Thursday, Jul. 03, 2008

Local BMX racers ride for grandpas

BMX bike racing is about as individual as sports get. Yet a group of young local BMX competitors are never alone when they ride.

Ashley, 18, and Shyanne Hill, 10 — sisters who live in Olathe — and Tyler Revard, 11, Mareck Muro, 9, and Jonah Muro, 5 — three brothers from Spring Hill — race with their late grandfathers in their hearts.

Ashley and Shyanne’s grandfather, Jim Stoker, passed away on Christmas of 2007. A few months later the three brothers lost their grandfather, Bob Reinke.

Still mourning their deaths, Shyanne, Tyler, Mareck and Muro — close friends who train together and call themselves the “BMX Brat Pack” — decided to dedicate the 2008 season to their “Papas,” who were two of their biggest fans.

“On the back of my (bike’s) number plate, there’s a picture of my grandpa, so he’s always with me when I race,” Shyanne said.

The Brat Pack’s Web site, www.bmxbratpack.com, includes a “dedication” link explaining the grandfathers’ influence and soliciting donations to the Heart of America Foundation and the American Institute for Cancer Research in their memories.

Meanwhile, the children themselves honor their grandfathers’ memory by doing their best on the track.

“I was sad, but I knew he would always be with me,” Tyler said.

Tyler was the first of the Brat Pack to get started in BMX, taking up the sport in 2004 after his father told him about it. He started out doing practice sprints on his bike before eventually entering races and climbing the rankings. This year he has six wins and is ranked third among 11-year-olds in Kansas.

Soon after Mareck saw how much fun his big brother was having, he also decided to try BMX. The occasional crash is part and parcel of BMX, and Mareck had a doozy early in his career — one in which his mother, Susan Muro, said the other racers inadvertently “used him as a speed bump.”

Mareck had just taken the lead in the race and was going for the win, but his foot slipped off the pedal and he fell to the ground. Another racer, close behind Mareck, rode right over him.

“One guy used me as a ramp,” Mareck said. “There were tire marks on the back of my jersey.”

Shyanne, who started in BMX last year, is no stranger to rough collisions either. She had a particularly frightening crash on her birthday in March, actually blacking out momentarily.

Her parents didn’t know at the time that she had suffered a concussion, but they knew enough to tell her she was done racing for the day. Later that evening she disappeared, though, and was at the starting gate for another race when they found her.

“She’s crying and saying, ‘I’ve gotta race, this is what it’s all about and I can push through the pain,’” said Carrie Hill, Shyanne’s mother. “She got out there, and she won the whole race with a concussion. But she now knows and understands that if something like that happens and we tell her ‘no more for the night,’ that we mean business.”

That passion for the sport has driven Shyanne to a No. 2 ranking in the state among girls in her age group. BMX is set to make its debut as an Olympic sport in Beijing this summer, and Shyanne said one of her goals is to compete on that grand stage someday.

Meanwhile, her older sister, Ashley, recently caught the BMX bug and, despite crashing in her first race, is growing to love the sport as well. Tyler and Mareck’s younger brother, Jonah, is now getting started, despite barely being able to balance a bike without training wheels at age 5.

The Brat Pack also recently welcomed a new member from outside the two families in 13-year-old Olathe resident Josh Halverson.

The club continues to grow, with the goal of winning races often taking a back seat to helping each other and promoting their sport. The 2008 season is turning out to be one to remember, starting with the children’s mature-beyond-their-years decision to dedicate it to their beloved grandfathers.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Susan Muro said. “It gives a parent, or at least me, pride to know that I’m doing something right in bringing them up.”

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