Team Chiro’s MacFarlane reflects ‘on a really good run’

Team Chiro – it’s a name that, for the past decade or so, has come to symbolize dragon boating excellence in Sudbury and beyond. But for those who recall the early days, it was a unique merging of like personalities that would initially propel the team to future glory.

Team Chiropractic came about during the summer of 2000, coinciding with the launch of the Sudbury Dragon Boat Festival. Originally founded by local chiropractors Al Dumencu and Mike Laframboise, the concept of branching out one day to conquer the world was not even remotely in the picture, according to a lady who has seen it all.

Jean MacFarlane entered the 2010 Sudbury competition as the sole survivor of the 11-year journey that she and her mates first embarked upon at the turn of the millennium. “We were a really nice group of people who were sort of in shape, sort of competitive and just wanted to do something fun,” she explained.

Raised in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, MacFarlane paddled extensively in her youth, manning war canoes, sprint kayaks and just about every vessel in between.

Yet it was a family visit to the East Coast in 1999 that caused MacFarlane to be smitten with the dragon boat bug, ironically at just about the same time that soon-to-be Sudbury Festival organizers Jim Smith, Steve Lee and Jim Dickson were experiencing the same phenomenon at a competition in Toronto.

Invited to join the Chiro crew by Jeff Walker, MacFarlane and marathon canoe enthusiast Rob Gregoris provided the very athletic squad with much-needed technical guidance, allowing for almost immediate success, at least to some extent.

“That first year, there was a funny dynamic on the team,” MacFarlane said. “I think we all realized that we were all quite competitive by nature, a lot of really driven people, Type A personalities who were not at all happy to lose.”

Early on, Team Chiro would play second fiddle to the more experienced Falconbridge Dragons brigade, a constant motivation to the locals who studied their competition, picking up trade secrets by imitation.

By year two, their domination of local competitors allowed the Sudbury Canoe Club representatives to gain entry in the Great White North Festival in the Toronto Harbourfront, finishing 15th in their first trek south.

While their background on the water might vary somewhat, MacFarlane said that it’s not an incredible stretch for those with comparable experience.

“The feel for catching water, pulling water and making the paddle work for you is similar in most types of paddling.

They all have similar strokes.”

By the time Team Chiro broke through, winning the Sudbury race in 2004, their sites were set on bigger fish. “We always had the feeling that, if you could just keep the strong core, keep your athletic people involved, that you could build a really good team here,” MacFarlane said.

The locals emerged as a provincial power, capturing the Great White North showdown in back-to-back years, knocking off the powerful Mayfair Predators in the process. To this day, MacFarlane insists that, at least from a personal standpoint, that first triumph over the Toronto-based rival remains the crowning moment of her racing career.

“Great White North has been considered, in the past, the biggest race, the most important race in Ontario. It was just very special winning there, at Ontario Place,” she said. “The venue is beautiful, it’s exciting, it’s noisy, it’s everything you want it to be.”

It would take a road trip west to Calgary in order to qualify, but Team Chiro reached the summit, and went to Malaysia in August 2009.

“There was a natural shedding of a few bodies after Malaysia,” MacFarlane noted.

“You make that your goal, you accomplish it – it’s a logical time for people to look to other things.”

Yet stepping back from anything that becomes an integral part of one’s life is seldom easy.

“It’s a very hard thing to leave, because the team depends on you,” MacFarlane said. “We have parties together, we hang out together, we travel around the world together – we’ve had a really good run.”

After 11 years of dragon boat racing at venues across the province and beyond, MacFarlane stepped away from the boat this summer.

“The body does get old,” she said with a laugh. She left with confidence that Chiro is in very good hands, ready to write another chapter in the storied history of the Sudbury Canoe Club.“We have lots of new paddlers, lots of new young bodies on board. It’s a team that has a lot of promise for future years.”

And though those years are not likely to include MacFarlane (or hubby Mike, for that matter) very much longer, it’s unlikely they will stray too far from the shoreline.

She added: “It’s time for the old guard to sit on the beach, sip margaritas and cheer: Go Chiro!”

Randy Pascal is founder of SudburySports.com and is a contributing sports editor with Northern Life.