 Competition Highlights  1983 HK Worlds  Hong Kong, China1995 IDBF Worlds Yue Yang, China1997 IDBF Worlds Hong Kong, China1999 IDBF Worlds  Nottingham, England2000 US Nationals Philadelphia, PA2001 IDBF Worlds Philadelphia, PA2002 US Nationals Oakland, CA2002 Club Crew Worlds  Rome, Italy2003 World Nations  Poznan, Poland2004 US NationalsFort Dodge, Iowa2004 IDBF Worlds Shanghai, China2005 IDBF Worlds  Berlin, Germany2006 Club Crews  Toronto, Canada2006 US NationalsTampa Bay, Florida2007 IDBF Worlds  Sydney, Australia2008 US NationalsLong Beach, CA2009 IDBF Worlds  Prague, Czech Rep. |
 PDBA Junior Team: 2009 World Champions 2009 Season Review by Coaches Bob McNamara and Pete McNamara It was a long and difficult two year path from the gyms of East Falls to Racice, Prague but the trip was well worth it for the PDBA junior team as they came home with the Junior B IDBF World Championship trophy in August of 2009. This particular junior team was built over two years with an eye on Prague. While junior teams from the PDBA have medaled at prior worlds none have brought home gold like this one did. And what a collection of characters it was! (More on that later) In the summer of 2008 it became apparent that there would only be two teams contesting for the two Junior slots for Team USA in the IDBF world championships to be held in Prague. A look at the roster indicated that we had the makings of strong Junior B boats for paddlers under the age of 16 as of 1/1/2009. A coaching decision was made to focus primarily on establishing proper technique during the summer of 2008 running up to the Long Beach Nationals and worry less about hard core conditioning and training given the “guarantee” of winning a slot. This is not to say there was a lack of hard work in 2008 just not the amount that would occur in the following year of this two year plan to win.  At the USDBF Nationals in July of 2008, despite spending most of the year on technique work and being primarily a Junior B boat racing against a Junior A boat (under 18), the PDBA team turned in an awesome performance. All summer in drill after drill the emphasis was on proper technique that would allow full use of the core muscles. The superiority of the team’s technique was on dramatic display in the Long Beach 1000 meter races where each of the three pieces resulted in open water victories. While the team did not have the size or power to win the shorter races in Long Beach, the success in these longer races made them believers in the technique and created anticipation for 2009 and races against Junior B competition.Once the slot to Prague was secured, the hard work was ahead of the team. Beginning over the winter the team met weekly for erg and fitness workouts and the strength of the team was evident at the March 2009 NYC Indoor Erg Regatta where team members won numerous medals in the youth category with a number of them turning in times that beat some of the adult entrants. Once on the water a brief period was spent getting the core technique reestablished but the intensity of the practices quickly stepped up matching the adult 5 day a week schedule and generally doing the same intense work outs that the world champion adult team was going through.  The preparation for Prague was enhanced by the ability to put two boats on the water at most practices and the coaches would switch up paddlers to even up the boats during the full pressure pieces. There is little better way to become a great racer than to “race” multiple times in each practice. We were fortunate to have some local adult teams including the enthusiastic Fujianese who agreed to scrimmages as the season wore on. The aggressive start of the Fujianese helped the team get sharper even if we had no idea what they were yelling during the pieces. We won’t mention which dad on the Wyeth team got smoked by his son in a few of those pieces but they too helped us out with our preparation.  The trip to Prague was the first international travel for a number of team members. Fortunately, there was solid organization and all paddlers and equipment arrived in good order. The Junior B field was limited with direct competition from Canada and the Ukraine so the Junior B open boat raced in the same heats as the Junior A boats. Racing head to head with the Junior A boats was a major challenge given the two year age difference but the team responded with some awesome racing. In the 1000 meter races we found ourselves in lane 4 in the Minor Final as the second seed next to top seed New Zealand sitting to our left in lane 3. New Zealand blasted off the line surprising the team by jumping out to an open water lead by 250 meters. The team did not panic despite this being their first day of head to head racing. The awesome New Zealand start used up a lot of energy and Team USA began to take back seats through a series of power 20s until at 250 meters we were within striking distance of the lead. Coach Pete from the steering position let the team know “we’ve got them right where we want them”. With another power 20 the lead was down to 2 seats. A big power 10 was taken right before the sprint and we cranked it past New Zealand in the final few meters to win by 0.04 seconds, an incredibly thin margin in race that took nearly 4 and a half minutes. The team had proven its toughness in a head to head battle. The Junior B open also won the Minor Final (7th place) in the 200 meter category. In addition to the Junior B events the team also fielded a Junior A mixed as there were 3 strong boys and girls in the program who were not eligible for Junior B and we wanted every top paddler to get a chance to race in Prague. The resultant boat was mostly comprised of under-16 paddlers but they competed hard and were able to beat one of the two Canadian Junior A mixed boats in the 500 and 1000 finals for a 7th and 8th place finish overall respectively.The gold medal and Junior B trophy was the culmination of three races. In the first one, the 2000 meter race, we not only won the Junior B class but finished in a time that would have been good for 6th in the Junior A field. Canada was able to beat us in the 200 meter junior B mixed so the title came down to the 500 meter mixed. Canada chose to taunt our team BEFORE this race. Why they did so will forever remain a mystery but it was certainly a huge motivating factor going up to the line. Led by stroke pair William McNamara and Chance Tarrant the team exploded off the line to a quick 4 seat lead and continued to pound the opening sprint for 40 strokes instead of our usual 25 or so. Canada tried to mount a comeback but the pre-race trash talk kept the teams fire stoked in the body and through an awesome sprint finish for the gold 0.346 seconds ahead of Canada. Thanks for the motivation Canada!  The gold medal ceremony was the icing on the cake as team members, their parents, relatives and other US team supporters went nuts after the raising of the flag. Many members of Team USA said this was their favorite part of the 5 day regatta in Prague. Plenty of pictures were taken with the medals and the trophy but the enduring memory will be in the minds of the paddlers as they will hear over and over for years to come Coach Pete who steered the race and drummer Quentin telling them they were beating Canada in the money race.  As mentioned the team was quite a collection of characters. Many paddlers were related although the hair styles would lead you to believe otherwise. Will McNamara, created some extra wind resistance with his hair and paddled like a madman in stroke seat in the mixed and 2 seat in the Open. His more relaxed cousin Colin had less hair and had to be reminded not to strum the blade like his guitar. Another unusual hair team consisted of Ian McShea of the uncontrolled mane who ably stroked the mixed A and brought enough water to every practice to douse any on board fires that may have broken out and his neatly cropped less loquacious brother Liam. We doubted that Liam ever got a word in when Ian was home. The Reyes brothers also represented hair extremes with the super intense Dillon imitating Ian’s mop and hard pulling Devon going for the Mohawk look. While the Nagel brothers had similar hair, David quietly paddled while Peter would engage in lengthy philosophical discussions about anything. The coaches think they got the names of the Innes’ boys down by the end of the season but aren’t sure. Sean and James stroked the Junior Open with Evan in 2 seat bringing a solid core of experience to the front of the boat setting a rate that kept the animals behind them under control exactly according to the coaches’ plans. Hamza and Umar Ali rounded out the brother teams as a couple of rookies who came on very strong at the end of the preparation for Prague causing the coaches to expand the roster. There were also a couple of brother-sister teams and they seemed more similar than the brother-brother teams. Veterans Colin and Caroline Bush occupied seats in the engine room and Kyle and Kyrie Bennett added needed steady experience to the boat.  On the right side of the Open boat there was a strong line up with a number of veterans including Evan Werner, who pulled hard every practice, Gabe West who returned from the woods to help out, Chris Graham whose bobbing red hair helped us identify the team from the bank, and Kohl Kretschman who was the only one who could keep up with Gabe. The left side also had a strong veteran presence in Andrew White, who thinks white t-shirts were named after him, Quentin Carroll (last seen with no shirt on) and Chris Marquart (whose dad works for Wyeth, hint). A number of new paddlers came from out of nowhere to be major contributors showing rapid mastery of the technique including Chance Tarrant (with a mop of hair like William), Job Van Wilgen (whose hair we never saw), and Amir Nash, who we think got his passport 5 minutes before check in.The remaining girls included Emily Kugler who drummed with the best of them and lent her massive arms to the paddle in a few races. The “Panda Paddlers” Nicole Surman and Katie Peck were new to the team and quickly fit in to the boat. Veterans Anna Vrazo and Eva Campbell were steady contributors, well at least when Tess wasn’t distracting Eva. Tina Acuna attended more practices than we had and is probably at the river right now. She is able to compare her gold to the 2 silvers and 2 bronze won by her older sister Angela a former youth team paddler who was in Prague with the Premier Women’s team. Oriana Marcial mastered paddling hard and chewing gum at the same time while Zoe Stueck could be seen comparing biceps size with Emily after her hard work at practice. We did seek paddling support from other teams including those competing in Long Beach but few stepped up to the challenge. We were, however, able to add John Colasito from DC who added a strong stick to the Junior A mixed and Angelica Liharick from Portland who had relatives in the Czech Republic that were able to see her race.  A number of paddlers did not make or were not age eligible for the Prague team but their attendance at practice was very important to allow racing between boats. Additionally, they helped the team to excellent post Prague performances against all adult teams at both Mercer Lake and in the Philadelphia Dragon Boat festival where the team won the minor final in a field of 150 adult boats. These paddlers included Deval Bolton who steadily improved all year, the aforementioned Tess who the coaches carefully placed away from her sister during practice, Zoe Naseef, Michele and Nicole who came out a little too late for Prague but demonstrated real potential for the future, Matt Redding, the intense quiet man who could be seen smiling after whipping some adults, the three Sukley brothers Ryan, Justin and Kyle who helped out by flipping sides when needed along with Cole Reece and Ruben who needs a new hat collection. Extensive off the water work also was part of making this victory a reality. Led by Maureen Goldman and Pat Acuna the parents of the youth team did an awesome job organizing and fund raising to make sure all could make the trip. Besides the usual drive to practice, wash the extra stinky clothes, etc, of any youth sport they went above and beyond. Every time you turned around they were up to something be it a restaurant night, feed the adult team fund raiser, a paddle-a-thon and helping out with the main PDBA fund raiser, the Independence Dragon Boat Regatta. Gabe’s mom, Angela Acuna, Jamie Richmond, Chris Marquart senior and others helped steer at practice while many others lent a hand both on and off the water. Hopefully, they all got as much satisfaction out of their effort as the coaches did watching the medals get hung around PDBA necks in Prague. Prepared by coaches Bob and Pete McNamara |
| Thanks again to our many sponsors for making it possible for Team USA to compete on a world stage. |  |
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