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Hubbard siblings compete nationally in motocross
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Katherine Kali, 12, left, and her brother, Andrew Kali, 7, of Hubbard put on their motocross helmets. The siblings have competed in motocross events on the local, regional and national levels.
By EMMALEE C. TORISK
HUBBARD
The first time Katherine Kali set foot on a motocross track five years ago, she was dressed in a motley assortment of borrowed gear.
“People made fun of us,” said Richard Kali, her father. “We looked bad.”
To be honest, Richard and his wife, Tina Kali, thought their daughter’s interest in the sport — a type of motorcycle racing typically done on tracks made up of hills and dirt roads — would be fleeting. Not too many 7-year-old girls they knew of were into motocross.
Family members and friends thought the couple was nuts to let their daughter attempt such a dangerous, expensive sport.
But in the past five years, Katherine, now 12 and a seventh-grader at Holy Family School in Poland, has not only stuck with motocross (and invested in her own gear), she’s also become a two-time national championship qualifier and can’t imagine her life without riding or racing.
“I like to call it my ‘little world,’” Katherine said. “When I’m at school and home, it’s one thing. When I’m at the track, it’s completely different.”
At the track, Katherine is practically a celebrity, and everybody knows who she is, Tina said. At school, however, few know that she races, or know exactly what the sport entails.
Katherine just isn’t who most people think of when they envision a motocross racer.
“The teachers, the principal, everybody will say to me, ‘She comes to school in her uniform, her hair is just right, she’s petite, she’s an honors student.’ I think they’re expecting some other type of kid to do this kind of thing,” Tina said. “When they did read about her in the paper, they were like, ‘Oh my gosh. You’re letting her do this?’”
Katherine said she’s aware that anything can happen when she’s riding. Every time she gets on her bike, whether it’s for practice or for a race, she says a prayer to stay safe and to give her the extra push she might need to do better.
She just loves the feeling of independence, of being alone and being in control. Motocross, she said, is so unlike the several team sports she’s involved in, such as basketball and softball, because if something goes wrong, the only person she can be mad at is herself.
“On team sports, someone might mess up, like someone didn’t catch a ground ball in softball,” Katherine said. “When you’re racing, it’s all you. You can’t mess up.”
From July 29 to Aug. 3, Katherine will compete in her biggest event yet: the Red Bull AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at the Loretta Lynn Ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tenn. To qualify, racers had to be top finishers in local and regional motocross events.
Reaching this level of competition was a family effort, said Richard, who Tina said acts as a one-man “pit crew” during practices and races.
“It’ll consume you. At times, it’s tough,” he said. “It’s a lot to do it right. It’s not like putting them on a bike and saying, ‘Go.’ You could, but you’re not going to be competitive against the people who live and breathe the sport more than you do.”
Last year, both Katherine and her 7-year-old brother Andrew Kali, a second-grader at Holy Family who began racing at age 4, qualified for the national championship, but Katherine broke her arm while riding a bicycle the day before racing began.
Watching her class race without her was hard, Katherine said, but it’s pushing her to train as hard as she possibly can for this year’s competition. Her goal is to finish in the top five of her class.
Richard and Tina, though, just want Katherine and Andrew to be safe, have fun and do their best, whatever that might be.
“I’ve known people who’ve turned their lives upside down. They’ve sold their houses, quit their jobs, moved to Florida — just for their kids to get the chance. The percentage who make it to the pros and actually earn a living is so small,” Richard said. “We’re just having fun and taking it race by race, or year by year, and enjoying our time together.”