Louren Mcintosh
Managing Editor
Between teaching classes and grading papers, professors never have the time to relax. This is especially the case for Scott Miller, the Dean of Arts, Humanities, Communications and Design at Broward College.
Five years ago, Miller got involved with Dragon Boat Racing, although he had been involved with olympic style paddling for many years, this was a whole new race. Dragon Boat Racing originated in Asia coming from an old folklore. It is similar to paddling, but with 20 paddlers rowing the same boat, a person guiding you in the back (the steers person), and a person tracking your time (the drummer).
He is on “Puff” which is his local Dragon Boat team, and is constantly practicing for his next race, along with taking care of his children and managing the Arts department at BC, this could be a lot for Miller.
To train, he gets up hours before having to leave for work, and builds his body strength, taking part in various core exercises. 10 kg on the rowing machine, core workout, training in a single canoe, are just some of the exercises he must partake in to become a skilled Dragon Boat Racer.
“You’re constantly trying to get the boat to have good chemistry, so everyone is paddling the same way and at the same time,” said Miller. “In the team boats, we practice four times a week, but you also have to practice individually.”
Recently, Miller’s hard work and dedication has paid off. Miller was selected to be apart of the U.S. team in the International Dragon Boat Racing World Championship 2017 in China.
You have to commit two years in advance if you plan on entering a competition as highly recognized as this. To be selected to compete in this championship, Miller had to go to multiple intense camps, where the coaches start to mentally select the team. At these camps, there were a series of 5 time trials.
“You get in a single canoe and basically, race against the clock. Everyone does that, and then they publicly post the times.”
After the camp, you must wait 5 months to receive an email, hearing if you made the team or not.
“All of the sudden my phone went off, I got the email and I was like woo hoo!”
In the championship, there were 35 different countries competing against Miller’s U.S. team. Along with receiving multiple medals in different heats that his team competed in during the championships, Millers U.S. team received the silver medal in the 1000 meter race, the length of ten football fields.
“The training is a lot but, when you get the chance to go to something like this [the championships], it is totally worth it.”