ROUGH ROADS—Royal High School mountain bike club members Tom Ferber, 17, left, Jacob Bianez, 17, and Ryan Hatter, 15, go for a short practice ride at the Long Ranch trail head earlier this month. RHS Racing just pedaled its way into Royal High sports history.

Royal's first competitive mountain bike team completed its first season early this month at the Cow Pie Classic in Los Olivos, finishing a season-best second place overall in the team standings.

"This isn't your typical high school sport," said team founder and sophomore Ryan Matter. "The first year does feel historic. I feel kind of lucky to participate in it."

RHS Racing competed in the Southern California Interscholastic Cycling League, which was also in its first year of competition.

The Southern California League is an extension of the Northern California High School Mountain Bike League, which was formed in 2000.

Although the Highlanders had only four riders for most of the year, Matter hopes the team can soon grow to 10 members.

Along with Matter, the other RHS Racing members are senior Cody Doran and juniors Tom Ferber and Jacob Bianez. Senior twins Brooke and Dana Pickett joined the team a month ago and raced for the first time on Sunday.

Royal competed at the junior varsity level, as did most of the athletes in the league.

Doran wasn't sure he wanted to participate with the mountain bike team. He played soccer as a freshman and football as a sophomore.

"It was pretty fun; I had a great time," Doran said. "I wasn't going to do it at first. At the last minute, I decided to join. It was really a spurof-the-moment decision. It turned out to be awesome.

"It was cool to ride with other guys interested in it, and that made it more fun. Ryan's pretty good at the sport, and he really pushed all of us."

Ferber, who ran for the Highlanders' cross country and track teams his first two years at Royal, has been riding mountain bikes for four years and jumped at the chance to join the club. He hopes the strong finish will lead to greater success.

The junior, who plans to continue riding with the team next year, said the key is luring more athletes to join.

"With more people it's more fun," Ferber said. "With more people at practice, you can build a sense of camaraderie."

Matter was first interested in road biking but switched to mountain bikes in the past year. He cleaned up an old bike in his garage, and he now tries to ride five times a week, with outings between 10 and 30 miles.

This offseason, RHS Racing will participate in various events, including a race in Big Bear on Sun., May 31.

"It's been really rewarding to see it develop from the beginning," Matter said. "I've formed a pretty good bond with my team members these past few months."