Girls Moving Mountains

Creating Culture with Co-Founder and Newly-Retired NICA Arkansas League Director, Kyla Templeton, and NICA Montana League Director and Olympian, Sam Schultz

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Episode notes

In Episode 22, we have a fun and insightful conversation with newly-retired NICA Arkansas League Director, Kyla Templeton, and NICA Montana League Director and Olympian, Sam Schultz. The NICA League Directors from around the country met at the Trek Headquarters in Waterloo, Wisconsin in the beginning of November to inspire, collaborate, and connect with one another. During that time, Kyla’s curiosity led to some fun conversations with Sam about the Olympics, starting the Montana League, paragliding, and more. We decided to follow those conversations up with a podcast so our listeners could enjoy the fun energy and stories!

Kyla Templeton co-founded the NICA Arkansas League in 2016. She was the league director until recently, when she stepped down to pursue a new business with Nat Ross called Bike School Bentonville. Kyla is a passionate woman who lights up the room with her lightheartedness and funny jokes. Through incredible leadership, Kyla has built an amazing team of volunteers in Arkansas, which has seen incredible growth in recent years. The league also has a thriving GRiT program. Kyla has a husband, two sons, and an elderly dish-cleaning dog named Pilgrim.

Sam Schultz is an Olympian and the co-founder of the NICA Montana League, which was founded in 2019. Montana’s first season saw them as the largest first-year NICA league to date and the league continues to grow, even through the pandemic. Montana’s GRiT program is also strong with a group of women, including Sam’s mom, who have nurtured the program into something special. Sam is humble about his racing accomplishments, including the Olympics, where he finished 15th in the XCO race. While we don’t talk much about his racing, we do get a post-race story out of him thanks to a tip from the Maryland League. Sam has a pup that he rescued from a burning dump in Mexico named Pancho, who is also an avid mountain biker!

This episode shows the power of connecting positive, passionate people and how impactful it can be. It also shows that while NICA certainly changes kid’s lives, it can be equally as life-changing for adults. This is our season finale and we could not be more proud to end it on such a high note!

GMM is funded by NICA National with support from Rapha Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, and Continental Tires. Also, the folks at The Gravel Lot, another wonderful podcast, have spent countless hours helping us!

Learn more about NICA, GRiT, and getting #morekidsonbikes and #moregirlsonbikes here: https://www.nationalmtb.org

Watch Jeff Kendall-Weed’s video called, “The Incredible Story of How Sam Schultz is Building Montana’s MTB Future” here: https://www.pinkbike.com/news/video-and-photo-story-jeff-kendall-weed-on-how-olympian-sam-schultz-built-montanas-nica-league.html

Learn more about Bike School Bentonville here: https://bikeschoolbentonville.com

Jen Malik (@jenemal) is the League Director for the Ohio League. Learn more about the Ohio League here: https://www.ohiomtb.org

Nikki Peterson (@nikki_jo_peterson) is the Program Coordinator for the SoCal League. Learn more about the SoCal League here: http://www.socaldirt.org