St. Francis Racing: September 2013

The St. Francis High School mountain bike team will be entering its 6^th season of mountain bike racing in December. The team has developed a true love-affair with the outdoors and a deep culture of cycling competition among its current students, alumni, and their families.

Eddy Kronfli, Cameron Aubert, and Scott Marshall all competed for the St. Francis team all four years that they were at St. Francis and have taken that passion for the sport of cycling to new levels in their college careers.

Eddy is the captain of the cycling team at Santa Clara University and races at the collegiate level on the road and mountain. This last summer, Eddy achieved one of the top “bucket-list” goals of any cyclist by qualifying for, and then competing in (and finishing) the Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race. Leadville is widely regarded as one of the most difficult mountain bike races in the world, covering 100 miles and 11,000 feet of climbing, all at an elevation over 12,000 feet! Cameron is in his sophomore year at Gonzaga University and like Eddy, is the captain of the cycling team. Cameron has competed in cyclo-cross and mountain bike events for his team and is looking to help grow the size and performance of their team. Scott Marshall is a freshman at Northern Arizona University and competed in his first collegiate mountain bike race last week in New Mexico, and won his race! Scott had been a very talented racer for the Golden Knights, and is now taking that passion for racing to new levels in college.

The moms are racing also! Not to be outdone, Debbie Palaski, Teresa Aubert, and Tricia Hamilton all raced this summer at the Over the Hump series at Lake Castaic. In her second ever race, Teresa Aubert won her event! Tricia Hamilton has years of endurance racing and tackled the fast paced races as well. Debbie Palaski is a runner, but decided that she didn’t want her son Andrew (’16) having all the fun. Rather than sitting around while Andrew raced at Over the Hump, Debbie competed on the mountain bike for the first time ever and finished well.

Our team has really become a family affair, with parents, alumni, and students all enjoying each other’s company out on our mountain bikes. Weekly group rides and dinner afterward became a common occurrence during the summer with parents, alumni, and current students all sharing time together out on the trails.

The St. Francis Mountain Bike Team is open to all students at St. Francis High School. For more about the team, please contact Coach Lee Bird at leebird@btechonline.com.