Mountain biking entered Lindsey Hunt’s career through a problem she could not ignore: too many of her students did not know how to ride a bike.
Hunt has spent her entire career in physical education. The 2026–27 school year marks her 22nd year as an educator, but bikes did not become part of her teaching until around 2018, when she began working with Texas Outdoor Family through Texas Parks and Wildlife.
The program helps new campers get comfortable in Texas State Parks, with activities such as kayaking and mountain biking. Hunt noticed a sharp difference between the two. A novice group could gain confidence in kayaks fairly quickly. Putting that same group on bikes and taking them onto a trail was far more difficult.
Then came the larger realization: roughly 60 percent of her students did not know how to ride a bicycle at all.
Hunt decided to change that. She secured a grant through Texas Parks and Wildlife to purchase mountain bikes and began teaching students from kindergarten through fifth grade how to ride. The work was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the idea—that bikes could belong inside a school’s educational mission—stayed with her.
After the pandemic, Mesquite ISD opened Vanguard High School, its career and technical education campus. Hunt transferred to the new school, where students can take Lifetime Recreational Outdoor Pursuits for their physical education credit. The campus does not offer UIL athletics, however, and Hunt saw students who still wanted the structure, camaraderie, and challenge of a school team.
Her son was one of them. He attended Vanguard, enjoyed mountain biking and trail running, and missed participating in school sports. Looking for an option, Hunt found the National Interscholastic Cycling Association, better known as NICA.
The fit went well beyond racing.
“NICA has been very impactful for our campus,” Hunt said. “It has provided our students with a rigorous competitive outlet that meets them at whatever level they are at.”
During the 2026–27 school year, Vanguard will begin its fourth NICA season. The team had 31 students last season and received the 2026 Sportsmanship Award. Its riders learn how to handle a mountain bike, but Hunt’s program reaches further: camping, equipment care, nutrition for safe riding, outdoor cooking, and the less visible skills that come with depending on teammates and taking responsibility for yourself outside.
“The team focuses on providing students with the opportunity to be a part of a team and develop skills that will go with them after they graduate,” Hunt said.
Now, the program is entering a new phase—one measured in miles of trail.
PeopleForBikes awarded Texas NICA a grant to build a trail in a community that would benefit from another way to get people outside and onto bikes. Texas NICA selected Mesquite and Vanguard High School because the community met the grant’s criteria.
The planned Vanguard Trail is currently mapped at 3.4 miles, with the possibility of a second phase in the future. Once construction is complete, Vanguard students and coaches expect to help maintain it.
The trail is being built by Vanguard Trailworks. Despite the matching name, the company and school are unrelated—it is simply a remarkable coincidence.
Hunt met Vanguard Trailworks’ Josh Seleck as his team was finishing 29 Pines in Henderson, Texas. She visited the project to experience the company’s approach to trail building and came away imagining what a purpose-built trail could do for her own students and community.
“Vanguard Trail will definitely be different, but I can already see the artwork of the Vanguard Trailworks trail builders going into the Vanguard Trail,” Hunt said. “They have quite the eye for flow.”
For Hunt, the project is not only about creating a home course for the school team. It is the continuation of the same work that began when she discovered how many children had never learned to ride: remove a barrier, build confidence, and make outdoor recreation feel like something students can claim for themselves.
It is also an example other North Texas school districts should watch. Mountain biking can create space for students who may not see themselves in traditional school athletics. A cycling program can meet a first-time rider at the beginning, challenge an experienced athlete, and teach practical skills that remain useful long after graduation. With the right leadership and community support, unused land can become both an outdoor classroom and a lasting public asset.
Hunt has ridden DORBA-maintained trails and participated in DORBA events since she began mountain biking. She approached DORBA because she had seen the support—and protectiveness—that exists within the local mountain-bike community. DORBA and Vanguard High School are now exploring a partnership around the new trail, with more details to be announced.
Hunt sees several ways the wider riding community could eventually help: volunteer workdays, trail signage, protective equipment for students, promotion, and feedback from experienced riders as the trail develops.
Construction of a new trail is the visible result. The bigger story is the chain of decisions that led there: an educator noticed a need, found funding for bikes, built a team, and kept pushing until students were not merely traveling to mountain-bike trails—they were preparing to care for one of their own.
For a region looking to put more young people outside, Vanguard’s example is worth following.