South Bend Tribune
March 30, 2004
Opening the floodgates
Kernan's action making
East Race accessible may have helped two Olympians
SOUTH BEND FOSTERS KAYAKING DREAMS
By STEVE WOZNIAK
Tribune Staff Writer
He won't tout it on his résumé in his election campaign, mostly because he doesn't even know about it, but one of Gov. Joe Kernan's notable accomplishments as mayor of South Bend may have been inadvertently spawning and aiding the careers of two future Olympians.
It was the early 1990s, and a young kid with a kayak by the name of Rich Dressen had fallen in love with slashing through the rapids of South Bend's East Race Waterway. But at the time, the City Parks and Recreation Department, which maintained and managed the East Race, had very strict, and very limited, hours of operation.
Dressen, who then lived in South Bend, would wile away the hours in between supervised runs on the Race just paddling through the flat waters of the St. Joseph River, never quite satisfied, and yearning for the adrenaline rush of whipping down the whitewater just to the east of him.
Nic Borst and Chris Wiegand on the East Race on Monday as top athletes from around the country prepare for this weekend's U.S. Olympic Team Trials in South Bend. Tribune Photo/JIM RIDER
Dressen's mother Nancy, possibly a little frustrated with watching her son mope around in the less-than-challenging flat waters, decided to take action and look into getting more access to the East Race for her son and other junior kayakers.
"We talked to everyone...eventually we ended up with a meeting in the mayor's office, me and my mom sitting in front of Mayor Joe, and he was with us," Rich Dressen recalled. "But the city lawyers, the Parks and Rec Department told him we couldn't do it. Mayor Joe came out and said, 'We have to get this done.'"
Bob Rosenfeld, who was city attorney at the time. recalls the decision by Kernan, a recreational kayaker himself, to set things in motion. "The mayor wanted it to happen," he said.
And so, under the supervision of Kernan, Rosenfeld set about reaching a compromise with the paddlers, whereas access would be granted in return for proof of insurance by the kayakers and an undisclosed agreement on liability issues.
"Without Joe's directions, these kayakers wouldn't have the access they had," said Rosenfeld of Kernan's influence on what seemed an insignificant decision at the time.
"I don't know who (Kernan) talked to, but I had a key handed to me... I had a key to (the floodgates of) the East Race," Rich Dressen recalled. "Mayor Joe, he took action and got it done somehow."
Dressen might as well have been wearing a T-shirt that read, "Kayaking is not a crime."
A
unique alliance between former South Bend Mayor Joe Kernan and Rich Dressen,
pictured, may have brought kayakers Rebecca Giddens and Scott Parsons a lot
closer to their Olympic dreams. Tribune File Photo
In actuality, it was the involvement of two Ohio men -- Bill Parsons from Toledo and Wayne Russell from Columbus -- that made it possible. Parsons and Russell had the credentials as coaches to appease people in the city administration, and it was their presence, sought by Nancy Dressen, that made access available to slalom trainees for much more time than had originally been available on the East Race.
And when Rich Dressen received that key from one of the adults who chose to remain anonymous, access became even easier for his fellow junior kayakers in serious training.
"The East Race is one of the safest places you can paddle, and we kind of showed that," Rich Dressen said in response to the city's continued concerns about liability issues on the Race.
In the summer of 1992, Dressen met up with, and became quick friends with Rebecca Giddens and Scott Parsons, who are the kayaking favorites in this weekend's Olympic Team Trials on the East Race.
Giddens and Parsons, who have both qualified boats for the U.S. in this summer's Olympic games in Athens, Greece, paddled just about every weekend on the East Race with Dressen.
Giddens, from Green Bay, Wis., and Parsons, Bill's son, knew at the time that South Bend was the only place in the Midwest to find good water year-round. They now admit that without the regular access to the East Race, they're not sure where they'd be.
"(It was) key. That was it," said Scott Parsons. "Those were the junior years. Our bodies were maturing, we were learning, working our (butts) off, paying attention to detail."
"Without South Bend, well, that all opened up the opportunity. That opened up the door, and now we realize what we had there," said Bill Parsons.
"Unbeknownst to Mayor Joe, he played a big, big role in Rebecca and Scott getting where they have," said Dressen.
And maybe it's that kind of thinking, that view of the bigger picture, that's helped Mayor Joe get where he has.
