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| Wednesday, July 16 |
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| The American Dream By Mark A. Woodworth SchoolSports.com | ||||||
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The American Dream is of freedom, fun and, of course, getting paid to do what you love the most. Mike Parenti lives that dream. Just 19 years old and one year removed from his days at Ramona High (Ramona, Calif.), Parenti travels the country as a professional freestyle bike jumper. On Aug. 15, he'll travel to San Francisco to participate in his second Summer X Games. Thanks to his rapid ascent to prominence in the freestyle riding world, Parenti has suddenly found himself hanging out with the athletes he has posters of hanging on his bedroom wall.
"It's so cool," says Parenti. "Before I got into this, I looked up to these riders. I'm still sort of star-struck. Their pictures are still on my wall. Now I'm buddies with all these guys." Parenti has followed a passion formed as a self-professed "daredevil" when he was younger. He soon turned to racing bikes, but then left the competitive side to focus on freestyle, which features jumps and spins and all kinds of amazing bike tricks. He cites the competitive nature of sports as something he was always trying to get away from. "I started racing from (age) 11-13," he says. "That kind of burnt me out. It was the whole reason I got out of football and baseball. I tried to do something competitively, but here, you're your own boss." While his friends got their licenses at age 16, Parenti was still riding his bike around town, building jumps and doing his own thing. When Dave Voelker, a legendary bike rider reverently referred to as "The Lord," moved into Ramona for a short time, Parenti started riding with him. Voelker was so impressed with the teen that he recommended him to his sponsor, GT bikes. Soon after that, Parenti, then just a high school junior, was taking off for long weekends to compete across the country. "I had many meetings with counselors," says Parenti with a laugh about the hectic schedule of combining schoolwork with a professional job on the side. "I'm so glad I did it. At the time, I was like, 'I have to graduate, but I can't stop riding either.' I stuck with bikes and made it." Today, Parenti not only competes, but travels with his GT team doing clinics and showcases in return for being sponsored to ride his bike. "You promote their product," he says. "They give me bikes, gear, parts. They fly me to contests, fly me to do shows, pay for everything. My job is to do well at the contests. You have to return the favor by getting on TV." Parenti will likely be seen on ESPN during the upcoming X Games, where he placed fifth last year. He recently returned from the Gravity Games in Providence, R.I., where he also placed fifth. He came in fourth in this year's freestyle circuit tour. But for Parenti, winning isn't nearly as important as the sport itself. "It's indescribable," he says. "It's one of those feelings that once you do it, you're addicted. The first time you pull off a trick, it's unexplainable. "It's the biggest rush," adds Parenti, who performed during halftime of Michael Jordan's last game, as well as during halftime of a 1999 NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden. "It's 20,000 fans and you on your bike. I'm some small-town punk kid. For me to be out there, this is a dream. It's an indescribable feeling." For more on the Summer X Games, log on to SchoolSports.com on Monday, Aug. 14.
Material from SchoolSports.com.Visit their web site at www.schoolsports.com | |
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