerships that you saw um. I love, I did love the bike shops really getting behind us and and those that didn't get behind us got behind teams which is really the ultimate state, like that's where we want most bike shops to be supporting the league. We had a program with Walton Family Foundation and Trailblazers, which this isn't non-traditional, but they had a trail grants program. So, like the rate, the venue in mountain home was built with money that technical difficulties, we've dropped a paper.
Speaker 2:I have my notes here, I'm so prepared. The trail that we race in mountain home was built with a grant that was given by the Walton Family Foundation and the Trailblazers to build venues for NICA. Back to that challenge. And isn't the one in Conway didn't.
Speaker 4:There is a portion of a trail. The Pompey Park was built with that so we could practice, because we had nothing, yeah, so it's kind of crazy.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, we wanted, and I think maybe Jonesboro got some, I can't remember where. There were one or two others I didn't do the research to, that's okay, but I really liked. I liked that because it made a difference in those communities really directly. And then like being economic. Yeah, really directly, and then like bringing economic yeah, um, I mean the nica race there brings in hundreds of thousands of dollars to that community yeah, um.
Speaker 3:So, looking back, kyla on everything. What are you most proud of of your time as league?
Speaker 2:director. Um, I already said about the teen trail core I love I think it's so important that we create a culture of volunteerism, trail work and non-trail work. Um, and also I love the cult, the culture of the team and kind of the league as a whole. I think I think we have a really like there's a lot of camaraderie between the teams because, especially at the beginning, we were all, none of us knew what we were doing. I didn't know what I was doing any better than you did at Pea Ridge or some of us don't know what we're doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't know what, you don't know what you're doing, but we're all just kind of in it together and we're working together on something that's really cool and makes a difference to a lot, of, a lot of people. It's a really good opportunity yeah.
Speaker 3:So, terry, how did you start your leadership journey with arkansas nica?
Speaker 4:uh. So if this is kyla, this is one of kyla's gifts. Is um? I started the conway team. We didn't make it on the first year I went to the first, first leader summit.
Speaker 2:That was how you started your journey.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and that's where I started the journey was the first leader summit Met. You got inspired, did not get a team off the ground on year one, so we started Conway year two and then I just fell in love with the league. And then really the game-changing moment was I was working out of town. I live in Conway, I'm in Bentonville working and Kyla just happened to call me and it was the national conference and I didn't even know what that was at the time and you asked me to come. I dropped what I was doing, came to the conference and it changed my life. I left there ready to run through walls.
Speaker 4:And quit your other job, yeah well, I didn't quit it immediately but I was committed to the league and doing whatever I could to get more kids on bikes because I saw the vision it wasn't just kids racing bikes and how it changed their lives. It changed communities and all that.
Speaker 3:So, kyla, what made you call him and say, hey, you should come to this thing. What made you invest in him as a leader?
Speaker 2:Well, I don't remember why I called him that one day, except for to probably like I.
Speaker 4:I think you needed a ride leader, like you needed.
Speaker 2:Oh, you came to help. Yeah, you needed. Yeah, that was you.
Speaker 4:You're already in Bentonville. I just happened to be, oh, but I yeah, you needed didn't remember you needed ride leaders to lead some
Speaker 2:of the other league directors and staff on rides around Bentonville well and you know I collaborated with all of the head coaches. At that point I knew them all well. I I mean I probably had. I'm positive I had them all programmed in my phone and I could. I would just call them. I mean, one of the things I know is that I might send an email to everybody and say can you do this? And maybe one or two people are going to volunteer. But if I call Terry up and if I call Becky up and if I call Anya up and ask them as an individual to come, then they're way more likely to come and help and so.
Speaker 2:but you know, so I knew what Terry was doing in Conway. I knew that he was doing everything so well, building an amazing team with an amazing culture and and yeah, he got like you can kind of tell when somebody wants to do more it is.
Speaker 4:maybe I can kind of tell it's like maybe it's one of my superpowers just glad I answered the phone I know what would happen if I was in some other meeting or something and missed the next episode, an alternate universe in which terry's, not the league.
Speaker 2:I probably would have sent you a text message, because I do that too.
Speaker 3:So from there, you were head coach of the Conway team. How did you begin to kind of move up the ladder, so to speak?
Speaker 1:And what was?
Speaker 4:it about him that made you just keep asking will you do more? So for me I would just kind of going along coaching Conway. Things are rocking and rolling and probably around year two of the Conway team you asked me to get involved to be a coach trainer, and I started doing that and then eventually became the coaching director eventually became the coaching director, and and then I became the associate director.
Speaker 2:Yeah, anybody that keeps doing things well, I like to keep working with also our brains do well together. Like you know, like we, it may be something about having ADHD, but it's like I didn't. I'm not gonna put that label on you but for me, like you, I could kind of spin up with certain people and I could spin up with Terry pretty well.
Speaker 2:So I'm like a wind up toy, Like no, it's like the, the brains, like they just kind of move up and up and up and get more and more things done and ideas come and we, we work together really well, yeah, I always knew what you were thinking yeah and what you wanted and we didn't have to have like these long conversations to figure it out.
Speaker 3:So yeah, they're gonna start changing yeah finishing each other's sentence sentences here in a minute all right, um. So you began to invest in him as a leader and ask him to take on more roles coaching director, associate director. What was it like for you to watch him start to take the reins?
Speaker 2:Oh, I think it's awesome. I'm not necessarily one I mean, maybe I'm not self-aware here at all, but because I'm sure I hold on more than I should but I get really excited when somebody else is doing something well and, you know, do more and more. I really do like to work myself out of a job. I was super excited about that last season too, where I was just going to get to not have to do anything until until you had a bike wreck and ended up in the closet um and then I then I was like full-on league director again.
Speaker 2:I was like really gonna like ride off in the sunset my last season. It was gonna be so easy, and then I was like doing everything again yeah, for so for the audience, what happened?
Speaker 3:was not a mountain bike right.
Speaker 4:No, it was a road biking right I, I was, yeah, so kyla was basically the, the voice of nika, and I was doing a lot of stuff behind the scenes, and then I'd just go out on a road ride and just crash myself and uh, two nights in icu, two nights in the regular hospital yeah, it was bad so it's really bad broken broken parts. Yeah, we were scared and uh, so left you with that. Um with that and but I did I did I was at war eagle in a neck brace I remember that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I remember that very clearly yeah and I remember kyla got on the microphone and would tell everyone over and, over and over again, just so everyone knows terry did not crash a mountain bike, it was road biking I think road biking is way more hazardous than mountain biking, I agree you go so much faster.
Speaker 4:The road is harder than the dirt every time I've crashed on a road bike it is something else or someone else's fault. So, whether it be a road condition or whatever, you hear that everybody. Mountain bikes are safer if I crash on a mountain bike, it is entirely my fault okay, and that too, since we've known each other that tree's been there for 75 years yeah kyla what advice did you have for terry as you waved and went into the sunset?
Speaker 2:you know, I was really thinking about this before this interview and I don't really remember any advice. Maybe you remember advice that I don't. I'm not sure I gave you any advice because I don't know that you necessarily needed a lot of advice I just, you were just always there for me to bounce stuff off.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's true, like we, it's even the like.
Speaker 2:First year I was not the league director, we talked a lot about the league yeah, and it's.
Speaker 2:You know there's something about. I mean, one of the thing that's wonderful about being a nike league director is that there's 30 of you across the country and so you have people that you can talk to about your work, that really understand and, like in the position I'm in, I have Bike School Bentonville. It's its own thing and you know I have some camaraderie still but it's not the same as the position Terry's in having these peers across the country and and so it's really nice to talk to somebody with like that that you don't have to explain everything to they're, just they're there doing the work too and they want to problem solve it with you. It's. It was. That was one of my favorite things about being an elite director, and some of my closest friends still are, are, um, are people that yeah, it's a family.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it really is, it's it's a wonderful family, um, and they come to visit sometimes. Yeah.
Speaker 3:All right. So, as Kyla transitioned out, what were some of those early challenges for you, terry?
Speaker 4:Uh. So taking over after Kyla, my biggest fear was, while she doesn't have big feet, I had big shoes to fill. So, um, I just knew everyone loved her and I'm just different. Right, I'm just a different type of leader and that scared me taking over. She built an amazing team. Throughout my whole career, I was used to taking over things that were train wrecks, and this was the first time that I was ever handed the reins of something that was going really well, it was in good shape, yeah it was in good shape and going really well, so, um.
Speaker 4:so that was basically don't, don't screw it up.
Speaker 2:I knew you wouldn't.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, I for me, I knew you had a skillset that was so. Like you know we can, we have a lot in common, but we also came at it from totally different angles. Like I've never done a mountain bike race. I don't know if that's a secret or not, but Terry's done so many mountain bike races and I knew that he could. You know even that perspective he has so, so much that he brings to the league that I couldn't bring to the league.
Speaker 3:Nice, yeah, very complimentary, um. So what were some of the best foundational practices that she put in place for you when you took over?
Speaker 4:Foundational practices. So communication was big. You communicated really well. We had the weekly meetings with the leadership team and I just kept those going because, um, it's essential just to stay connected. We take a little break in the winter but, honestly, that leadership team works year round.
Speaker 2:It's like there's.
Speaker 4:No, I mean it's seasonal, but it's it's, yeah, and it's, and it's gotten even busier than ever, like we're doing all kinds of stuff year round now, but, um, so just keeping that pace, um and and trying to. You know, whenever you're working with volunteers, it gives so much of their time taking some of the strategies and how she treated volunteers Like. I learned a lot from Kyla on. I've never worked in the nonprofit world until NICA, and so this it was before that. It was a military and it was a corporate world and everyone either did it because you were told to or you were getting paid to, and this is entirely different. So all the amazing coaches and all of that and just trying to to, I guess, fill their cups. My job, what I took, was my job is to fill everyone else's cups.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Wander around telling people they're doing a good job.
Speaker 3:So tell us about the growth in the last few years and not just numbers, like all aspects of growth oh yeah.
Speaker 4:So it's a really compelling story because, like when this started, like we talk about our why a lot, and whenever we started, like why I started the conway team, um, and then that evolved, and then what? Like my why now is entirely different than whenever I started 10 years ago.
Speaker 3:And I just rephrase the question I get tell about, tell us about the growth, all aspects of the growth, all aspects.
Speaker 4:So, um, you probably want to edit that part out and ask the question again do over?
Speaker 1:that's fine um kyla's taking notes. I think I have, and that's where I start going.
Speaker 4:Why is she taking notes? Her add is rubbing off on me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sorry all right, terry, tell us about the growth that you've seen in the last few years, all the different aspects, not just the numbers of student athletes and coaches.
Speaker 4:Great question. So we are so much more than just youth racing mountain bikes. We have outreach. Now that is year round that we're reaching out to communities and taking bikes to communities, working with coaches, potential coaches, team leaders, um, and just sharing kind of evangelizing our mission all over the state. Um, teen trail core, which Kyla helped get started here in Arkansas last year we did 13,000 hours.
Speaker 4:It is a total game changer Whenever you think of trails and the story that you can go into new communities and tell um there's communities all over the state that have seen the sport of mountain biking grow and they want to know how do I get trails?
Speaker 4:And the best answer is get kids on bikes start a NICA team the best answer is get kids on bikes, start a NICA team, start a NICA team and you get kids on bikes. And the one thing that I tell people all the time is, when you get kids on bikes, you're going to get families on bikes and then you start to change the community. City leaders don't want to tell these people no, and they'll find, they will find a way. Then also have these families and teams and stuff that are willing to give back to the community and serve their communities, and so that is one of the things that I've loved watching grow how many just watching teams get so big they have to split Like composite teams and they get like fayetteville's 95 kids you know, conway got to 75 and and so they split.
Speaker 4:And we thought and I always argued with kyla or this she tried to get me to split conway when I was a coach and I just but that. So they split and they thought they're gonna have like five, five kids on this Conway Christian team and they have 15. And this year they're going to have 30. Wow, if not more.
Speaker 2:It's hard to split the teams, but it generally results in growth Right. Exactly.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Talk about the growth in your staff and how people are coming forward wanting to do more.
Speaker 4:So that's kind of one of the things that I'm really proud of is our race production team and leadership team and they as, as I've traveled all around the country and I've seen and there's so many amazing volunteers and leagues and and but when you travel around I'm blessed to have what I feel like is one of the, if not the best, one of the best race production crews in the entire bike industry. I agree, like it's. It's what, what they do in the level of production and how much and just, but also how much fun we have, and I think that is one of the biggest things. People see us having fun. And we talked about family and we, we get together and do whether it's potluck or whatever we're doing these things together and it really is like a, like a family that people want to be a part of. Yeah, and just reach out and want to be like part of that team and you should not lose the opportunity to recruit right now.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, it's a really like I mean being, and that's one of my favorite things about NICA is that there's just a whole um selection of skills that you could learn through working at nika I learned and grew so much in my time and you you can kind of pick and choose what you want to learn, but but you have like really wonderful people to learn it with and then peers across the country, because you we can connect you with the people in missouri or or um well being in Arkansas we have people moving here from other states that are basically already trained, which?
Speaker 3:is a really cool part. They're already trained.
Speaker 4:It's been fun as well yeah, but so with two regions so last year we split where we have two region plains and plateaus and so we essentially had to double our race crew and we pulled off the first race in the history of arkansas nika where we put on two races the same day. And that's because of all of these people, like we split our resources and all that stuff yeah and so now we're going to do that twice in 2025 it's gonna be great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's gonna be fun currently recruiting but it's so fun like it's it doesn't feel like a job like race.
Speaker 4:I mean race weekends, is you know it's it takes a lot out of you, but it doesn't.
Speaker 2:It does it's it's hard work, but it is so fulfilling to watch those kids.
Speaker 3:And then we all go to work Monday to relax. I know.
Speaker 4:But it's so fun. Whenever, so like our coaches are one of our most valuable assets, yep, but you know we need them on bikes you know, and some of them are like chaperones more or less, and then some are like really talented level two, level three coaches. But like being on the race crew, you don't have to even ride, like we have folks on our race crew that don't even ride bikes, but they love the mission yeah and they want to.
Speaker 4:They want to get more kids on bikes just as bad as anybody, even though they don't ride bikes.
Speaker 3:So and some of them ride bikes, but they don't necessarily want to coach, yeah, um, but they still want to be a part of it, and so that's been a lot of fun. As the recipient of many of those requests and asks for how can I get more involved, is there a space for me? There is. We have folks with a lot of different skill set that come to the table with all kinds of background experiences that we can find a place for. So if you're interested in joining the event staff, let us know. Final thoughts on where Arkansas NICA is. Kyla, what are your thoughts under the direction of Terry? Is this what you envisioned?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Actually, I think one of the things I really liked as a league director. I wanted to be a progressive league director, to want to try new things, and I've watched Terry continue to do that, Like last year, piloting fifth grade and also hosting the first regional event here. It's been done in the East but nobody in our region's done it. And so so it's. I love seeing that you're still kind of pushing for things that, um, that haven't been done yet and that you want to bring them to Arkansas first. I like that.
Speaker 3:Uh girl scoring, girl scoring. That was, that was your idea. Yeah, that's a great, great, that was a really good one it's.
Speaker 2:It's good to change it up a little bit and and it you know, see how different things work. And yeah, um, you know what we didn't talk about. I'm a nika coach. I'm a level three nika coach. Well, maybe probably not at this moment, um, because I haven't got in the pit zone yet.
Speaker 2:I know I should have two weeks ago, but I were I coach on the lincoln junior high team now and I think it's so fun and um, and it's so so I, I, I get like firsthand to get to experience this um, and it's like just as fun, as I told everybody that it was for so long.
Speaker 4:And I'd never been.
Speaker 2:I'd never been. I mean, I had been certified as a coach but I had never done the day in, day out coaching until two seasons ago. I took one year totally off and then Carson was on the Lincoln Junior High team two years ago, and so I joined the coaching staff and it was so fun.
Speaker 4:Well, and you can probably attest to this. So one of the things that I do is coaching fills my bucket, yeah, and so you get mired down as a league director in all the paperwork and planning and meetings and all the stuff and I'm like you know I I gotta go, like I will go just join a team for practice and work with kids, and it just puts me back.
Speaker 4:it kind of reframes me, re-energizes me, whatever you want to say, but like it, it re-centers me, yeah, re-centers me, and fills my bucket and puts me back into that wanting to run through walls.
Speaker 3:So there's nothing like seeing that immediate impact and getting to the end of your day thinking you're exhausted and the last thing you want to go do is wrangle a bunch of fifth graders.
Speaker 2:But then you get out there and you start counting bunnies and you just can't help but have a good time. I'm so glad I have an e-bike now. I just can't help but have a good time. I'm so glad I have an e-bike now. Sometimes I ride my e-bike if it's the second ride of the day All the kids give me such a hard time.
Speaker 4:When I show up at a practice on an e-bike, they just yeah, they give me a really hard time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, sometimes I don't have it on yeah All right.
Speaker 3:All right, so share one memorable moment.
Speaker 2:kyla one, one memorable moment um, okay, I the, I think, I. I think it was our first season. It might have been our second season, you might be able to tell me. Uh, one memorable moment is we had this one race where every race plate was not tied down in three places and so they kept flipping up. And Don is an amazing scorekeeper timer person but it and it took her. I don't know how she got it all sorted out, but it took like an extra 90 minutes. And then we got chip timing. We got a grant right after that to buy a chip timing system which could make it so that that day was that like?
Speaker 2:leatherwood. No, it was siloam. It was, I think, the second race of the season. I think it might have been the first season and by like the fourth season or the fourth race, we had a chip timing system so I don't know that was that was one of the. It was like a I mean, I'm positive. I cried halfway home from that race because it was a really hard day, but it, you know it turned out really good and and don's still with us, don's still amazing yeah, she's still amazing she's so good at that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's so. I mean I could never be the timer.
Speaker 3:What about you? Remember one moment.
Speaker 4:So for for me I was, I had this like epiphany. So two years ago we started the seniors one last ride at the end of the season. And we just we're like, oh, this is a good idea. And then it like went off and we're really excited about it.
Speaker 4:And then this year I went down and I like high-fived every senior wearing a cape where I had my superhero cape on, so beautiful I would give you credit for getting me to wear the superhero cape, so um, but I went down and I got to see all the seniors and some of the coaches were riding. Some of the parents that were coaches are riding, but I saw athletes, that one athlete in particular that had never even been to a nika race but was a senior and came to that race just to do the one last ride.
Speaker 4:And now whenever I look back and there's like some great footage of them like riding the course kind of slow, rolling, and I'm high-fiving everybody, and it makes me just about cry every time I see it yeah, oh, I did.
Speaker 2:I riley riddell um don's daughter. I rode her last lap I remember that laugh of her last race with her and you know, because she was like sixth or seventh grade when we started and then she was a senior, my last season.
Speaker 3:She's a legacy rider, yeah.
Speaker 2:And it was, that was another.
Speaker 3:I mean, there's so many memorable moments, I don't know why I picked the one at Asylum Springs. No, it's all right, it's what stuck to you. There are, yeah, but that's the trial by fire.
Speaker 4:So there's times where, like what we teach the kids, like you're gonna learn more from failures and that was one of those moments.
Speaker 2:Well, and how amazing don was to be able to sort all that out, because she didn't know who all these people were. Yeah, they. She couldn't see their number.
Speaker 4:Yeah, her and jeff. Both are like like ice man or whatever just they, I know she didn't have jeff then but,
Speaker 2:like I've watched now.
Speaker 4:Yeah they're still the occasional issue, like in the, the timing that, that is probably one of the more stressful things.
Speaker 3:Wizardry, it's wizardry. We don't know how they do it. It's all magic, it is pretty pretty magical. So this is the Nike effect, and we talk a lot about the Nike effect. So now my final question to you and I don't know, maybe we make this something. We ask all of our guests what is the NICA effect in you, Kyla?
Speaker 2:Well, um, I think it just like it grew skills in me and I mean, I think it's probably the job I've been best suited for in all of the jobs I've had Now I guess I haven't had that many, but many but um, but it grew skills in me and it gave me confidence that I could do all kinds of different things, including mountain biking. Like I was not a mountain biker before. Now it's my preference for how to ride my bike, um, all the time. So, yeah, it for sure. And and it created relationships with people across the country. I have friends I visit all the time. Like we go up to Minnesota and see some of our best friends up there and yeah, we see NICA people all the time. And because it was kind of a breeding ground for good relationships.
Speaker 3:Terry night good fact.
Speaker 4:For me. I've always kind of found myself in service roles, like whether I got out of school I joined the military, I'm serving, I get out, I'm in insurance, but I'm on the claim side. So I'm serving, I get out, I'm like I'm in insurance but I'm on the claim side. So I'm serving communities that way and so it does that for me, the but serving the communities and the kids and all that. The one thing and I said this to somebody one time and they just it just kind of stopped them in their tracks was, I feel, like my whole life. I didn't really know what I wanted to be when I grew up until I found NICA and so the, the like. The moral of the story is my life didn't really start being enriched until I started giving to NICA and that's the only thing like. That's for me. That's the NICA effect is I have the best job and the best surrounded by the best people and the best surrounded by the best people and the best organ, like I just pinch me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, and it's why that volunteerism is so important and teaching you know, it's like giving kids the opportunity to do that at seventh grade, eighth grade, ninth grade, like because service is really really important to people and we have kids now leaving, graduating and coming back as coaches, as alumni.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and so that's cool.
Speaker 3:It is cool.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So we could sit here and talk forever and I'm pretty sure if I just left the room you guys would continue just vamping, you know it. Well, we've got to wrap it up and thank you both, both of you. I learned a lot about what was going on behind the scenes from those early years, so thank you both you were there, though you were coaching P Ridge, so well thanks glad to be here yep glad to be here.