very fall, MX Sports Pro Racing, organizer of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, gets together with representatives of the six major OEMs to discuss the state of Pro Motocross in America. My other job is president of MX Sports Pro Racing, a position I’ve held since 2008, when the Daytona Motorsports Group (DMG), led by Jim France, bought AMA Pro racing from the American Motorcyclist Association, then leased us the right to manage and promote the series. The AMA Pro Motocross rulebook is still written by AMA Pro Racing, but we have a lot of input, as do the six OEMs we meet with on a regular basis.

It was at one of those meetings that Roger De Coster, the head of U.S. racing for KTM and Husqvarna (and likely soon GasGas), offered his concerns about the lack of education he was seeing in the sport. De Coster believes the industry has a responsibility to young athletes and their families to be more proactive in pushing younger riders toward at least a high-school education, and I certainly agree. I have said time and again that lack of education is our sport’s dirty little secret, and that too often “homeschool” really means “practice school” for young riders. Too often we see and hear about riders who finish their professional careers and don’t have the proper education or skills for what comes next. Roger discussed how most other sports—especially stick and ball ones—have some kind of scholastic component to them, then suggested we make proof of some kind of high-school-equivalent diploma mandatory for anyone who wanted a professional license.