EtownMTB is a mountain bike club that consists of riders from both the Elizabethtown Area High School and Middle School grades 7 through 12. In our inaugural year 2016, we were 22 students; currently, we are now 41 student athletes strong for 2017. Our main goal is to get kids on bikes and therefore there are no tryouts - everyone rides. We want strong healthy kids. We want our students to develop strong physical and healthy bodies, strong academic minds and strong characters where we encourage our athletes to work hard, play fair, respect others and community. The EtownMTB club is part of the PA Interscholastic Cycling League and we participate in a fall race series where we race against students from schools/clubs from all over the state. Our season starts July 1 and we practice multiple times a week to learn the skills and gain the fitness required to race mountain bikes! Our practices are held at the Elizabethtown Fairgrounds, local trail networks like Mount Gretna and new to 2017 is the trail that our team has completed the building of a 1.1 mile trail on school property located at Bear Creek School. Races provide student athletes an arena in which to set and accomplish competitive goals and to achieve their personal best. We have a 5-race season on courses that consist of single track, fire roads, logs, mud, and rocks. Professional race promotion, timing, course preparation and risk management guarantee every participating student athlete is given a fun and fast environment. While not everyone is required to race, of the 22 team members in 2016, we had 19 riders competing in at least one race in both boys and girls categories. We compete against other teams from the Pennsylvania League.