BMX bikers rally for dirt jumps as Seattle Schools eyes spot for Lincoln sports field

Seattle Public Schools may build a sports field for Lincoln High School in Woodland Park after shelving an earlier plan at a different city park.

But BMX bikers are worried the project for the city’s largest high school could destroy a series of jumps they’ve used and maintained for decades.

Scott Matual, a longtime BMX biker who started visiting the jumps in 1991, said the bumpy course is a haven for kids and adults who love getting air. Scores of them gathered at the jumps last Friday to rally, ride and swap stories. One biker after another pedaled through the park and hurtled skyward.

“It’s almost the closest you can come to flying like a bird,” said Matual, 55, who helped organize Aug. 22’s BMX jam session. “You feel this weightlessness and forget about all the stress in your life. You experience freedom.”

Conversations about the potential changes at Woodland Park are just getting started and no decisions have been made, according to the school district. Maybe some of the bike jumps could shift to make room for the field Lincoln needs, said Paige McGehee, a consultant who’s managing the project.

“I don’t want to displace any activity, said McGehee, from the firm Shiels Obletz Johnsen, describing her goal as achieving “equal access.”

In the meantime, Seattle’s BMX bikers are working to make themselves heard. More than 3,000 people have signed an online petition to protect the jumps.

“Not every kid gets into the stick-and-ball sports,” Matual said, asking the school district to steer clear. “There has to be a better solution.”

It’s the latest twist in a multiyear campaign to build a dedicated sports field for students in a growing Seattle neighborhood with limited space. Lincoln sits in the heart of Wallingford, about a mile from Woodland Park. The bike jumps are wedged between a soccer field and a sloped grove of trees.

“There’s a lot of competition for space, whether you’re looking for a place to sleep or looking for a place to eat or looking for a place to recreate,” said Jesse Grissom, 53, who taught his kids how to bike at the dirt jumps.

No field of their own

Shuttered for many years, Lincoln reopened in 2019 and now serves more than 1,600 students. But they have no athletic field of their own, so they have to leave their Wallingford campus to practice sports like football and soccer.

Some Lincoln students have to ride buses to other neighborhoods or practice in the morning before school because there aren’t enough local fields available, said Parent Teacher Student Association board member Tim Randall, whose daughter plays soccer and flag football. The workarounds are a waste of time and money, Randall said.

“You’re talking about impacting hundreds of kids” who get exercise, time away from screens and lessons in teamwork by playing sports, the dad said.

A school district levy approved by voters in 2022 promised a new field for Lincoln, among other things, so there’s cash available. But a plan to build it in Wallingford Playfield crumbled last year when some neighbors objected.

Proponents said the plan made sense because that 4.5-acre park is located right next to Lincoln and Hamilton Middle School. Foes argued the project would replace natural grass with plastic, reduce opportunities for activities like picnics and prioritize student athletes over other park users.

The school district initially proposed a full-size football and soccer field with lights and subsequently pitched a half-size field without lights before pausing the Wallingford Playfield plan in June and pivoting to Woodland Park.

So far, the district and Seattle Parks and Recreation have agreed to upgrade a running track at Lower Woodland’s Soccer Field No. 7 for use by Lincoln’s track program. Design work is scheduled to start in the coming months, and a community meeting is scheduled for Sept. 20.

Meanwhile, the school district and Seattle Parks are exploring other Woodland Park locations for a new sports field that could serve Lincoln athletes and others. They’ve scheduled a community meeting for Oct. 15.

“Two locations have been identified as possible,” district spokesperson Tina Christensen said in an email last week. “No decisions have been made. No plans have been created. Some initial test fit drawings have been made to see what might be possible and to provide a starting point for discussions.”

Woodland Park possibility

One of the potential locations at Woodland Park is a tree-ringed parking lot off North 50th Street, close to Aurora Avenue North and a picnic area.

The other is Lower Woodland’s Soccer Field No. 2, near the dirt jumps and a skate park. A test fit drawing shows two new sports fields replacing the current single field and extending into the BMX area while also covering an asphalt path that bikers, runners and walkers use. The drawing is what alarmed bikers like Mike Hoder when the school district recently got in touch.

“This place is so cool and unique,” said Hoder, a professional BMX biker from Seattle who grew up using the jumps. “I would hate to see it go.”

The course has evolved over time, Matual said. Initially, Seattle Parks used the area to store dirt and bikers shaped jumps from the piles. Later, when the city converted Soccer Field No. 2 from a mix of crushed brick, clay and sand to artificial grass, the bikers used the cast-off dirt to enhance their jumps.

In 2013, Matual and some other bikers partnered with Seattle Parks to establish an official volunteer group called Friends of Green Lake Dirt Jumps. They clean litter from the area and work year-round to maintain the jumps, using tarps to protect them from rain and shovels to keep them smooth.

Although the steepest jumps are best for expert bikers, the course also includes bumps gentle enough for preschoolers. Teenagers sometimes help with the shovel work. It’s a place where people of all ages come together, and it doesn’t cost taxpayers anything, said BMX biker Chris Munford, 57.

“This is something that the community did on their own,” he said.

Bike rally

Beams of golden light lit the jumps last Friday as the sun set behind Woodland Park. Hot dogs sizzled on an open grill and kids watched awestruck as virtuoso bikers like Hoder vaulted like grasshoppers through the summer sky.

Morgen Jayroe brings her son Jax to the jumps regularly, all the way from Gig Harbor. She likes how the older bikers have mentored Jax, who’s 13.

“This is what’s kept him out of trouble,” said Jayroe, a construction worker.

Randall, the Lincoln parent, hopes the school, city and bikers can find a compromise, like shifting the jumps within the park. Gary Dunlap, who helped create the jumps, thinks that could ruin “35 years of work here.”

It’s a debate about dirt, and it’s a debate about something more.

“You won’t believe what these piles of dirt have been doing for the community,” said David Rios, who runs a Seattle-area bike club for kids.

“As other people see piles of dirt,” he said, “we see hours and hours of fun.