Saugus High Sophomore Heading To Largest Amateur Motocross Race In The Country

Posted by: Michael Brown in Community News, Santa Clarita Latest News July 14, 2020 - 3:25 pm 0 3,475 Views

A Saugus High School sophomore has earned two slots in the Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship in Tennessee after coming back from a spinal injury that nearly ended his career.

Between juggling responsibilities as a student, a motocross racer, and a son, Connor Styers is not like most teenagers his age.

“He’s just a super good kid,” said Pat Carrigan, who rides mountain bikes with Connor on a weekly basis. “If I ever had a son, it would be a kid like Connor. He’s always happy, and he seems like he’s just a little bit different from the kids of today.”

Connor’s father Paul attributes this difference to his son’s “internal drive” to keep pushing forward.

“I have tons of pictures where he’s always washing his bike and there’s a passion behind it,” Paul said. “It’s not about just riding the bike anymore. He’s had some serious injuries, and he still wakes up with a big smile on his face.”

Those “serious injuries” included a near career-ending spinal injury in February, as well as the mental and emotional toll inflicted by his experience as a student during the Saugus High shooting in November.

Despite these setbacks, Connor recently qualified in two classes for the Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn Ranch in Tennessee, which is considered to be the “biggest amateur national race in the country.”

“It’s the best of the best,” said R.J. Wageman, Connor’s motocross coach who has raced at Loretta 10 times. “It’s just the elite crew out of every state. In the dirt bike world, this race has just become the elite stop for amateur riders.”

Connor grew up riding on dirt bikes with his family during camping trips. However, he did not begin actually racing them until he was six years old, after his father took him and his brother to a nearby track.

“In my opinion, that was one of his biggest mistakes,” Connor said. “As soon as I got on the track, I just fell in love with my dirt bike, and from there it’s just been my passion ever since.”

Photo by Michael Brown/KHTS News.

After participating in several local races, Connor was encouraged by friends to try racing in larger events.

“We started doing the bigger races, and then we realized, ‘Hey, I’m actually pretty fast, and with the right training, I could actually get really good,’” Connor recounted.

His search for that training led him to Wageman, whose father owned a dirt bike shop in Santa Clarita at the time.

“I could always tell that he wasn’t afraid of speed,” Wageman said. “It wasn’t the speed we were worried about, but more about getting him to calm down and smooth out. Towards the beginning, it was more working on the patience and the technical side of riding.”

To help keep himself in the physical shape needed to stay competitive in motocross, Connor also began meeting with Carrigan and his group of mountain bikers after Paul approached the group one morning in Castaic.

“Connor seems like he’s the one kid who might stand out here very shortly,” Carrigan said. “It takes talent like he has, and support from parents like he has to make it to the next level.”

Throughout his journey, Connor’s parents, Paul and his wife Athena, supported their son in every way they could, from getting up early and driving Connor to tracks on the weekend, to buying Connor new bikes when he needed them.

“As a father, you want your kids to find something that they love, a passion,” Paul said. “You’re always trying to guide them to a passion that they love, and then as a parent you always want to support them in that.”

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At the beginning of the current amateur season, Wageman said that Connor was “really starting to make some big steps in the right direction.”

“I just found my comfort zone,” Connor said. “I was just riding really good and consistent.”

Then, during a race in Arizona in February, Connor crashed.

“I hit this one jump where I got the bike really low, and my foot peg caught and it grabbed my leg,” he recalled. “Both of my legs flew over the side of the bike and I kind of just cartwheeled, I hit the face of the jump in front of it, and (it) just stopped right at my back.”

Paul had seen his son crash before, and said that he knows if Connor gets back up off the ground, he’ll be fine. But in February, Connor did not get up.

“My heart dropped,” he said. “They carted him off the track, checked him out in an ambulance. Then we laid him in the back of the van, and he went ‘Hey dad, my feet are going numb.’”

Connor had fractured his L2 and L3 vertebrae in his spine. He was able to walk, but his balance was off, making it impossible for Connor to continue his season.

“I was on the phone with my mom and I literally just broke down with her,” Connor said.

It would take Connor four and a half months to recover from his injury, with two of those months spent in physical therapy.

“I was trying to stay as positive as possible, but I’m a kid who loves going outside, riding his BMX bike, mountain biking, I love going outside,” he said. “I hate just sitting inside all day, and it pretty much tore me up mentally.”

One month after his injury, lockdown orders were issued across the nation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, causing many motocross races to be pushed back or outright cancelled.

“Since COVID kind of moved all the qualifiers further back and pushed it more towards July and June, I was able to fully heal and recover and be able to go race it and try, which was pretty crazy,” Connor said.

The pandemic-induced delays to the races gave Connor a small window of opportunity to qualify for the national amateur championship race in Tennessee.

After being back on the bike for less than a week, Connor and his dad headed to the Fox Raceway in Pala, CA.

“We just wanted to go and just get some gate drops, and just see where I was at,” Connor said. “I ended up qualifying and I was like, ‘Wait, I just did that.’ That was my third time being back on a dirt bike again.”

Connor racing in Arizona. Photo courtesy of Paul Styers.

Two weeks later, Connor earned another ticket for Loretta, giving him a slot in the 125cc class and the 250cc junior limited class.

“He was super pumped, and just overall really excited,” Wageman said. “He knows that he only has a short amount of time to get ready for the race, so he’s super focused.”

With Loretta Lynn taking place in the first week of August, Connor has less than three weeks to prepare himself physically and mentally for the event.

“I’m feeling pretty good,” he said. “My confidence has just been rising, and my endurance has finally been just getting way better throughout every time I ride a dirt bike.”

Wageman believes that Connor can do well in Tennessee, as long as he remembers to enjoy the moment.

“If he doesnt let the nerves get to him, and just treats it like any other race, stay patient, and not overthink the conditions (…) If he just puts his head down and is just calm, I definitely think he can have some great top-10 performances,” he said.

When Connor arrives at Loretta Lynn Ranch in August, he’ll do so with a “Saugus Strong” logo on each of his bikes.

“I want to ride for Gracie and Dom,” Connor said. “Every moment I get on the bike, I’m kind of having a little bit of Saugus with me. When I ride my dirt bike, that’s always in the back of my head, knowing that I’m riding for them.”

Connor was classmates with both Gracie Muehlberger and Dominic Blackwell, who were killed on Nov. 14, 2019 during the Saugus High shooting. He was walking to school on that day when he heard the shots go off.

“It was kind of a scary thing,” he said. “And then I went to school two weeks after it, and it was just a weird dilemma.”

After he heard the gunshots, Connor ran away from the school, warning students and neighbors alike to turn around as he did.

Weeks later, when Connor and his mother went to the mall to buy shoes, some of Connor’s classmates came up to thank him for what he did, hugging him as they did.

“It’s tied him to the community,” Paul said. “For him to just show that support, it’s great. Those families need it and the school needs it. The principal needs it, and his teachers need it, I think that whole school and the community actually too.”