NICA Tennessee: How to Get Started
Getting Started in NICA Tennessee (High School Mountain Biking)
We get more questions about NICA than almost any other youth sport right now, so here's a straightforward rundown of what it is, how it works in Tennessee, and how to get a rider connected.
What NICA Is
NICA stands for the National Interscholastic Cycling Association — the national organization behind high school mountain bike racing. It's grown into one of the fastest-growing youth sports in the country, and the model is different from most school sports in a good way: there are no tryouts and no benches. Everyone who shows up and puts in the training gets to race. The whole program is built around three things — strong body, strong mind, strong character — with the bike as the tool to get there.
In Tennessee, the governing body is the Tennessee Interscholastic Cycling League (TICL), which has operated as the state's NICA league since 2012 and held its first race in the fall of 2013. It's grown steadily since then, with several hundred middle and high schoolers now racing at events around the state each fall.
Who Can Ride
NICA-Tennessee is open to student-athletes in grades 5 through 12. That covers a wide range — a 5th grader and a high school senior are both welcome, and teams are structured to support riders across that whole range. Riders don't have to be fast or experienced to join; a good chunk of any team is made up of kids who've never raced a bike before their first season.
There are a few ways to participate:
School-based teams, tied to a specific middle or high school
Composite teams, which combine riders from multiple schools that don't have enough students to field a team on their own
Independent riders, for students without a team option nearby
Homeschool riders, who can't join a school-based team but can join a composite team, form a regional homeschool team, or race independently
How the Season Works
NICA-Tennessee runs on a fall season, but the year actually starts well before that:
March: Team development and coach training begins. NICA's online registration platform, Pit Zone, opens for teams and coaches.
April: Pit Zone opens for student-athletes, and pre-season training begins.
The Monday after July 4th: Regular season practices officially start.
Fall (roughly September through early November): The actual race series takes place, with events held on trail systems around the state — recent seasons have included stops like Rockabilly Ridge in Jackson and courses in Johnson City, among others.
Race day itself is a mass start, with racers doing laps on a course (typically around 5 miles) — number of laps depends on grade and category. Middle school races run under 45 minutes; high school races run under 75 minutes. Races are genuinely community events — team tents, cheering sections, families camped out all day. It's as much a gathering as it is a competition.
How to Get Connected
Option 1: Join a team
Tennessee League maintains a list of current teams on its website. If there's one at or near your school, reach out to the coach or team contact listed to find out how to join. This is the most common path and the one that gives a rider the full experience — teammates, group practices, a coach tracking their progress week to week.
Option 2: Race as an independent rider
No team nearby? You don't have to wait one to form. Students can register and compete as independent riders in the League Series — same races, same eligibility for individual titles, just not eligible for team scoring. It's a real option, not just a placeholder while you look for a team.
Option 3: Start a team
A parent, teacher, or even a student can start one from scratch. No cycling experience required and our coaches have started teams! The League provides the training and resources to get a new team off the ground, and teams can start with as little as one adult and one student.
Whichever path you take, registration happens through NICA Pit Zone, the official registration platform. Once you're connected with a team (or registering independently), your head coach or team director sends the Pit Zone invite, and that's where you get "practice and race ready."
Get Plugged Into the Local Community
Beyond the League itself, Tennessee has a genuinely strong network of local bike shops and youth cycling organizations that can help a new rider and their family navigate all of this — bike setup, skills, which team might be the right fit, and just general "we've done this before" guidance.
Local bike shops. Shops like MOAB Bikes are plugged into the NICA and local riding community and are a great first stop for bike fit, gear, and pointing you toward teams and group rides in your area.
HUB Youth Cycling. A Nashville-based nonprofit dedicated to removing barriers to youth cycling — loaner bikes, subsidized programming, and support for kids across multiple Tennessee NICA teams regardless of school or team affiliation. If cost or access is a concern, this is a great organization to know about.
Linking up with a shop or a club like this early can make the whole first season smoother — someone in your corner who already knows the trails, the teams, and the League.
A Few Notes
The biggest adjustment for families new to NICA is realizing it doesn't work like a school's other athletic programs — there's no cut list, no bench, and a huge range of kids racing side by side from total beginners to genuinely fast racers. That's by design, and it's a big part of what makes the program work.
If you want your rider to have a great season — and not just show up race day figuring it out — having someone in your corner from the start makes a real difference. If you're trying to figure out whether there's a team near you, whether independent racing makes more sense for now, or what kind of training actually prepares a first-year rider, reach out. We've worked with plenty of families getting started in NICA and are happy to help point you in the right direction.
