(Feb. 9, 2012) -- Senior Dillen Maurer received the Specialized Student-Athlete Leadership Award during an award ceremony in Emeryville, California on Jan.14. The award was presented by the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA).

NICA presented awards in 13 categories to 21 individuals who are considered to be the most outstanding athletes, coaches, volunteers and supporters to have participated in high school mountain biking. For Maurer’s award, one male and one female winner were selected after the nationwide submission was complete. Anyone who has participated in the NICA mountain
bike leagues can be nominated to win the award.

According to Maurer, he was nominated by his coach and club coordinator, English teacher Carol Pettegrew. “He’s been involved in the team for all four years of his high school career, and he was one of the first kids to be involved in the league,” said Pettegrew. “But the leadership portion is where he showed even more. He’s our team captain and also he’s been doing the Lexus Eco Challenge and other stuff in his classes.”  

The winning male and female needed to exhibit “all of NICA’s core principles of strong body, strong mind and strong character,” according to NICA’s official website. “The committee was very impressed with all the things he did that were not cycling related as well. When I sent some stuff to one of the judges he wrote back ‘holy cow!’“ said Pettegrew.

The recipients of the awards met at CLIF Bar and Co. headquarters to get to know others in the cycling world. “I met a lot of higher-ups in the bike industry,” said Maurer. Many important names in biking attended this event, such as Mountain Bike Hall of Famer Gary Fisher and Mike Sinyard, founder and CEO of Specialized Bicycle Components, which is the largest bike company in the world. “He [Sinyard] was talking to me after the evening, and he suggested that I contact him to start working at Specialized,” Maurer said with a smile.