Hartford Riverfront Champs 09.22.01
WALL STREET DRAGONS RULE X�
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A Sonnet For Rowing |
REFLECTIONS from a JUNIOR By Fiona ChinOn July 21, 2001, Kel and I arrived at the marina. Kelly is one of my best friends from middle school. We seriously had no idea of what we were doing or where we were going. Earlier her brother had given us directions on how to get to the marina...unfortunately, they weren’t much help, we almost got hit by cars for walking in the middle of the road =\. How did we get involved with this in the first place? *cough* Ms. Lau ^_^. When Kel and I had a sense of where we were going, we came upon a huge group of Asians-particularly Chinese people-not to be stereotypical or anything though. We were like "er...is this the group of people we’re looking for? Who should we ask? Why couldn’t Ms. Lau or Kelly’s brother go with us this day?" We were really lost, well, not really , but, anyways this is where Herman comes in (hey Herman!) He assured us that we were in the right place (yay!). On that day, Kel and I had an idea of what dragon boat was suppose to be like. So, Kel and I got onto this dragon boat and took our first couple of strokes. I was on the left and she was on the right. Then we were told to go onto another boat with the other newbies, who, I think, no longer showed up after that day. O yea, while on the boat, some members told us scary stuff about Tim (lolz), that he was really tough, etc. Yea, we saw Tim on the first day, although we didn’t know it was him until later. He came over to us and started to tell us about the proper way to paddle. From experience in school, you would realize that when he’s done talking, he’s going to ask for a demonstration. I remember crossing my fingers and chanting "Not me, not me ! " in my mind. He didn’t pick on me ^__^. For those of you who have never paddled before, lets just say it’s a lot harder than it looks! The first couple of practices were painful. I remember how hard it was to stand up, sit down, walk around, and even laugh. A small giggle can send a jolt of pain through my muscles. So basically, every part of your body hurts. My family members used to make fun of me for walking funny after practice. They claimed I walked around like an old lady (no offense). Right when we got off the boat, Kel and I would be soaked with water, stained with bruises that seemed as if we drew on our skin with a crayon made of salt. Heh, I remember Kelly telling me a few weeks later that she thought about ditching me and have me go to practice alone because of the pain. Around my fourth practice, Ms. Lau talked to Kel and me. She told us we were on the team - in an extremely casual way. We were like: "Ooh, ok....". Then she told us we had a race and that we were going to represent the U.S.A. A race? Already? USA, as in Team USA?!? Words can’t describe how I felt then. The closest example is it felt as if my mother had thrown a humongous laundry bag worth about six loads of clothes. The weight was crushing me. The only difference is that I wasn’t too sure that I’d be able to handle the pressure and responsibility, since there was so much pressure. I mean, it was my first race. We had about 2 - 3 weeks of practice until the race. Practice was the usual until two weeks before the race. We were worked hard! The hard work was tough but it was worth it though. In those two weeks, everyone came to practice everyday after school or after work. In those two weeks, Tim and the other masters tried their best to help us-Thank you! Tim also made me be the stroker for the left side- meaning I had to help Fanny (the right stroker) set pace! I was like NOOOOO! I remember begging him to reconsider, but all he did was smile >=(. The thought just freaked me out. The International Dragonboat Race of 2001 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Let’s just say being able to be on the Junior Team USA was really nice. When we were part of the parade ( yes, a parade) we got to check out the race site, our hotel, our competitors, and the cityscape. Our competitors were huge. They were almost twice our size! We also had a chance to "feel" the water before the actual race. The difference between the race site and where we usually practice is that the water at the race site actually tastes good �! So, I didn’t mind the splashing because it was refreshing. Our hotel was really nice ^_^-thanks! When our parents came, they didn’t believe that we were in such a nice hotel. The race? Even though the juniors lost, it wasn’t all that disappointing. I mean, we weren’t disappointed because we didn’t win or that we didn’t try our best. We did do our best. In this competition, we broke our original record so it was already really satisfying and we were really proud of ourselves. Philly was a lot of fun. We may not have won, but Phoenix (ours women’s team), Wall Street Dragons and the "Masters Women’s" team won some gold, silver and bronze^_^ YAY! The Hong Kong Dragonboat Festival of 2001. Even though I was unable to paddle for this race because I did not meet the age requirement, it was still a lot of fun. My friends, who were also unable to paddle, and I helped the club sell shirts, prepare food, and cheer for our team. We also had the opportunity to participate in the festivities-like getting our faces painted! We even got to be in the newspaper. By the way, our junior team won gold!!!!!! The 1st Riverfront Dragonboat Festival in Hartford, Connecticut. This was the last race of the season. My friends and I had the chance to paddle in this race. Sure, I was worried and nervous, but who wouldn’t be? This was just like our first race where I was really worried and nervous before the race, but when I actually got on the boat, the feeling was gone. I’m not too sure how I was feeling, but it wasn‘t exactly confidence. I was just...calm. Being able to participate in this race was a blessing. Ignore me if you will, but I still get really hyped up talking about it. OK, we were the only junior team there, but we were registered to race with the older people...is that the right word? Honestly, before the race I did not think that we would have a chance to win because there were a lot of really good teams there. A lot of people who worked there were trying to get us excited by asking us: "Who’s going to win?" We were supposed to yell enthusiastically: "Wall Street Juniors!" and we did! However, I don’t think they truly thought that we were going to win �_�. In the first round, I didn’t mind if we didn’t win, I just cared whether we’d be last again! We weren’t =)! We placed 5th out of 32 teams in the first round. The next time we had to race was the semi-finals and we were up against our Masters! They came in First and we came in 2 milliseconds after they did; so we came in Second - YAY! OMG, we made it into the Championships! We were sooo excited and proud of ourselves! In the Championships, we were up against our Masters team (Wall Street Dragons), Xtreme NY, and WIC (Women in Canoe). We all practice in the same marina and we’ve all seen each other paddle. They’re all really strong teams. Did you think the Juniors had a chance at one of the three medals? I didn’t think so, but....BOY WAS I WRONG ! I’m sure our Masters would have won First if it hadn’t been for an incident that happened between them and Xtreme NY. We still beat WIC. We had a chance of winning, and so we did. So what place do you think we won? WE CAME IN FIRST AND WON GOLD, BABY ! ! ! Our time was 02:04:13! We beat the Masters (who by the way came in Second) by 22 milliseconds! What I liked about this race was that we weren’t racing directly against other teams, but against ourselves. It gave us a chance to improve, and we did. Our time to complete the 500 Meters just kept improving. This time we improved our timing by about 22 seconds from before. It was as if our boat glided through the waters as smoothly as a dragon does in the sky. It felt great �! Before July, I honestly didn’t see myself participating in such an exciting sport. Let alone, had ever heard of a dragon boat. Friends at school and family were in disbelief when I told them about the things I had done this Summer. They actually laughed at me! T_T They laughed because dragon boat was a sport that required muscles, etc. Just ‘cause I was a girl, geez. What’s wrong with that? There are WOMEN teams out there you know. Joining Wall Street changed my life. People say it takes more muscles to frown than to smile, but why does it hurt so much when you smile for a long time? You could say before Wall Street Dragons, I only lived for my best friends. Otherwise, there really wasn’t anything in life that would actually allow me to be truly happy. Joining Wall Street Dragons led me to find some other things to be truly happy about, to look forward to, to be committed to, and to live for. I’ve only been with the team for a little over 2 months and I feel like I’ve known them forever. I love the team so much that I know my life will never be the same. I see myself still paddling about 30 years from now. Thank you for touching my life ^_^. Because of dragon boat, I stopped staring blankly back at the world with my tired eyes. I’ve been a much happier person and I’ve made great new friends in school and in life. Because of this, I am grateful that I was actually vulnerable enough for Ms. Lau to sucker me into dragon boat. I have no regrets joining dragon boat, it was all worth it. THANKS TO: Kelly, Fanny, Jessica, Christine, Sophia, Steve, Stanley, Brian, CC, Wesley, Irvin, Will, Edyta, Ann, Kim, Edwin, Nelson, Joyce, Chris, Michelle, David, Justin, Jenny, Wendy, Eugenia, Jerry, Alpo, Helen, Mo, Diana, Kaoru, Daniel, Kimberly, and of course the Masters and the rest of the team. |
ExPenseS For D.B. MemBersHiP FeE: $25 Uniforms & Paddles: $125 All the hard woRk & winning: Priceless From: Alpo, Brian, Carole, Chris, Christine, Edyta, Fanny, Fiona, Gary, Irvin, Jessica, Joyce, Kelly, and the rest of our teammates
"Dedication"
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A
Junior Experience
By
Tim Woo
To my amazement, at each
weekly practice the progress got better and better. At first I thought, �Well,
if they finish within 5 boat lengths and cross the finish line in their lane -
it will be a victory in itself.� but they were finally responding, �Maybe
now, 2 - 3 boat lengths instead.� All
it took was to move the �yappers�, (You
know who you are!!) away from each other so that the entire team could
concentrate. Once done, the entire team focused and practiced much better.
I also noticed that the small groups within the team started to gel, not
only on the boat but off the boat as well. Then, I knew we would be all right.
I always thought that it�s not always about winning, but the
development of friendships within dragon boating that was paramount.
Winning and the reality of losing is much easier to handle if you develop
new friendships. Sharing these
experiences with friends makes them much more memorable. When you go through the
losing/growing period together, eventually the wins will come and when it does,
it is so much sweeter.
Okay, now we�re making
progress, but we were still missing that extra Ommpf!
Some of the juniors were needed to help push the other kids along to
create that extra energy. I thought that none of them will ever experience a
dragon boat race until the World Championships, but by then it may be too late.
Most people don�t get hooked until they attend and experience their
first race and then they realize what all the hard work was for.
Then I had the idea to bring some of the more developed Juniors to the
Montreal Festival. Hopefully, this
would inject the spark the Juniors needed to move to another level of progress. I approached Mr. Louie with the idea and he agreed it would
help. So-o-o-o, we plucked a few of
them and we went off to Montreal.
Unlike last year, this
new group of Juniors along with the University Juniors was winning all their
races in Montreal. This lead to a
dilemma: giving everyone a chance to race, and the opportunity to experience
winning a championship. Many of the
past University paddlers understood when they were asked to sit out races so
others could experience the thrill. When
the University Championships was finally won, this would propel the Juniors into
training harder and more often. The
Juniors who returned from Montreal had a different swagger and eagerness to them
which wasn�t present before.
The World Championships
weekend came quickly. It was a real tough decision to cut the Team down to the
required 26 paddlers. As I observed
the team during the Opening Ceremony Parade, the bond of the entire group seemed
much tighter. It was great to see because they would need to keep that bond
together to get them through the experiences of their first International Dragon
boat race competition in a matter of hours.
As the races started and progressed, the level of stress increased
exponentially -- thank God, Terry Chin was there to help out.
As the races unfolded, the Junior crew raced to their potential in most
of the races. Since they were the
youngest crew, with the least amount of experience, I thought that they
performed exceptionally well compared to the world class teams that they were up
against. What Terry Chin and I will
remember most from that weekend was how badly they wanted to win and couldn�t.
I hoped that most of our Juniors will cherish the opportunity they had,
which I think most of them did.
I will never forget the
team dinner we had a few weeks later - it was one of the most memorable
experiences as a Dragon boat coach I ever had. THANK YOU ALL ! ! !
Fast forward to
September. I heard that some of the
Juniors were still practicing even though there were no more races.
I had not shown up to the Marina after the New York Festival because it
was time for me to spend quality time with my own kids and wife.
I had asked Mr. Louie again to call the Hartford Dragon boat Festival to
see if they would allow the Juniors to race.
Mr.Louie told me Hartford had an age requirement, but he would call and
ask anyway. Hartford decided to waive the requirement and let the Juniors race.
I thought �Wow.� This will be a great way to finish the season for
them, much to my chagrin.
I arrive at the Hartford
race late, missed their first race but heard that the Juniors did well, and were
in the top five, overall. Then I had the opportunity to race against them in my
first heat. As usual, all the
Yappers started talking trash before the race.
Instead, I was thinking, �We�ll let our paddling do the talking�.
Well, it didn�t talk much, our crew only edged the Juniors by less than
half a second. Again, I thought to
myself, �Man, if we meet them in the Finals, whoever blinks first will
lose.� The Finals came.
The Juniors were in the far lane. Wall
Street was sandwiched by WIC and Extreme. As
the horn sounded, splashing everywhere, and the sounds of drums and calls from
the other boats � C H A O S, it is ! ! ! Before I can even say lengthen, I hear Extreme chugging
up close. Paddles hit. Dragon heads
collide but we all keep paddling. Then WIC pulls up close as well.
I thought �here it is � from these three crews, the eventual winner
will prevail.� All three crews
making calls after calls and finally the Finish line push.
As I looked up after the finish, to my amazement, the Juniors had crossed
the line with the pack and I thought they might have done it. Yes, they might
have won, because their boat was slightly further than the rest of us.
As we paddled back, it was confirmed - the Juniors had won it all !
Everyone on our crew was the first to congratulate them.
I was extremely proud of what they had accomplished, the first Junior
crew in the USA to win a Festival. As
I watched them pose for the team photos with their Gold medals, I realized that
this was what this crew was destined for this season.
What a fitting end to the long season and what a wonderful start for the
next.
Last
Updated: 03/28/02 11:39:17 PM
