Head of the Chattahoochee, AKA "the Hooch", organized by the Atlanta Rowing Club and the Lookout Rowing Club and held on the Tennessee River in Chattanooga, Tennessee has a creation story that could extend the length of their 5k course. Evolved from humble beginnings in Roswell, GA, in 1981, the race grew and moved to Olympic venue in Gainesville, GA years later. Growth and limited spectator enjoyment lead to glitzy digs in Chattanooga, the $120 million-dollar waterfront (and worth every penny) that first hosted the race in 2005.
Somewhat notorious as a regatta named for a piece of water on which it is no longer held, the minor confusion seems a small price to pay. A certain giddiness about this new location prevails—it seems that organizers are feeling that from this venue, the Hooch can step into the big dance—and not just with numbers, but also with quality organization and competition. Race director Dan Wolfe, affirms that "the new location has made this regatta grow;" where previous growth was incremental while in the Olympic venue, this year participation expanded by approximately 25%. Now claiming the spot as the second-largest regatta in the country, it seems the Head of the Schuylkill and the Head of the Fish (who have both claimed second largest status in the past) were throwing elbows in line when the Hooch just went and butted ahead of the both of them.
Organization land-side was top form—there were 80 plus trailers in a lot just across from launch site with racks set up for temporary boat storage even closer, vendor area on a street blocked to traffic in the shadows of impressive Tennessee Aquarium. The dealmaker on the venue choice was hotels, restaurants and parking within blocks of water. The republic of southeastern rowers enjoyed their stay, with food from every corner of the world represented in Chattanooga, TN—who knew?
Touted as the "Last of the Great Fall Regattas" (although the Head of the Lake next weekend might take issue here), the Hooch truly was the chance for coaches to discover just how much rowing they could squeeze out of a good taper. Rowers came from about 15 states, although most were from the Southeast, an area developing as a rowing region with several standouts in the collegiate and scholastic categories. In a sea of simply too many orange crews (Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Tennessee all donned the citrus--throw Syracuse in the mix and squeeze), Tennessee women stood out, with their two women's eights coming in one-two in the Women's Championship 8 in 15:35 and 15:48 respectively, University of Central Florida coming in at 15:54, Clemson and Southern Methodist completing the all-SEC ticket. "Obviously there is more to accomplish in order to continue tapping into our speed potential," said coach Lisa Glenn, and eight-year veteran coach in Tennessee Lady Vols program, "but the raw materials of competitiveness and focus are strong within this group of athletes who raced in the eights."
The US Rowing Men's team/Princeton Training Center was there to row more as an exhibition as they led the pack in the championship 8 event with a time of 13:35.2 in slightly swift water; Georgia Tech placed second just under a minute back at 14:31, with Grand Valley State University placing third in 14:36. The US team spent more of their day getting some face time with competitors at the awards stand and at a reception area near registration.
"It's not like this happens a lot in rowing," said Tyler Winklevoss of playing a role in US Rowing public relations. Agreed on that; rowing paparazzi and fandom is not too common. But at the Hooch, the boys did get their share of attention both when they rowed by, and off the water in hangout mode.
"It breaks up the fall training a bit for the guys and it gives them something to look forward to," says coach Matt Imes of the 18-22 male rowers at the Princeton Training Center. As was the case last year, the US Rowing teams have been very visible this fall. "When we (the coaching staff led by head men's coach Mike Teti) had this idea to go to more races in the fall, we went to race organizers…they have been great." He says that without the support of the rowing community, "we'd be in trouble." In a way, their plan has had a reverse effect, while part of the incentive for having the US team in the public more was to inspire other young rowers, it has actually inspired the US team as well, to see how many people are passionate about rowing, and experience their appreciation first hand. Next year it will be hard to keep their full head race schedule with the Olympics on the horizon, thus making this year's appearances in Milwaukee, Oklahoma, Boston, and the Chattanooga in 2006 more valuable.
The Head of the Hooch will likely continue to provide a quality opportunity to showcase southeast regional rowing development. Although there certainly are pockets of fabulous rowing in the south, the depth is not the same as the Northeast. On the collegiate level, Title 9 has benefited Women's rowing in the south, but they have yet to be a pervasive force on the NCAA level. So far Tennessee has succeeded there, sending boats to the NCAA Championships for four years. UT coach Lisa Glenn says that typically University of Central Florida (third in Champ 8's to 2 UT boats) and Virginia (not at regatta) have good Women's teams and that Clemson, Florida, Auburn and University of North Carolina (and other teams surely) are committed to developing Southeastern rowing, with great opportunities for scholastic rowers to progress in collegiate programs.
Tennessee is split about 50-50 with experienced rowers compared to walk-ons with non-rowing athletic experience. "We rely heavily on our novice program to develop rowers," she says. "It would help to have higher quality skill development at the youth level in the southeast; to provide more talent for DI programs to pull from and more opportunity for youth rowers to actually advance to the next level in rowing." She noted that clubs like Austin, St. Louis and Chattanooga had good women's youth boats at the regatta.
St. Louis Rowing Club coach Tim Franck was pleased to hear this. He has coached at Cincinnati Junior Rowing Club (CJRC), spent his college years as a rower at Northeastern, and now coaches the varsity women at the St. Louis Rowing Club that had several boats compete here. Having good scholastic programs, he agrees, "would accelerate the process (of making scholastic rowing in the Southeast more competitive)," he feels. "The kids would benefit also from the chance to row in good college programs." His Women's 8 and 4 have been undefeated this year, and won the Youth 8 at the Hooch with a 15:48 ahead of Austin Rowing Club Junior in 16:15 and Orlando Area Rowing Society in 16:29 and the top two spots in the four with 17:29 and 17:52 respectively, ahead of no less than 45 boats. Chattanooga Rowing followed them in at 18:11. On the men's youth side, St Andrew in Atlanta area, Greater Dayton, Sarasota, Texas Rowing Center and Leon Crew Boosters delivered some good kids to the course on Saturday. Many of the college teams, like Texas, Duke, Florida, and many others, had impressive Novice teams, it would seem the growth trend has already started.
The course at the Head of the Hooch was swift—there is a dam about 4 miles up from the course, but local authorities could not entirely stave off the speed of the water from the excessive rain this October - and there were some good times over the distance. The water made keeping buoys in place a challenge (however, quite a few doubles still got time penalties for missing what were arguably moving targets, to the displeasure of several of them). The US Women's team used this stretch of water for training leading up to, and after the Olympics in Atlanta. Their boathouse is now Lookout Rowing Club venue, one of the hosts. Looks like the 2k course shares a finish line with the head race, as markers remain.
The regatta may not be without some growing pains. Along with some launch dock backups, organizers apparently had problems upriver in the afternoon, and started a random boat blitz, sending multiple races down the course at once. Although this may have kept things more or less on schedule, it made following races difficult, and likely made it hard for the coxswains to motivate crews to chase down boats, as it was hard to tell who was racing whom. A post-race pow-wow with organizers and referees occurring at close of racing Saturday will hopefully correct this issue for next year; might as well call it a time trial if it isn't. Bridges provided spectators with an overhead view of the last 800 meters of the course—don't picture Charles footbridges here, picture industrial towers plus 50 feet - not quite the kind of visceral connection to the rowers in the last painful moments of the race you might see elsewhere, but a somewhat detached pretty rowing scene.
When row2k left its northernmost satellite on Friday for the Hooch, there was a light dusting of snow on the ground and a brisk wind. Chattanooga doled out a lovely 55-degree day with sun …which beat the spectacle of rowers spraying spit and snot as they gasp for cold air. Cheers, Hooch, good show! (Once used to hearing "y'all" instead of "you guys," conversations were much easier – although we'll admit that the country music ring tones were tough for this Yank, though!)
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