At the beginning of each year, we typically celebrate the prior season with a big awards celebration. 2020 was crazy, no doubt. But despite obstacles, we made the best of it, and that is definitely worth celebrating! Unfortunately, due to ongoing large gathering restrictions, we are unable to hold a big banquet this year. So instead, we posted a series of wrap-up posts on our social media: FaceBook: @NorthernVirginiaBMX and Instagram: @nova_bmx. We will give all our riders some cool swag (and some awards at the first race of the 2021 season)!

But the saddest part of not having a big 2020 year-end celebration is not being able to gather our BMX family off track to give Fredy Caceres all the kind words, thanks and praise he deserves right now. After nearly 5 years as Track Operator, Fredy has stepped down from the TO role. It's bittersweet because we know he needs to give more time and attention to his career and family, but at the same time, we will miss the more frequent interactions. He assures us that he's just stepping down from the TO role, but will be a very active volunteer, parent and racer. We plan to hold him to that, because things just wouldn't be the same without Fredy around to keep us entertained!

We look forward to seeing Curtis Dowdy blossom into a great TO, following in Fredy's footsteps. Thanks in advance, Curtis, for all that you will handle in your new role.

As for Fredy, we couldn't let him move off the TO role without a sincere thank you and tribute (below), written by our resident BMX writer, Chris Zealand. Chris and Fredy have a long history at NOVA BMX, so it seems fitting that he would write Fredy's thank you post! 

If the essence of NOVA BMX could be distilled into one person, it would be Fredy Caceres. 

He has been our track operator for the better part of five years. His achievements include a successful national, the awarding of a second national, a renewed partnership with Prince William County, major infrastructure upgrades, increases in ridership and moto counts, and racers reaching prominence at the factory and NAG levels. 

But even that list of accomplishments does not capture all he has meant to the NOVA community. 

We have known him as a friend, a competitor, a leader, an organizer, a coach, a motivator, and a visionary. 

He has given as much of himself to the track as any person could. His blood and sweat are mixed with its soil. 

Yet the time has come, as it always must, for the torch to be passed. What can we say, as this era comes to an end? 

“Thank you” doesn’t seem enough. 

And it is especially unfair that it would happen now, when so much in the world has changed and when the gathering and ceremony that would normally attend so significant a transition are not possible. 

So what do we say? 

We say, “We’ll carry on and make you proud.” 

And that’s true.

We say, “We could never have done it without you.” 

That’s for sure true.

We say, “Your legacy resides in a generation of riders who had the best times of their lives under your watch, who learned life lessons only BMX could teach.” 

True! 

We say, “Our kids will carry that character formation into the wider world, to success, to good works, to caretaking in their own communities.”

God willing, that is true. 

We say, “You gave us the fastest, flowiest, most fine-tuned track that NOVA BMX has ever seen.” 

Some might argue, but we all know it’s true. 

We say, “We love you, Fredy.” 

We hope you know how true that is. 

There is a great paradox for adults who find themselves immersed in BMX. We watch our kids grow up through the sport. And through the same sport, we recapture something of our own youth. 

Those intensive BMX years are magic, when so much revolves around a shared mania. 

We think each other’s thoughts. We live each other’s pain and triumphs. We eat the same food under the same tents and dream the same dreams. There is a kinship that seems thicker than blood.

But as we grow, things change. And even your best, closest BMX buds have to take that next step into whatever life holds for them. 

Those of us who are old, for whom BMX is a refuge from the world, want to freeze those days in time. We think to ourselves, “What’s better than this?”  

But we know that as life unfolds, whatever it demands of us, BMX endures.  It is there for you when you need it and how you need it.  

And so we say, ”Until next time. The riders will be ready. The gates will drop. The Gatorade will be cold … the pizza, too, but it will taste just as good.” 

Fredy Caceres, you built more than a first-class facility here at NOVA BMX. 

You built a family. 

And that family will always welcome you home.