Coach Field sends in this report on the Mountain Bike team:

The small but mighty mountain bike team has been competing for the 6 weeks around the Sea to Sky in the North Shore High School Mountain Bike League. We were excited this year to have a Grade 9 boys team, as well as strong individual showings by 4 other students in the other race categories.

The season started off with a rainy practice, but we were lucky with the weather since then, with sunny days for practices and races for the following 6 weeks. Every athlete showed incredible determination and grit during the races, with some athletes excelling during the three cross-country style races and other athletes preferring the three enduro (timed stages) style races.  Some highlights from this season include:

• Maddy W claiming 2nd overall for Grade 9 girls. 

• Grade 9 boys (John S, Stellan O, Hunter H and Bruckner N)  placing second overall for the league

• Strong individual races throughout the season, including Slate M placing 6th at Seymour Enduro, Stellan O placing 7th at Fromme Enduro, Maddy W placing 2nd at Squamish Enduro. We also had very strong showing at Whistler League Finals, with John S coming 3rd, and Jack B and Beckett J both having strong races for their final race. 

John, Stellan and Bruckner headed to Quesnel to represent Collingwood at the Mountain Bike Provincials. In the Cross-country event, our Grade 9 team were competing against Grade 9's and 10's from across the province.

Throughout muddy, slick and technical trail conditions, John S placed an impressive 8th place, and Stellan (48th) and Bruckner (80th) also had great races as well out of 138 riders

During the Enduro event had even tougher conditions with slippery conditions due to on-and-off showers throughout the day, John (25th), Stellan (36th) and Bruckner (121st). They also enjoyed the banquet, hosted in partnership with the Lhtako Dene Nation, the evening featured welcoming remarks, cultural presentations, and powerful drumming performances that created an incredible atmosphere. 

Here is a terrific report on the BC Championships from John:

We wrapped up a great few days in Quesnel at the 2026 BC School Sports Mountain Bike Provincial Championships. I arrived on Wednesday with the boys, and we settled in with a team dinner alongside the Saint Thomas Aquinas squad before getting ready for racing.

Quesnel turned out to be an awesome host town with a strong riding culture and a great atmosphere around the event. Between races, we spent time at the local bike park, enjoyed Greek food, played parking lot hacky sack, handled bike repairs between stages, and fully embraced the racer's life for a few days. Bruckner and Stellan also spent some time at the brand-new local bike park while I checked out some of Quesnel’s Gold Rush history, including the world’s largest gold pan — and even took a shot at gold panning myself.

Thursday started with the XC.It was raining for most of the race, and conditions became muddy, slick, and increasingly technical as the day went. The trails were surprisingly scary to ride in the wet, considering the terrain features in Quesnel— physical climbing mixed with slippery roots, off-camber sections, and fast singletrack. I was personally pretty proud of my 8th-place finish in the Cross Country given the depth of the provincial field and the challenging conditions.

After racing wrapped up Thursday, everyone gathered for the provincial banquet, which ended up being one of the highlights of the trip. Hosted in partnership with the Lhtako Dene Nation, the evening featured welcoming remarks, cultural presentations, and powerful drumming performances that created an incredible atmosphere.

The Enduro brought even tougher conditions. The weather moved between showers and brief dry periods, but our race block went off around noon during one of the slipperiest windows of the entire event. Trails were blown out and greasy, making line choice and bike control critical. Given how slick things became for our group, the times we put down were honestly very impressive due to the feature closures that other riders had gotten to ride.

I thought that the event itself was well organized, and the volunteers and organizers did a great job managing a challenging weekend of weather and racing.

Overall, it was a very fun few days of racing, teamwork, and adventure. I’m really proud of how we handled ourselves all weekend against some of the best young riders in BC and in some very demanding conditions.

Bruckner, Stellan and John at the BC Championships.

Maddy with her North Shore Championships silver medal.

John after surviving the muddy Quesnel conditions.  A special thanks to John for his amazing report on the BC Championships.