Jumpin' J's In The News

Excerpt from Seattle Times 2009 article...

"....  Eighty percent of the 60 team members are females, but Jesse Bica, an 18-year-old senior at Bothell High School, is the world champion and record holder in the male division of the 30-second speed jump. He set the mark — 194 jumps — in winning the event at last summer's world championship in South Africa. He also has become a top freestyle jumper even though the gymnastics aspect of the sport were difficult for him to master.

His mother, Joyce Bica, enrolled him in an after-school jump-rope class when he was in first grade as a way to help him harness his energy. He seemed a natural, but it was his hard work that impressed the Hot Dogs enough to invite him as fifth-grader. Now, as he weighs college options from the University of Washington to Stanford, he factors whether each has a nearby jump-roping team.

"It's not like any other sport," he says. "There is such a positive atmosphere to it. You don't see the rivalries you see in other sports. Everyone is trying to help each other, even the other teams."

As do many Hot Dogs, he spends much of his time teaching classes and workshops. He does it with his two younger sisters, also members of the Hot Dogs, and his mother, who recently won the speed jumping title for women over 50."    

Read the full article here   http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009168371_nwjump04m.html

Photo Layout from Bothell-Kenmore Reporter 2007....