Ogletree rides to the top
Athletes across the nation dedicate numerous hours to be the best at the sport they love.
Jackson Ogletree, a sophomore at Mountain Brook High School, is one of those athletes. He excels at competitive mountain biking, which he fell in love with a few years ago.
“In the sixth grade, I went on a trip with my fifth grade teacher, Bill Andrews. … He had a slot for about five or six kids to go up to North Carolina and go mountain biking,” Ogletree said. “We rode about 10 miles every day, and then I haven’t wanted to get off a bike since then.”
Ogletree just concluded his third year of mountain biking and has earned back-to-back Alabama Interscholastic Cycling League state championships in 2018 and 2019. Ogletree is currently ranked 14th in the country in his age group and has competed at the National Interscholastic Cycling Association Nationals event for two consecutive years. NICA Nationals, held in Winter Park, Colorado, boasted the nation’s top mountain biking talent. Ogletree had to elevate his riding to combat the high altitude in Colorado.
“National was really hard because in 2018 we were racing at 4,000 feet, and this year we were racing at 9,000 feet,” Ogletree said. “Most mountains in Alabama sit around 600 feet, so I had to get acclimated to the conditions. … I am happy with what I was able to do. I was sitting in the top 20 after the first lap and was feeling the best I had ever felt. The chain to my bike broke while climbing the hill on the second lap, so that was the best I could’ve done.”
Though Ogletree couldn’t control that technical difficulty, he still practices daily to improve at cycling. His natural instinct to work hard, along with the people around him, has pushed him to be successful in mountain biking.
“I have high work ethic just because of the passion I have for the sport,” Ogletree said. “My friends and family give me a lot of motivation and my coach, Jerry Dufour, has helped me be successful.”
Dufour has been a great asset for Ogletree’s growth in the mountains, but his father, Stephen Ogletree, has been instrumental in his growth as a young man.
“My dad has slowly dropped everything for me to take me to races and help me practice,” Jackson said.
Stephen Ogletree, the owner of Adventure Motor Cars, views the sport as a catapult into life for his son. From Jackson’s first days riding, Stephen Ogletree knew that this was his son’s passion.
“Jackson had tried a couple of sports before mountain biking, but he did not love them,” Stephen Ogletree said. “We realized he had found something he loved because we have to tell him to get off his bike … it is just perfect when you fit a kid into what they were made for.”
Stephen Ogletree also knows that mountain biking may not last forever for Jackson, but the life lessons taken away from the sport will be invaluable.
“At the end of the day, he will compete for about five to 10 years or so, but eventually, Jackson won’t be mountain biking,” he said. “It’s the things that mountain biking teaches you that I want him to come away with.”
One such life lesson came in the 2018 state championship race. During the race, Jackson’s chain broke. If he had stopped completely, he would have been out of contention for the state championship, but he made a decision that saved his shot at the title.
“He decided to run the last 2.5 miles. He finished around 38th and had to win the next four races and he did,” Stephen Ogletree said. “That was a life lesson: When something happens, don’t sit there and panic. Move forward.”