Tellico Heat got its start as the Tennessee Heat when Mike and Alice Michelli built a home in Kahite in 2015. They had moved here from The Villages in Florida, and were active in the Florida Heat Dragon Boat Club there. When there was no local club here, they decided to try to start one. The first informational meeting was sometime in early 2016. There were maybe a dozen people attending the meeting which was held in the quilting room at the Chota Rec Center. Dave and I were living part time in Tellico Village at the time, and if there were other meetings after that, I didn’t attend them. The name Tennessee Heat of Tellico Lake was chosen as we were a sister club of the Florida Heat, and we wanted to encourage membership from outside of Tellico Village. We have had members from Rarity Bay since the beginning. I recall one gentleman from Rarity Bay joined the first year, and proceeded to ask out every unattached woman in the club, one by one. His very first question when we introduced ourselves was, “Are you married?” Once he had dated every woman in the club, he moved on. The 2016 season started in late March with a rented boat from Dynamic Dragon Boat Racing in Knoxville. Dynamic has always been a big supporter of the Tennessee/Tellico Heat. We were moored at the Kahite docks, which I loved!!! I didn’t attend the first practice, but I was at the second. We had a 3 minute warm-up, and I thought I was going to die. Of course I didn’t, and gradually we all built up skill, speed and stamina. By the end of April, our warm-up was out to Heron Island, about a 10 minute paddle at the time. Alice or Mike were our sweeps, but they lassoed Tom Borloglou as a steerer by the end of the summer. We rarely had more than 10-12 paddlers in the boat. I believe the club had 16 members that first summer. Can you imagine their patience? Here they are, both experienced international racers, going out 3 times a week with total rookies! The paddles were clacking and splashing, but we all were loving it. I signed up after my first practice.

The Dragon Boat Wagon – 2016 Kahite 

After getting our act together and learning that dragon boating was fun in 2015, we looked forward to the next season. But first I need to talk about a few of the characters that we were dealing with. I already told you about the guy from Rarity Bay.Mike and Alice, our founders, was quite a pair. They did everything all in, and sometimes got themselves into trouble with their passion. She was the better paddler of the two, but he was the better coach. She had been to Thailand and Italy with FL Heat.John Kadau was our elder statesman in his mid-80’s. He was a tall, skinny (although he claimed he once weighed over 300 lbs!) former Marine with a large white handlebar mustache.  Everyone at the Wellness Center knew him, because he was always there! He wore handmade hilarious tee shirts about drinking beer and avoiding his (long-suffering, but good-humored) wife. He was never a terrific paddler, but we loved him!  

John Kadau – Drums & Dragons 6-24-17

] Dragon Boat Fun

He came down to Tugaloo early, and bailed the boat by himself religiously.  He always had a bandage somewhere. He reminded me of Mayhem in the commercials!

Just one of many t-shirts from 2017

 

 

There was Craig Michalski, who lived in one of those massive houses near the Yacht Club. He found us our first sponsor, and volunteered with C.O.P. If he was on duty when we were going out, he would come down to Tugaloo in his squad car, and threaten to arrest us.

 

Sue Newman was another founding member who moved away from Tellico Village, but not before deciding we needed a Senior Day Care Center, and then doing something about it! Our Place is her legacy. They all eventually moved away from Tellico Village, but I still smile when I think of them.

There were no races in 2016. All we did was work on our form, stamina and recruitment. Honestly, we didn’t have enough paddlers to enter a team anyway. We learned our commands, and how to give a Paddlers Salute to the neighbors of Kahite. We did most of the drills you know and love now; ladders, guys vs. girls, zig-zags, stretches, cluck-clucks, etc. We would paddle all around the Kahite peninsula, as well as around Heron Island and over to the Sequoyah Museum. The waters around Kahite aren’t as crowded as in the main village, and we made good use of them three times a week. There were a few drills that we didn’t like. Mike bought a tent-like contraption that he hung in the water off the back of the boat. He named it Mathilda. She put all kinds of drag on the boat, and we groaned every time he brought it out. Mathilda was definitely a 20-something gadget. She was not good for our 60-something backs, and Mike eventually abandoned Mathilda… Thank God! We also abandoned the drill I called a “Tug of War” for the same reason. The front of the boat would paddle while the back of the boat would hold, then vice versa. It made us all laugh but we had too many injuries.

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Paddling in Choppy Waters

By the end of the season, we were making the boat move fairly smoothly in the water. Dynamic would encourage us by asking if we wanted to work or act as a guest paddler at any of their festivals, and a few of us did.

When Chris picked the boat up in the Fall of 2016, we were sad. Over the 2016-17 winter, in an effort to recruit more people, the club decided to search for a morning in the main village. Tom and Marsha Borloglou helped us secure a mooring at Tugaloo, right next to their pontoon boat. We used their boat to store our water, the rudder, and our car keys. We had a bad habit of dropping our keys in the water between their boat and the docks, so we initiated the “key bag” to get everything safely stowed before we even stepped on the docks. There are about 6 sets of keys down there under that pontoon boat! Just ask Dee! Tom was the first of us to learn how to steer. He was also the founding member of the Tellico Heat Swim Club.

In 2017, the Secret City Dragons lost their mooring in Oak Ridge, and asked if they could come down to practice with us. We had no objection, since we rarely had half a boat. Esther Wallace was a dragon boating dynamo, active in SRDBA, and a pretty good coach. The infusion of young blood definitely upped our game. Most of her paddlers were in their 20’s and 30’s, and were a great bunch of “kids.” We had to shush our “old fart” jokes for a time, as they quickly got tired of them.

Esther helped with steering and coaching, and helped us buy our first carbon fiber paddles (the all black Eclipse paddles that are still hanging around. Eclipse was later bought out by Hornet.) Esther didn’t tolerate a lot of our lackadaisical shenanigans, and a few of us didn’t like that. We had to shut up when she said, “Heads in the Boat.” Imagine! She also talked us into entering our first festival in August, 2017. It was sponsored by Tennessee Clear Water Network (TCWN).

Seven Members of the Tennessee Heat Dragon Boat Club Paddle with Chattanooga Dragon Boat Club 2017

Most of us had no idea what this festival thing was all about, but off we went to Volunteer Landing in Downtown Knoxville to find out! We recruited Jack Gemender’s wife Marie to be our drummer, and Claudia put together a fabulous Energizer Bunny costume for her, which won the prize for best drummer’s costume!

Left-to-right-Claudia-Nicholson-winning-costume-designer-Marie-Gemender-our-wonderful-drummer-John-Kadau-great-paddler-and-team-booster.-—-at-Volunteer-Landing-Marina[/caption]

Marie took her job seriously, and led the boat in breathing exercises before and after each race. We surprised ourselves by taking 2nd place overall! To be honest, we ate Charlotte Fury’s dust in the finals, but we didn’t care. We got medals! That, of course, was due to the Oak Ridge youngsters on our boat, but many of us were hooked. We set our sights on KARM for next year.

2017 Tennessee Heat Volunteer Landing Race

 It was at TCWN that the Charlotte Fury taught us the tradition of forming an arch with our paddles, and congratulating the other teams after a race. We still carry on that tradition today.

Near the end of that season, Mike called a meeting after a practice. He told us he wanted to build an elite senior racing team… that he thought we could do it. He thought this team could practice together several more times a week, do dry-land conditioning both during the season and in the off season, and work on diet and health. His goal was making the internationals. I remember the uncomfortable silence after he asked, “Who is with me?” Crickets. (Looking back from 2024….My, how things have changed!)

 A few weeks later, the For Sale sign went up in the Michelli’s yard, and they went back to The Villages. Oak Ridge found a new place to moor their boat, and they went back home too. They took 6 of our more serious paddlers with them. It was a blow, but we were OK. It was time to recruit. We were on our own.

As I said in the last chapter, our founders, Mike and Alice Michelli, moved back to Florida in 2017 and did not participate in TCWN, our first festival. During Mike and Alice’s time leading the club, they were adamant about us NOT joining the Southeast Regional Dragon Boat Federation, or about having any club officers. I think they were afraid of opening anyone up to liability, but I honestly don’t know. We were a very loose-knit group, getting by with little organization, and less money. Our dues the first year were $50, I believe. But the next year, in an effort to entice new members, the dues were lowered to $25. So finances were tight! That only lasted one year. Bob Eddins served as our treasurer.

Several of us recruited hard at New Villager meetings, and the next spring (2018) we had enough paddlers to enter KARM. I was captain for that race. We didn’t place at KARM, but all of us had fun!  Look for Dee Foster and Bob Werner in the below photo. [And our occasional drummer, Marie]

Tennessee Heat November 1, 2018[/caption]

“Drums on the Dam” was a festival supporting United Way of Sevier County, and was held at a nice location near the dam on Douglas Lake. Sue Clontz was captain, and talked UW into letting us enter for half-price because we were “senior citizens.” Score! We took 2nd place in the finals behind the team sponsored by Smoky Mountain Distillery, which set up a fun rivalry. We used “those Smoky Mountain Boys,” as we called them, as motivation to work harder for several years.  We wanted to beat them bad! Secret City (Oak Ridge) came in behind us (not far behind us, but definitely in 3rd place), and Esther wasn’t happy about that. There is a video of that race on our website somewhere.

Tennessee Heat Prepares for Drums on the Dam[/caption]

2019 was when we finally started to take off. We were still self-coached at this point, but our training was starting to pay off. We organized ourselves into some semblance of order with me as President, and Sue C as my VP.  Several people helped with membership, hospitality, and social events. I believe we were up to about 40 members by then. Dennis Faillo joined us from the Florida Heat in The Villages, and brought with his a few drills, including my favorite, The Dirty Dozen. We were still struggling with having enough steerers, but Chris Behling with Dynamic came and gave us a steering clinic that spring and got a few more of us going. Tom Borloglou was still steering with us, and Kathy Watson joined us, and quickly figured out that paddling wasn’t her thing, but she could steer!

2019 Dragon Boat Team[/caption]

We trained hard for KARM in June. Our goal was to break a minute in a 200 meter race. We were so close we could taste it! In our 1st heat, our time was just a few seconds over a minute. KARM was managed by 22 Dragons that year, and our “coach” was Lynn Meinert, an experienced racer.  She wanted us to slow down our pace so we could pull more water, so we tried it. In our 2nd race, our time was 59+ seconds!  The videos were interesting.  We always started out slow, but then as we pulled water, we would gain more and more speed! We would fly right past everyone. We had finally done it! That time put us in the finals. I don’t remember who we raced against in the finals, but we ended up winning the Community division, as well as the trophy for Mixed Division. Unfortunately, KARM has told us before the race, that because we didn’t pass some fund-raising threshold, we weren’t eligible for any trophies. Since it was a rainy, cold and generally miserable day, most of us had left after our final. Only Patrick and I were there to pick up the trophies that we had been told we wouldn’t get. Oops!

That August, we again entered the “Drums on the Dam” Festival in Sevierville, and those Smoky Mountain Boys beat us again! Those dirty gym rats! This time they were a bunch of very fit, 20-something, hard-bodies from the Cross Fit Gym in Sevierville.  Even though they had never paddled before that weekend, they beat us by almost a second.  We came in third behind Oak Ridge also. Still, we felt we had done really well!  And we bragged about it when we got back!  There’s no denying the teams that beat us are MUCH younger than us.

The Story Continues