2008 Junior Olympics~Red River Juniors Take Center Stage!!

2008 Junior Olympics Day 8- We hate to leave

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 12:20:43 -0500

Today was the last day of racing for our Red River Racing athletes. Overnight, we had had some storms, and awoke to cool temperatures, and LOTS of wind! For our Texans, it was what you call a cold summer day. I later found out it was 56 degrees and the wind was blowing 20 to 30 miles an hour. At the time, I was just relieved to not be the only coach on the side, clinging to my fuzzy sweater! I was so impressed with the kids. They are tough! At least the water in Wausau is warm!

The start order was similar to the first day, with the girls going out first. This meant that Rebecca was out first! She had a fantastic run up top and even made all of the gate 6 move! She was headed toward the last drops when flipped and could not make her roll. She swam and we quickly flew into action to get her boat out of the water. The safety people at the bottom were already after a run-away C-2, so I got my boat and headed after hers. I got to spend a bit of time in the water, but we did get the boat off of a rock, and back to the Diva that paddles it! Chelsea made a good run down the course, but was tired ( The first time I have ever seen her tired!! Who knew it just took a full week of hard paddling!!) Erin had a good run, but ended up swimming out of a hydraulic know as “Little Diagonal” in the boulder gardens section. Having two of the girls swim might sound a bit alarming, but to me, it was confirmation that they had trained and peaked for Saturdays race, poured everything into it, and just didn’t have a whole lot left over. I was actually very proud of them, especially when they went back up to the top to take their second runs.

Court, Andre, and Max were up next. Court had a great run, but was given a 50 on a gate that the judges said he head ducked. To be honest the wind was blowing so hard that they gates were all over the place, and it was hard for the athletes and the judges to see where the plane of the gate really was. Andre had a solid run, but was channeling every bit of energy he had left. Max, after a few days of paddling the course, put together a great run!! He was able to not just make the gates, but put some speed to the run as well.

Everyone went up to take their second runs, and finished out the race strongly. They all did much better than the first runs. At this point Chelsea went to get ready for her freestyle finals, and her last show of the week.

At the finals, Chelsea came prepared with some roses, to give to the crowd during her ride. She ended up sharing her pink rose with her new friend, national team member, and home town favorite, Hailey Thompson. Chelsea kept the yellow one and made sure that the announcer introduced her to the crowd as the “Yellow Rose of Texas!” She went out her first ride with the rose in her mouth, got a great surf, and then flipped...and rolled up with the rose still between her teeth. She then entered the hole backwards and threw the rose to the crowd to great cheers!! Her second ride, she caused the crowd to break into chanting “Chelsea, Chelsea” as she fought her way back into the hole! The whole scene was so fun, and could not have been crafted better. After this crowning moment, Chelsea would be a member of the Cadet Freestyle Team!

The last event of the day was the 2008 Junior Olympic Award Ceremony! All of the kids then received their awards for the week!! This truly was the best Junior Olympics!!

Red River Racing was awarded 3rd place for the overall point series!!

Chelsea was given her awards for: Extreme Slalom-1st K-1W Cadet, Boater X-1st K1-W Cadet, Downriver-1st K-1W Cadet, Freestyle-1st K1-W Cadet, and Slalom Championships-1st K-1W Cadet. She also qualified to became a member of the US National Cadet team in Freestyle and Slalom!!

Erin was awarded: Extreme Slalom-2nd K1-W Junior 16, Boater X-2nd K1-W Jr. 16, and Championship Slalom-1st K1-W Jr. 16.

Rebecca was awarded: Slalom Championships-2nd C1-W Jr.

Court, Andre, and Max, while not receiving medals, did have some of their best runs ever, in a stacked competitive class, only fueling the fire to work harder and moving them closer to future podiums!

We had a great time, and there are many people that Red River would like to thank for such a successful event:

First and Foremost, the parents of Red River, who spend their own time and resources bringing the kids to practices and far off, wild places like Wausau! They also are an integral part of the team in supporting the kids, the coaches, and to be honest were all around fun and positive people to be around durning a fun and busy time. I also want to thank them hugely for their support of me while I was coaching the team! They made it easy! Thank you to: John and Gayle Easley, Caasi and Teresa Moore, and Edward Sanborn, and though they could not be there: Rob and Fiona Wiggins, Robin Armstrong, and Rachel Sanborn.

Also, Thank you to Julie Walraven of Wausau Whitewater, and her tireless crew who handled a majority of the logistics, and opened their amazing facility to us, and Coach Kurtz of Mach 1 for putting together a great JO’s.

I would also like to thank every athlete of Red River Racing, for giving their best, and representing the home crowd in a professional, courteous, and awesome way. Your dedication will be rewarded in everything you put your hand to do. You guys all have huge gold medals in my book!!

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone who is a member of Red River Racing, or has ever taken a class at the Power Olympic Outdoor Center. Your contribution is making a huge difference in the ability of this team to accomplish their dreams. Literally, we could not do this without you!

Here is to another great year of training, fun, and friendship!! Now the coach becomes the student. Onward to ASCI and training for Nationals!!

2008 Junior Olympics Day 7-The Championships!

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 21:05:31 -0500

Today I put on my running shoes! The day has arrived!!
The first runs were to begin at 10:00am. So we met at the course around 9:00am to review the course again as a team, work through any questions that the athletes might have had, and formulate individual plans. Everyone seemed rested, excited, and positive (this is HUGE!!).
The girls were out first! Thankfully they gave atleast 1 competitor between each one of them so that I would be able to chase them down the course, and get back up for the next person.

Rebecca was first, she took off confidently and made all of the top gates, she went for the move at gate 6 and barely missed the move flying into the eddy below, and fllipping. She rolled up immediately to cheers from the crowd, and continued on down stream. Little drop can be a bit sticky on the left side of the hydraulic where they put the next gate. The water tried to pull her back, but Rebecca held on a pulled herself out like a champ! The rest of the run was awesome and went according to plan, and she was tired but happy and relieved at the bottom. I sprinted the 150 yards back to the top of the course where Erin was leaving the gate. Erin had an amazing run, where she had only 1 flip that included a swift roll, and some of the best moves through the big drop of the day! She made all of the gates on the course for the first time in a race!! It was super fun to watch.
Chelsea was next, and she tore into the course and only barely missed getting into the gate 6 move, but had no problem from gate 7 on! There was no doubt about it. The girls had set the bar high!

The boys were up next with Court leading the way. Court started off very strong, and ran gate 6 smoothly, but had a flip at the bottom in the eddy above gate 7. He wasted no time getting up and charged on to have good lines and a fairly clean run. Max Lerner, having little time to actually get used to the water in Wausua, had a wonderfully executed run where he made all of the gates. Andre Sanborn was our last team memeber to go, and he had one of his best runs to date as well. I was so incredibly psyched. To have all 6 athletes compete, under pressure, on race day, at or above their current potential was amazing. Every single one of them went out, executed their plans, and laid it on the line. I was amazed.
Second runs began around 1pm, and things just kept getting better. With each run, our Red River Racing team athletes improved (and I got one heck of a work-out trying to see all of the action!!) Court Wiggins, in his new boat, laid out a second run that was blazing fast and put him in 8th overall in the men’s class that included a field of 35!

We had such a fantastic day, that rewards were necessary. I noticed by looking at our athletes that the biggest reward was the pride in the great job that they had all done. They had raced with all they had, and it was fantastic. Still, a bit of well deserved cold-stone ice-cream goes a long way!!

Tomorrow will be the double canoe classes, and an extra race for all of our competitors in their main classes, however, their results tomorrow will not count toward the Junior Olympics.

They have already completed the Championships and made this the best Red River Racing Junior Olympics Ever!

2008 Junior Olympics Day 6

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:05:26 -0500

Today, the organizers threw us a bit of a curveball. Normally, on Friday before a competition, you get a bit of time, to do a a few short courses, work the water a bit and then rest, before demonstration runs in the evening. However, the actual race course was set for the Championships on Thursday evening, so there would be no open practice. So, this morning at 9:30, everyone lined the banks to watch the demonstration runs. Demo’s were fun, but the organizers had set a challenging course. I then gathered all the Red River athletes and we walked the course to discuss lines and to make action plans. It was then made known that each of the athletes would get one practice run on the course. So everyone prepared to paddle, and we discussed their individual goals. One of the trickiest moves on the course was gate 6 which was set just above the “Big Drop”. This move required the racers to maneuver through a small eddy above the drop and then drop into the more challenging right side of the whitewater. Once they reached the eddy below, gate 7 was a dive, and they would have to fight the tendency to get spun out above the gate. Plans were made, and runs were executed. Everyone did really well, but you could tell they were a bit tired.
So, there was one pre-race tradition that was not changed. The resting afternoon!! The team voted on going to see a movie, and after MUCH diliberation Get Smart one out over Wall.E and Hancock. So, away we went (with only 15 minutes till it started!) and had ourselves a great time! Later, we went to Applebee’s for a great pre-race meal. Everyone was in great spirits, and all attitudes were positive.

2008 Junior Olympics Day 5

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:05:21 -0500

Today, We did our ultimate workout, and these guys have been working hard!! We started at 9:00am when the water turned on, and then set off to do half-length courses. This meant that the team members would start at the starting line for the course. Run through half of the gates, take a short rest, and then run through the lower half of the course. Each member would do two -sets of this worko-out. In the end, Court chose to do 3 runs for some extra work. Everyone was tired. I told them they had put in some good work, and it was time to take a rest!! We also had a new honorary team member (he is originally from DC) join us today!! Max Lerner has been working super hard to get ready for the Junior Olympics! He trains in DC with Olympic medalist Dana Chaladek. He flew in last night, and was ready to take on Wausau! He was able to get in some great play time in the morning, to get used to the water!

In the afternoon, there was one more challenge for those who chose to accept it! The distance downriver was a 15-20 minute paddle through the course and then around on of the lower islands in the river. Red River had 2 members that were ready to rock! Chelsea Borneman, and Max Lerner both stepped up to the plate! In the end, Chelsea finished first in the K-1W cadets, and Max finished second in the K1-Cadet class!! Way to go guys!!

2008 Junior Olympics Day 4

Wed, 9 Jul 2008 21:05:34 -0500

Today began with the some tougher work-outs in the morning as we added some distance to the moves. We also worked the lower section that I like to call the boulder gardens. I am not sure what it is actually called, but the name seems to fit as the section is littered with boulders that make for many a good,but deceptive slalom moves. Chelsea had to paddle her play boat today while she had some repair work done on her slalom boat. I was concerned that she might be nervous, or tend to flip more. Instead, she was in true Chelsea tiger form and kept asking me everywhere we went, “Can I surf that?” She jumped into everything except the “Diagonal”!!!
The RRR athletes are getting better every day, but are starting to show some signs of fatigue. Lucky for us, Erin Cambridge’s birthday is today!! She is 15 and this means that this evening we need to go out and have some fun! The plan is to go out to Tony Roma’s and have a good meal with all of our friends. John and Gayle Easley have provided a Texas Sized birthday cake to help draw the entire JO crowd to be Erin’s friend for life. Something about tired, hungry athletes, and a large birthday cake seems to be a good sugary mix! Our youngest member, Chelsea, deceided that she like the colors of the icing, and tried to wear as much of it as possible!

The afternoon held the preliminary rounds of the JO freestyle competition. Chelsea proved to be our intrepid competitor. Unfortunately, the icing she had been sporting, would wash off, so it would not really work for style points. She waited patiently for her turn to compete in the Cadet class. Along with “Fighting Jack” from Colorado, she put on quite a show. Chelsea made it to the finals!! This is such a great cap on today!!

2008 Junior OLympics Day 3

Tue, 8 Jul 2008 19:48:48 -0500

Today we hit the course again at 9:00am. Rebecca had the first workout, so that she could get some more technical work done. We worked more on cross bough moves, and she was getting more and more aggressive! She seems to get better each time she is on the water!!
The next workout was with the kayak crew, and we continued to work on technique and suss out interesting spots on the river. My goal was to get them comfortable running the “Big Drop” different ways.
After that, they had a short rest before the Junior Olympic Boater Cross!! Chelsea and Erin again stepped up to the plate, to put Red River Racing on the board. Chelsea raced with a group of 4 cadets, the three others being boys. She almost beat the whole lot of them except for getting stuck in a hydraulic at the end of the course. No problem for her though! She just rolled right up and kept on trucking to take 2nd place overall!! Erin finished 2nd in her class, after Hailey Thompson of Steven’s Point Wisconsin! It was so fun to watch them paddle with confidence.
While all of this was going on, Caasi Moore, Rebecca’s father, went to the airport to pick up team member Court Wiggins, who was awaiting a brand new boat that I had brought him from D.C. and his chance to tackle Wausau whitewater! We actually just got done putting his baby together an hour ago at 12:00 midnight!! We actually put a few patches on Rebecca’s boat to help keep the water out as well!
In the afternoon, the whole team, except Mr. Wiggins who arrived later, got back on the water for a team technique session.
If that was not enough, the evening was capped off with a Jousting competition, that involved the athletes balancing on play-boats while they beaned each other with Water “Noodles”. Andre, Rebecca, Erin, and Chelsea were not too shabby at that either! Rebecca did mention that “it really was not as good as having to balance on open canoe gunnels, of which she is quite good at while beaning other girls scouts!”

2008 Junior Olympics Day 2

Mon, 7 Jul 2008 17:27:26 -0500

Today has been fantastic!! We arrived at the course at 9:00am so that we could be there by the time the water turned on. The course in true form, was powerful, yet playful. The first workout, was with our kayak crew. Andre, Erin, Chelsea warmed up in the top pool. I gave them all the choice of weather or not they would want to run the top dam their first time out. I was shocked and thrilled that they all said they did want to give the dam a try. For those of you who have never been to Wausau, this is no small drop, and it exerts a considerable amount of force into the narrow section of river up top. They all said “Lets do it!” and one by one, including Chelsea who all but disappeared in the whitewater, ran it spot on. From this point on, I knew this team was ready to put their skills out there to have a great Junior Olympics. They had just run the biggest thing on the whole course, and had done it without being afraid. This was going to be fun!! We then worked on just getting used to the course. The kids played in the waves and set up moves in the gates that were provided.
Next, I was able to take Rebecca down in order to get used to things. Rebecca is our fantastic C-1W and has been working really hard to learn slalom and get used to her new Slalom boat that she was able to acquire from National level racer Eric Amason. This was the biggest water that she has ever done, and she paddled it excellently!! She didn’t balk at the Dam either, and ran it perfectly on line! It was time to play and get used to the water features, so we worked on crossing the currents on her on and off side, so she would be ready for anything that they threw at her!

The way the Junior Olympics works is that each day, the kids have free practice time for the slalom, and then in the afternoons they have a competition that counts as a part of the team points total. These events are designed to encourage the racers to take part in all aspects of boating. For example their is an extreme slalom, a freestyle, a boater x, and a sprint and marathon downriver! I am tired just mentioning this, and these guys have a whole week to go!!
Today was the Extreme slalom which was really just a warm up 13 gate slalom course designed to challenge them on the new whitewater. There were some hard moves, and it can be challenging to really get moving after days in the car. Erin and Chelsea both competed in the race, and neither seemed nervous about the water, and put their best on the line! It was so much fun. Erin placed first in her age group, as did chelsea.

Chelsea did have a bit of an exciting moment. There is a hole in Wausau called “Diagonal”. It is named such due to the fact that it is a diagonal angled pour-over that has a curler wave that likes to grab boats and feed them in. Before Chelsea’s run, another junior had the unfortunate luck to get pushed into Diagonal, and get worked, and loose his boat to a downstream rock that was perfect for pinning. He was light, as is Chelsea, which makes them very susceptible to becoming stuck in hydraulics. On, Chelsea’s run, she went down, almost missed the wave, and then was kicked right in. She surfed that hole like a master, but in the end she flipped and swam. The safety guys got her out quickly, but she was unfazed about her own personal experience. She just kept looking at her boat and shouting “Get it out before it DIES!”. Thankfully they did, but it did have a some places that would need repairing. I was amazed watching how unafraid she was, and of course how much she was concerned about her boat. She finished things out like a champ, and said she was excited about the next day still.
With this race, Chelsea and Erin, put Red River Racing on the Points board!

2008 Junior Olympics Day 1

Sun, 6 Jul 2008 10:32:42 -0500

Today most of the Team convened in Wausau, Wisconsin to get set for tomorrow’s training. Starting around 6pm coach Michelle Kvanli met with Erin, Chelsea, and the wonderful cross-country drivers John and Gayle Easley. We then met with Julie Walraven the head of Wausau Canoe and Kayak, and the coordinator for the Junior Olympic Event. So far so good...
Can’t wait for the water release tomorrow!!

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