Inspire isn’t exactly… known for sports. But one student, MK Kidd (10), is here to change that.

On January 6th, MK and their team of two, raced in Boreal. They came out on top, with the “Inspire Ski Team” beating all schools in the area.

MK transferred here Spring 2022, their freshman year. Originally they went to Chico High for skiing, but CHS just wasn’t the right fit for them. So they decided to carve their own path at Inspire.

“[Me and my dad] kind of started talking about, you know, why doesn’t Inspire have sports, and why can’t we have sports? I guess it kind of came down to this: it’s because nobody’s started this sport. And I was like, well, I can do that.”

“Just because nobody has doesn’t mean nobody can.”

And so they did. MK started the first Ski Team, and one of the first sports at Inspire earlier this year. They and their team have participated in two races at the time of this article being written, and plan to race many more.

But doing something new can come with challenges; social and the like.

Everyone knows that there are stereotypes of Inspire students. These stereotypes are reinforced by students at all schools in Chico, even ours. But MK is challenging them.

“I think that a lot of people just don’t really consider the Inspire kids as athletes, because we’re more known for our art and theater and things like that. You don’t talk to many Inspire kids who are like, oh, yeah, you know, I have a soccer game this weekend. It’s forming, you know, new paths for the students, and taking away from what stereotypes we used to be matched with.”

Ski Team marks a new path for Inspire students, and Inspire school culture as a whole. Inspire culture seems to be ever-changing, revolving around everything from the musical at the time to current House Cup rankings.

This new addition to our lineup of offerings will shift preconceived notions of Inspire students, hopefully into a more positive light. Inspire students are capable of anything, and this is proving just that.