Naomi Porter (12) is a team captain for the Manitou Mountain Monsters and most improved female athlete in the Colorado High School Cycling League for mountain biking. She has been riding with the Manitou Mountain Monsters team since she was in seventh grade in 2021.
Although Porter has been inconsistently a part of the MMMT since seventh grade, she really got into it her junior year in 2024. “My freshman and sophomore year, I only raced because my dad wanted me to and I liked the people,” Porter said, “but in my junior year, I started thinking that this is something I could really be good at.”
Even though mountain biking is a big part of Porter’s life now, she didn’t like the idea of joining at first, but her dad was adamant. “He told me that there’s a mountain bike team and he wanted to coach for it; so I had to ride, and I said that that sounds like the worst thing ever, but I started practicing anyway,” Porter said.
Since taking mountain biking more seriously, Porter has found that she has a talent for it. “I was on the podium for the majority of the races last season, and I did really well. This season, I won the most improved female athlete for all four years of high school because I dropped eleven minutes on one of the race courses,” Porter said. “I also was on varsity this year, which is a big deal because we do it differently. You have to earn it; it’s not just something you’re given by your coach.”
Porter has really found a place within the team’s community. “My favorite part of being on the mountain bike team is the people. People always say that your team is your second family and that’s really what the mountain bike team is. We don’t practice together as often as other sports do, since it’s a club; so we practice three days a week, but the other days, we’re still meeting up and we’re hanging out,” she said. “Every practice is not only us working as hard as we can to get better, but also spending time together, joking on our water breaks, racing around ridiculously and just having fun. Those people are so important to me because even out of season, they’re still my best friends.”
Porter finds a lot of comfort within the sport itself. “Mountain biking is really important to me, even outside of just the aspect of biking because it just kind of holds me together. It keeps me doing something outside of school, keeps me from getting too focused on all of the things that are going wrong, because I can just go and ride my heart out,” Porter said. “It’s kind of like my escape, in a way.
While Porter is leaving the MMMT, it is not the end of her biking journey, as she is planning on going to Western Colorado University and joining their XC racing mountain bike team. “I’m really hoping to make friends on a college team because I will be spending a lot of time with those people,” she said. “I’ve already met some of them and they’re really nice, and I’m really excited for that.”
Since Porter trains on a club team and they only practice three times a week, she finds ways to make sure she still succeeds. “I do a lot of my own training outside of the three days. I do races outside of just my high school club races, and I also work with the organization Kids on Bikes,” she said.
After college, Porter plans to continue to bike for as long as she can. “As they always say about golf, biking is a lifelong sport, and it’s not a sport where you have to be recruited to continue to do it after college,” Porter said. “I can continue to bike, and if I have kids, my kids will be biking, my friends will be biking. I don’t think there’s anybody in my life who I won’t get into bikes with.”
Jacob Cayton (10) has ridden with Porter for two years, and he feels that both of them have improved a lot within that time. “I remember the first practice she was in my group, and I was not very good so I was in a slow group, then this last season, she was in my group and I was in the fastest group,” Cayton said. “We kind of advanced together, and I thought it was enjoyable.”
Cayton feels that Porter has improved on getting to know people throughout the years among other things. “She’s improved a lot socially, and she’s improved a lot with her technique. She gained some really important skills,” he said.
One time that Cayton was proud of Porter was his freshman year. “My freshman year, she got third at the Fountain Valley race. She was really moving and it was impressive,” he said.
Cayton feels sad that Porter is moving away to college but has hopes of maybe joining her when he graduates. “Hopefully she’ll find time to come back to Colorado Springs, but I almost want to go to Western too because it’s a cool college,” he said.
He feels that Porter was a very good captain. “She supported everyone no matter their skill level or who they were,” Cayton said.
Brian Hubel is Porter’s mountain bike coach and has known her since her freshman year. Throughout those years he’s seen some big changes. “She has definitely improved just her skills as a rider, her endurance, her technical ability, her willingness to try new things,” Hubel said.
Hubel believes that Porter is a strong team captain and serves as a statement for the team itself. “She was always very welcoming to new athletes and very approachable,” he said. “I think she was a very good role model for those individuals, especially the girls coming into the team, because it is a very male dominant sport and it is intimidating for women to join. Seeing Naomi up there, especially at the varsity level is a great example.”
Overall, Hubel is proud of Porter for all of the improvement she’s had since her freshman year. “She seemed to relax a little bit and just enjoy the ride rather than worry about the race and performance and that sort of thing. She just kind of settled into a groove, relaxed and was kind of a different person her senior year,” he said.
