Young canoeist wins gold Boy, father share passion for paddling

BREWER – Young people are often in a hurry to get older. But while age and maturity have some advantages, sometimes being the youngest is most favorable, as one youth learned recently.

Brian Kelley of Brewer and his dad, Dick, competed in the New England Downriver Championship Series Whitewater National Canoe Race held July 6-9 on the Deerfield River in Charlemont, Mass.

The younger Kelley won three medals – a gold, a silver and a bronze – and a traveling award, a one-fifth replica of a traditional birch bark canoe made by Penobscot Indians.

“I won the award for being the youngest,” said Brian, who was 14 at the time he participated.

Since 1997 the replica has been awarded to the youngest person participating in the Championship Series.

“Brian’s the first kid in Maine to receive this trophy,” his mother, Patty, said.

Brian won the gold medal in a three-mile solo race. With his dad he won the silver medal in the eight-mile junior-senior race in which a young person between the ages of 10 and 16 partners with a person over age 25. He won the bronze medal in a junior-senior sprint race of roughly two miles.

Race day was sunny, and Brian described the water as a dam-release.

“There’s one big drop called the Zoar Gap,” he said, adding that it had some big white water. Participants came from several states, including New York, Michigan and North Carolina.

Dick Kelley, an electrical engineer, has been active in water sports since he was a youth – he ran the Kenduskeag Canoe Race as a teenager. When Brian was old enough to show interest he, too, began to participate with his dad.

“I started the white water with my dad when I was 10,” he said.

Patty added that Brian began canoeing on regular flat water with his father at the age of 6.

“So they’ve been paddling forever,” she said.

Indeed, the two have participated with MaCKRO, Maine Canoe Kayak Racing Organization, since Brian was 10. They have paddled all over the state, including the Rangeley area, Machias, Belfast and Houlton.

Brian, now 15 and a sophomore at Brewer High School, also plays basketball and JV soccer. Over the summer he plays golf and tennis and mows lawns. In addition, he and his family, including 13-year-old sister Krissy, do a lot of camping together.

Last year Brian had the opportunity to play baseball, but when he learned it involved a commitment of six days a week, he realized it would interfere with canoeing. He decided not to play.

As parents, Patty said that she and Dick were pleased to see Brian make that decision because father and son enjoy the time they spend together in a sport they both love. Patty said that that time is precious.

The Kelleys plan to participate in next year’s Whitewater National Canoe Race to be held in Pennsylvania.