While football, soccer, baseball, tennis and basketball remain popular high school sports, many students choose to participate in other activities- even extreme sports. Senior Emil Kyhnel’s sport of choice is motocross, which involves driving a dirt bike around a track at dangerously high speeds.

“Dirt biking can be dangerous, and sometimes a lot more so than other sports like football,” Kyhnel said. “You’re on a 200-pound bike going speeds of anywhere from 10 to 50 miles per hour.”

Kyhnel has managed to come out of three years of dirt biking practically unscathed, except for a broken arm, but injury is a known risk that comes with extreme sports. This is why not many people choose to participate in this activity.

“Dirt biking isn’t exactly an uncommon sport,” Kyhnel said. “It’s just not mainstream.”

Due to that fact that motocross is not a standard sport, getting out to the tracks is more of a hassle than just finding a basketball court for a pickup game.

“The tracks are all out in the country because the bikes are quite loud so from here to the nearest track is about 35 minutes,” Kyhnel said. “I try to go as much as possible, at least once a week if I can. But sometimes I get busy and can’t make it out.”

There are a plethora of reasons as to why people play sports, whether it be to make friends, get exercise, or just to have fun. But Kyhnel joined for two reasons—one of which is, like most other extreme sport fans, the adrenaline.

“My dad did it when he was young so he would tell me stories which made me want to get into it,” Kyhnel said. “I’ve always thought it was a cool sport.”

For those who want to ride on the wild side motocross is a great sport to try, but only with the proper gear and training—otherwise you might eat dirt.