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City council honors Corner Canyon mountain biking team for second state win

Feb 22, 2017 04:07PM ● By Kelly Cannon

Members of the Corner Canyon High School mountain biking team stand with Mayor Troy Walker and the Draper City Council after being honored by the council for their second state championship win. (Kelly Cannon/City Journals)

By Kelly Cannon | [email protected]
 
The Draper City Council honored members of the Corner Canyon High School mountain biking team for their second state championship win during their Jan. 17 meeting. The team beat Skyline High School and Lone Peak High School to secure their second state title.
 
Mayor Troy Walker addressed the crowd at the council meeting, saying Draper residents are not only avid mountain bikers, but they also bike on some of the best trail systems in the state.
 
“As mountain biking has taken off, our high schools in the state of Utah have taken mountain biking as a high school sport, one of the fastest-growing high school sports,” Walker said. “The Corner Canyon team, which is one of the largest teams in the country, by the way, is here because they repeated the state championship in 2017.”
 
Walker said the team also won the region championship after winning all four races leading up to the state race.
 
“There were 138 members on the team and 25 in the top 10 of their race category over the year,” Walker said. “That’s including two overall points winners Peyton Anderson and Taylor Perry, freshman who can apparently ride like crazy.”
 
The team is led by eight volunteer coaches: one head coach and seven assistant coaches. There are also over 60 parent and community volunteers. The team has 31 students on the team with a 4.0 GPA and 21 students with a 3.9 GPA.
 
“So when they come to you, moms and dads, wanting a really nice mountain bike, I think you should get it for them,” Walker joked.
 
Walker praised both the team and coaches, Whitney and Jamie Pogue, for their love of the sport and their dedication to the team, but also for teaching the kids on the team how to be safe and polite.
 
“I’ve seen them. The kids are respectful of other team members. They get out of the way. They do all the trail etiquette that they’ve been taught by all of their coaches. It’s a phenomenal experience to see them up there,” Walker said. “They’re great kids, they’re obviously good students and they’re enjoying a wonderful trail system that we have in Draper.”
 
Whitney briefly thanked both the mayor, the city council and other city officials for the amazing trail system the kids utilize every day.
 
“I know that so much work and effort and money goes into this amazing regional park that we have and I don’t know if you know how lucky we are to live here and have this right out there in our backyard. I think that’s why our team is so amazing and so successful,” Whitney said. “It’s because we have you guys behind us. I wanted to thank our city and our city council and our trails commission for all that they do to make it accessible to us.”