In 2004, Anya Bruhin received a mountain bike as a wedding gift. She and her husband traveled and mountain biked.
One of their most memorable trips was traveling to New Mexico and biking the Rio Grand River gorge the year after they were married. "We traveled with our bikes, tents, Jeep and traveled all over New Mexico," Bruhin said.
Bicycling was put on hold while their son was young, but now, they're back into it.
"Now, he's old enough to go with us and we got back into it," she said.
Bruhin coaches the Mountain Bike Club at Pea Ridge.
"They started asking for coaches, she said, and I was willing to do it," she said. "I wasn't quite sure how to go about it so I enlisted Mr. (Bobby) Rickard who is an avid cyclist."
Bruhin has coached track for two years and helped coach Heather Wade with cross country.
Rickard, husband of Sherry Rickard, family and consumer science teacher at Pea Ridge High School, have three children, two of whom attend PRHS. Rickard works at the Walmart home office.
"I found much of my free time was spent at the school and when the opportunity for school-level cycling began being discussed as a possibility in Arkansas I thought it would be a great opportunity to be involved at the school since I was already there," Rickard said.
"I have been cycling for over 30 years which, until this year with the Pea Ridge Mountain Biking team, was road cycling. I am always looking for opportunities to ride and can mostly be considered an adventure cyclist with miles on my bikes used to raise Alzheimer's disease awareness and funding. I have criss-crossed the state riding my bike and talking to people about the disease and within the next month or so I will be riding the Arkansas state border doing the same.
Serving as assistant coach with the team, Rickard's early involvement began as a liaison between the Arkansas League of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) and the school -- connecting the two groups to facilitate beginning the school team.
Coaches Bruhin and Rickard guide the students with practices, logistics to and from races and clinics, bike maintenance, race-day team organization and as catalysts for the life-long benefits of cycling. They work together in the community to generate interest and sponsorships for the team.
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Editor's note: This is the third in a three-part series on the new mountain biking club at Pea Ridge High School.
Sports on 09/28/2016