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They’re not paddling their way to Warren, Pa., Monday, but after a 13-hour drive from Old Town, they won’t be able to get their canoes in the water fast enough.
Twelve canoeists will make the long trip to represent the Penobscot Indian Nation at the Flatwater National Championships Aug. 8-14. Their competition begins Tuesday.
The trip will cost the dozen paddlers approximately $5,000 for hotels, transportation, and entry fees, but a $3,000 federal grant defrayed much of the expense and allowed the Penobscot Canoe Club to take its largest contingent ever to nationals.
“The most we’ve had before this was probably six. We wanted to take more, but we didn’t have enough money to get them all out there,” said John Neptune, club and team coach. This is a pretty good-sized group and probably one of our better-trained groups as well.”
Does that mean they might also surpass their record medal total of three (one gold, one silver, one bronze) in 2002?
“I hope so, but there are some really, really good paddlers there,” said Neptune, who is making his second trip as a competitor and fourth overall to nationals.
Neptune is one of the older members of the contingent, which ranges in age from 14 to 54. Seven members are youths ages 14-19.
“We’ll probably have at least two or three people racing each day and probably everyone on Friday,” said Neptune, who is competing in the men’s and mixed 500-meter sprint races as well as the men’s and mixed marathon (13.2 miles) races.
Carla Fearon, the director of the Penobscot Nation’s boys and girls club, will be Neptune’s paddling partner in the mixed marathon. This will be her first Nationals experience.
“I’ve done some local canoe races and MaCKRO circuit races in past years, but I really wanted to get more involved in it this year,” Fearon said. “I had run the fitness center, too, for the Penobscot Nation since 1999, so I was getting a lot of exercise, but I haven’t done that for a year or so. I figured this was a good way to keep exercising and have a connection with the kids in the club.”
Fearon – who has only competed in one local race, but has been training every day since early June – is competing in the women’s/junior (C2) sprint race with 18-year-old Alivia Moore, the mixed marathon, the women’s sprint, and possibly a fourth race.
“Yeah, well, depending on how I feel. If I don’t feel dead, I’ll do another one,” Fearon said with a laugh. “I think just getting the experience and being able to go is the big thing for me. Right now I’m just nervous.”
Former whitewater national champions Ethan Dana and Gary Fearon, Carla’s son, will also be taking part in the Nationals.
The canoe club raised the remaining $2,000 needed for the trip through car washes and raffles.
Fearon is hopeful that the larger contingent of Penobscot paddlers and increased interest in the sport will spur a more ambitious fundraising effort so the club can send more and more canoeists to Nationals.
“I think we’ll try to make it a year-round fundraising effort so we don’t always have to rely on a grant to send the kids along,” she said.
Why the emphasis on canoes and competition?
“It’s a cultural sport for us and to keep the tradition alive is important to us as members of the Penobscot people, just as it is in other activities like archery and even running,” Fearon explained.
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