Coronado’s own Isaac Ross, 10, has won first place in the male category of the Boulder Sports Management Essay Contest. As an avid biker, Ross was drawn to the contest, which was open to any cyclist under the age of 18. The prompt for the essay was: “How has cycling improved your life, and how could you use cycling to improve the lives of others?” Here’s a portion of Isaac’s essay:

“The shop sponsored Colorado Springs’ only youth team, the Front Rangers, and after riding for several months became able to go further than I had ever been before, my face didn’t flush so much when exercising, and I felt ready to join a community and thrive within it. I joined and moved up their ranks, the team pushed me further than I ever thought possible, and eventually I became a veteran of the group. Leadership asked me to lead a skills day, then a group ride, then work on small projects for them. As this progressed I was eventually asked to come to board meetings, and from there I ran for, and was elected Vice President of the Board of Directors for our nonprofit. Cycling transformed me from a self-hating, out of shape kid into a confident, happy young adult with an abundance of peers to share my love of bikes with. Today I have a body that I love, cycling friends that I love even more, and I work within the Front Rangers to expand youth cycling within Colorado Springs for all the juniors whose lives can be transformed by cycling as mine was.”

The first place male and female winners received merchandise from cycling and athletics companies like Panache Cyclewear, Smith Optics and more.

Great job Isaac! Coronado hopes you have much cycling success in the future.

If you’d like to read Isaac’s full essay, you can by following this link: http://bouldersportsmanagement.com/2016/04/junior-essay-winners/