The loud *vroosh* of a motorcycle zooms by and circles into the St. Pius X Catholic School parking lot. Is it President Parr? Coach Buck? No. It’s our school chaplain, Father Robby Cotta.
How did this motorcycle-riding priest come to be? It started with his family.
“My whole family rides,” he said, “I was probably 13 when both of my parents got motorcycles, and we used to go on rides as a family.”
Growing up surrounded by bikers, Fr. Robby developed a passion for riding, obtaining his motorcycle license at the same time as his driver’s license.
But he didn’t ride either of their beloved motorcycles to school; he wasn’t allowed to.
“I got to have a motorcycle license and ride my parents’ motorcycles, but they wouldn’t let me take the actual motorcycles to school. So what I had to ride was a Honda motor scooter, or like a moped, to school,” he said
“The boy with the moped” was what classmates at Chattahooche High School knew him by, even getting himself a feature in his school’s yearbook.
“The yearbook had a page where it [featured] whoever had the sickest cars, and so you’d have all the guys that had their, like, jacked up trucks, and the girls that had their fancy jeeps, and then they put a little one of me just sitting there on my little moped.”
As Father Robbie got older, he got himself a priest motorcycle gang.
“I also have some priest friends who also ride, and so sometimes I’ve done motorcycle trips with some other priests[…]a priestly motorcycle gang, not officially, but we ride together.”
From the yearbook to scenic rides through the mountains, to the unofficial priest gang, our motorcycling ministry leader has had some great experiences!
