Smoky Mountain Rowing Club

Carbon dating has indicated that I've been writing this column for 28 years.   At first, it was somewhat irregular but a long time ago, it became a weekly venture.

Ideas come from everywhere.   Last week, it was an idea posed by Dr. Ted Flickinger.  Lots of times it is from personal experiences and stories.  Many times, it is inspiration from my pastor, Jerry Mantooth.  Lots of ideas have come home scribbled in the margins of our church bulletin.  

And you, the readers, have come up with a lot of them.  That's the case this week.   I got a really nice letter from Maryvillian Liz Hubbard about the local rowing scene.  Her husband Roger started the first rowing club in Blount County in 2004.  

Known as Smoky Mountain Rowing Club, it was first intended for adults, mainly Roger's employees at Molecular Pathology Laboratory, but in 2007 a program for local high school students was added.

At first, I was sure that I had written not long ago about the sport of rowing in our community.  I looked and looked and then finally found evidence of a column once started but never finished.   It consisted of only one line, which most writers will tell you is the hardest part (actually, I find the last sentence to often be the hardest--something about never knowing when to shut up).

But rowing has grown here by leaps and bounds, it is a great sport, and it is certainly worthy of space here. 

 According to Liz, "while the juniors club was sponsored by Maryville High School, students from several Knoxville high schools and Maryville Christian also participated.  With limited resources, the first year was for girls only, since women are the prime beneficiaries of NCAA scholarships due to Title IX, but with increased interest, the club was open to boys as well the next year."

Again from Liz:  "The neat thing about rowing is that you don't have to have been doing it since you were 5 or 6 to excel-in fact, you really can't even start until about the eighth grade or so in order to fit in the boats.  So it's another path to fitness for those kids who haven't found something yet to get involved in. Like a lot of team sports, rowing builds character, leadership, teamwork and not least, extreme physical fitness!  Rowers pick up a lot of physics by learning what makes boats go fast in the water.  Adults can benefit tremendously as well, with a low-impact cardio sport that can be enjoyed on our beautiful East Tennessee lakes and rivers.  This area boasts several rowing clubs from Oak Ridge to Chattanooga, allowing for some friendly competition as well."

Currently there are about 20 adults and 30-35 juniors in the program.  An alumnus of SMRC, Liza Rader, is now on scholarship as a member of the UT Lady Vols team.  Several others are rowing collegiately.

The club's facilities are on Ft. Loudon Lake, off Rankin Ferry Loop in Louisville.  They offer recreational and competitive programs, trying to offer something for everyone.   The club recently attained nonprofit status as it devotes a considerable amount of time to teaching the sport of rowing to interested adults, as well as day camps in the summer for kids to discover rowing. 

My thanks for the prompt to Liz, a former collegiate rower at the University of Virginia, oh, a year or two ago.