The smell of freshly picked apples, the vast and immense array of colors that one sees — greens, pinks, purples, blues — the back trails and bushwhacking, the plentiful rivers and forms of the water with which one is blessed, the (though lacking this year) snow up in the mountains which offers many a surreal escape from everyday life. Though some may not enjoy living in the Wenatchee Valley, senior Josh Mandoli is proud to call this place his home.

“I honestly love this valley and everything about it, and it’s helped make me into who I am today,” Mandoli said.

Born and raised in Wenatchee, Mandoli has lived a pretty normal life. Good student, good grades, good friends — all in all a good life. But what one wouldn’t expect is his passion for racing — bike racing.

“I started road cycling when I was 11, and it was something that my grandpa introduced me to,” Mandoli said, “He grew up in Italy, and cycling is such a huge sport there, and so he introduced it to me by watching the Tour de France, and I figured that it was something that I might want to pursue.”

Mandoli has been biking from a young age but has only been competitively racing since he was 13 and has competed all across the state.

“Biking is something I do to get away and clear my head, and I also really enjoy the competitive side of racing,” Mandoli said. “It’s definitely something that I will be continuing into college.”

Mandoli will be attending Gonzaga University next year, and though he hadn’t originally planned on going there, he’s excited to be attending Gonzaga next year.

“Gonzaga was a school that wasn’t even on my radar until last year when I went to a college fair at Wenatchee Valley College,” Mandoli said, “I learned a little bit about it — I knew it was a private, Catholic university — and, I mean, I’m not Catholic. Then I learned about the community there and the programs they offered, and so I took a tour last fall, and I absolutely fell in love with the campus and the people there. It was just an overall great experience just going around and meeting new people, and I knew that’s where I wanted to go.”

Mandoli wants to major in electrical engineering, and hopes to one day come back and work for the Chelan County PUD in Wenatchee.

“I definitely will move back and get some experience here — this is the main place to be in power distribution — and then hopefully move that experience onto somewhere else,” Mandoli said.

If all goes according to plan, Mandoli will be graduating with a 3.9 GPA, receiving only one A- in his sophomore year English class.

“I’ve always been a straight-A student and set high goals for myself, and I was really disappointed when I got an A-,” Mandoli said, “But over time I’m kind of glad that I got it so early, because it’s not so big a deal now that I look back on it. I’m kind of happy that I had that setback as it took the pressure off, and I wasn’t so hard on myself, and I learned to enjoy the classes more than the grade.”

As for the rest of his life in high school, Mandoli is glad that he got the experience, and is even though it’s tear jerking to leave everything behind, he’s happy to be moving on to better places.

“It’s been a pretty fun experience — a challenge,” Mandoli said, “There’s definitely been a lot of ups and downs, and I enjoyed the experience along the way. I met some of my favorite teachers here, some of my best friends; people I hope to stay in contact with the rest of my life. It was definitely a good experience for me — kind of like the rite of passage into manhood.”