From Dragonboat Roots – CanoeKayak Canada – Paddles Up – February 2012

 

Taylor Potts was first introduced to paddling through a high school dragonboat program. Since then she has made the transition to sprint canoe which has taken her to the Canada Games, Pan American Championships and to the podium many times at National Championships.

Mowat Dragon Boat Team

 

“Dragonboat was my first big team sport,” says Taylor. “There’s a huge team feel. But in that there’s so many opportunities to become a leader in the boat.”      That’s exactly what she’s done and she credits coach Scott Madill, an English and Philosophy teacher at Sir Oliver Mowat High School, for first recruiting her to the sport in grade nine. Madill’s dragonboat program attracted about 120 high school students each year to Mowat Dragonboat. The team paddled out of Pickering Rouge club in Ontario.

 

During winter pool training sessions for dragonboat, Madill introduced students to war canoe with a “flatwater information station” and also invited students to try small boats at the club. Taylor says the friendly atmosphere within the paddling community was what made the sport so attractive.

 

“The big thing was that there were so many nice older kids in high school dragonboat. They got everybody pumped up. It was a way to meet people and to make pretty close friends.”

 

Competitive paddling became a summer pastime for Taylor and her friends, and she even got her first summer job coaching at Pickering Rouge. With encouragement from her coach Scott Madill, Taylor attended Ontario Team Trials. She was pretty happy she followed Madill’s advice and was surprised to be selected for the 2009 Canada Games Team.

 

In addition to Madill’s influence, Taylor also credits Jim Farintosh for helping her to make the transition to competitive paddling. Farintosh was a coach and mentor to Taylor at Pickering Rouge. He made sure she had a boat, paddle and even a makeshift paddling machine for workouts on windy days. Farintosh also played a key role in preparing Taylor for trials that earned her a spot on the Pan American Championships team. She competed in Mexico City in 2010 and won gold medals in C1 200, 500 and 1000.

Taylor Potts (right) competes against World Champion, Laurence Vincent-Lapointe, at National Championships in Welland.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taylor now competes for Burloak Canoe Club and feels lucky have been influenced by such great role models. From the friendly grade twelve’s in her dragonboat to the coaches and athletes she’s met across Canada, Taylor has found plenty of them in the paddling community.

 

“There are so many role models … the Tom Halls and the Adam van Koeverdens. I can’t think of another sport where you get to be so exposed to the Olympic-calibre role models. You get the opportunity to talk to them, be friends with them. They’re around, you can watch them race. I just felt like in dragonboat and flatwater there’s no limit of who can help you out.”

 

“I can’t think of another sport where you get to be so exposed to the Olympic-calibre role models.”

Taylor Potts (left) on top of the podium with Burloak teammate Mallorie Nicholson.


As Taylor progressed from the new grade nine to becoming a leader in the boat and in women’s canoeing, she’s made certain to carry on the culture of encouraging and bringing others into the sport.

 

“We’ve become those grade nines who turn into the grade twelves and then want to pass on the awesome experiences we had to the younger schools. We started up a program for grade seven and eights,” explains Taylor. “Usually during school breaks I come back to my high school and do some coaching. It’s kind of expected that you give back and you want to.”

 

Taylor is currently studying Communications and French at the University of Ottawa Carleton University and plans to keep paddling as long as she can. Managing school and paddling can be a handful, but for an athlete who discovered canoeing through a high school dragonboat program, Taylor sees them as a good combination.

 

“I think it’s a pretty awesome thing to have during school. I’m in university right now and without paddling, I think university would be pretty dry. School and paddling really compliment each other.”