Riding Out Of Trouble A Bicycle Accident When He Was Young Was Devastating For Ricky Hoover; But Now A Bike Is His Hope For The Future

Those closest to 15-year-old Ricky Hoover say a bicycle accident when he was younger led to a troubled youth., Family and friends now hope that bicycle racing can be his salvation.

Since entering his first competition last year, he has won or placed in several age-group novice races in bicycle motocross (BMX) and mountain bike downhill racing.

That success appears to have given Ricky a new sense of purpose.

“I’ve seen him make changes over the course of six years,” said his counselor, Sandy Skok, a supervisor at Spokane Mental Health. “But they significantly began last July when he began working into bikes.”

The irony is that Hoover’s newfound niche involves riding bicycles.

When he was five years old, Ricky was struck by a car while riding his bike near the Spokane County Library on Main Avenue. He was hospitalized with swelling on the brain, a broken leg, cuts and bruises. The brain injury left him with a learning disability and has since required special needs classes in school.

“Afterwards, I never let him ride much,” Kathy Hoover said of her son, who was born with spina bifida, an incomplete closure of the spine. “I was scared he’d be hurt. It still makes me nervous.”

Rick Hoover, the boy’s grandfather, said his namesake’s demeanor changed after the accident.

“He was a monster,” said Hoover. “He defied every rule we put there.”

The result has been a turbulent upbringing that resulted in the need for counseling.

“His anger was triggered by what you and I consider little things,” said his mother.

Kathy Hoover said she shoulders some blame for her son’s conflicted life.

“I tend to be overprotective,” she said. “I think the accident just intensified the whole thing. I made him dependent.”

Skok, his counselor, agreed that effects of the bike accident are probably the biggest cause of his anger management problem.

“Due to the bike accident, (Ricky) becomes frustrated quickly,” she said. “He’s not always able to process things and would lose control. Because of the bike accident he was probably protected more than needed.”

He struggled with and was unruly in school. He was expelled several times for fighting.

“I never made it through a year of school because of my attitude,” Ricky said. “I felt people were picking on me.”

John Moore, who taught Ricky at Horizon Junior High, saw through his resistance to proper behavior.

“He was a master of pushing buttons,” said Moore. “Ricky liked to to be on stage and we had our moments.”

Moore said that by addressing the inappropriate behavior rather than the child, he was able to get along fine with Ricky.

“Where we started to have success with him was in wrestling,” said Moore. “He learned there are ways to control behavior through controlled aggression.”

BMX racing has replaced wrestling as the vehicle to emotional control.

It is a sport where up to eight bicyclists race against each other on twisting, turning dirt courses. When the starting light turns green, racers burst out of a gate and negotiate the track’s hills, valleys and jumps.

As they win, racers progress through a variety of age and experience levels. In the Spokane area there is a core of 15 to 20 expert racers, the top category.

Ricky, a novice, has been thoroughly captivated. His mother said bike racing is the reason that last year, as a ninth grader attending University High, he completed an entire school term for the first time.

Rick said he wants to race professionally some day. He has spent considerable time and money traveling to races and on upgrading his BMX bike.

“That thing doesn’t leave me, it sleeps with me,” he said. “It’s my baby.”

The family realizes pitfalls lie ahead. His mother said she must overcome her fears.

“I still struggle with bikes and stuff,” she said. “I’m really proud and supportive, but if it were my choice, I probably wouldn’t let him ride.”

Fellow racers say he has potential, if he can control his behavior. On a course where tightly packed cyclists inevitably collide and bang each other, Rick’s temper has been known to flare out of control.

Skok has witnessed progress. He still needs someone to help him let off steam. But since he began racing bikes, she said Ricky has developed skills to help him function appropriately.

“As long as he has that purpose - his bikes, a shop or a track - he will continue to do OK,” she said.

Ricky Hoover agrees that bicycle racing is his hope for the future.

“This is going to be my career. I want to be in the bike industry,” he said. “I never wanted to admit my disabilities. Now I’m accepted for who I am and I can excel.”

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