Marsh Jones - Rice Creek Boat Club

Our speaker at today's meeting was Marsh Jones, of the Rice Creek Boat Club. The Rice Creek Boat Club was founded in 2007 by our speaker and Joe Manns, as a way to get kids involved in paddle sports. The club had humble beginnings; with a real challenge to scrounge, beg, and borrow equipment for the 15 young athletes who were looking for off-season cross-training and upper body strength development to make them better cross-country skiers. They started out by focusing on marathon canoeing on lakes and rivers (often upstream in the rivers), and by 2010 had added sprint racing (200-1000 meters) to their program.  Since 2010, the club has become very competitive, winning races in local, regional and even national competitions. At the 2014 USA Canoe/Kayak Sprint Nationals, eight paddlers brought home 5 medals. One member, Sarah Tokos, was named to the U.S Junior World Team and is an Olympic hopeful. These kids are serious athletes. If you live on Long Lake , and are up by 6AM, you may have noticed as many as 20 athletes participating in the club's grueling morning workouts. 

 

The challenges facing the club are mostly financial.  Even though all club coaches are volunteers, frequent boat repairs and 15 scheduled road trips stretch the club's $21,000 annual budget to the limit. The club is a 501(c)3 charitable organization, solely funded by club memberships and private donations. For more information about the Rice Creek Boat Club click here.  Marsh is pictured below with Linda Lafond.