Rowen Collier is already recruiting for Miramonte High School's second season of mountain biking — a program he built from scratch as a junior last year, and is now running summer rides to grow ahead of 2026-27.

Collier, who will be a senior this fall, founded the team after deciding he wanted mountain biking at Miramonte. Nobody could tell him exactly how to make it happen, so he figured it out himself: league requirements, deadlines, insurance, coaching, travel logistics, school approval, and PE credit eligibility.

It worked. In the program's inaugural season, five Miramonte riders qualified for the NorCal Interscholastic Cycling League championship in May.

"There's no bench in this sport," Collier told The Orinda News in a July 2026 feature. "Everyone races, everyone participates and every rider matters to the team."

Miramonte athletic director Sean Hennessy helped Collier navigate the approval process. Once cleared, Collier recruited four classmates: Aimee Steinmeier, Anthony Chow, Sira Mobley, and Alex Sien.

Because Miramonte doesn't yet field a standalone squad, the five riders competed under the Contra Costa Composite team, a structure the NorCal league uses for students from schools without their own programs. Under the NorCal NICA Handbook effective September 1, 2025, composite teams are composed of full-time students from multiple schools, giving riders a path to competition while their home school builds a roster. The arrangement let the Miramonte Matadors race in four spring meets before advancing to the NorCal championship at Six Sigma Ranch in Lower Lake.

The governing body behind the league, the National Interscholastic Cycling Association, is headquartered at 21 Orinda Way, Suite C-368, in Orinda. NICA supports more than 25,000 young riders and 15,000 adult coaches nationally, and the NorCal league is one of its largest.

Collier is already recruiting for the 2026-27 season and emphasized that girls are welcome, pointing to strong girls' teams across the NorCal league. The team is running summer rides focused on fun; interested students can reach the team through Miramonte's athletic department.