Plum Mustang mountain bike team gears up for season of growth, camaraderie

By: Michael Love
Thursday, May 2, 2024 | 9:34 PM

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Jim Yurek gets excited when talking about the continued growth of the Plum Mustang mountain bike team.

“I love what this team has done for my sons and what it still does for my daughter,” said Yurek, a retired police officer who runs The Bike Lab shop in Plum and is the Plum team director.

“It is great for camaraderie and getting them out from in front of cell phone, TV or computer screens. What did we do when we were kids? We rode our bikes.”

With the 2024 training and competition season approaching, Yurek, other team coaches and administrators and returning student competitors hope the team keeps growing and fostering the love of riding and racing through the trails of Boyce Park and beyond.

“We’re doing some events now and throughout the next couple of weeks to get everyone excited and show who we are as a group, what we do and what we can offer,” said Ashley Price, a Plum graduate and one of the Plum Mountain Bike Team coaches.

Price said the Plum team will host a preseason mini camp/try-it-out event from 6-8 p.m. May 21 at the Boyce Park soccer fields for those entering grades six through 12. The rain date, at the same time and location, is May 23.

“We always love to have new riders who might be interested in the team to come and see what we’re all about,” she said. “If they have fun and they think it is for them, they can join the team.”

The season officially starts July 1 when riders are able to get out on the course at Boyce and begin preparation for the season.

“April 1 to July 1 is considered the preseason,” Yurek said. “When July 1 rolls around, we’re into practices Mondays and Thursdays at Boyce. Races start late August or early September. It just takes a village to get everyone and everything ready. This isn’t, ‘Oh, let’s go ride some bikes.’ This organization is part of a greater good.”

It has been almost a decade since the first mountain bike riders in the Plum School District began competition locally and throughout the state.

The Plum program used to be part of a composite group, Pittsburgh East, which combined riders from a number of area school districts. Plum broke away from that and became one of just a few independent school teams last season.

“We’ve always had a good number of riders and were a part of that composite,” said Yurek, the assistant director of the Pittsburgh composite team for eight seasons.

“My sons, Ian and Tyler, were part of the first group of Plum riders. A couple of years ago, the league said it was time for us to be our own team. We were the first west of Harrisburg to have our own school district team. We are proud of that.”

Yurek’s daughter, Olivia, is a rising freshman on the upcoming Plum team.

Mountain bikes housed at Plum High School are used for physical education classes. The Plum Mountain Bike team is working with the school district to have it become a club sport similar to ones already established such as ice hockey and slow pitch softball.

“We’ve met with the league and (Plum athletic director) Drew (Karpen), and we’re hoping to get heard at the next school board meeting in a couple of weeks,” Yurek said.

Besides being a team that competes, team members also are stewards of the Boyce bike course.

“Our team has to accumulate so many hours of volunteer work maintaining the Park and the course,” Price said.

“We really take care of and take pride in the course there. It is a really good thing for them. If you tell them to go out and do yard work, they might not be that excited. But if it is trail work at the park, they are pretty excited for that. It’s pretty fun to see it that way.”

More than 30 states have scholastic mountain bike leagues, which are a part of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association.

Plum is a member of one of those state leagues, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Cycling League.

New this year, the PICL is broken down into western, central and eastern conferences.

“We used to be state-wide until this past season,” Yurek said.

“Having this more localized grouping promotes growth. What’s happening is that they’ve done studies with ridership and who is coming to what event. Riders from the Pittsburgh area aren’t showing up to the east side of the state to race and vice versa. It is providing less hardship for the families and the riders to not have to travel as far. It promotes grassroots growth within each conference.”

A fall scholastic race schedule is at pamtb.org/events.

For more information on the Plum Mountain Bike team, visit thebikelabpittsburgh.com/ride-with-us/mustang-mtb-team/.

“I was looking for something to do, and I found this team,” said Devan Paul, who will be a freshman at Plum in the fall and will begin his third year on the team.

“I went to a skills park when I lived in Illinois. That also sparked my interest. I love this team because I don’t have to bike by myself. Some of my coaches yell at me to go faster which helps my training a lot. I have really gotten better in competitions. I am excited for this season to begin.”

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

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