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[The following is a letter I wrote describing the Men's 11 &
Under competition at the 2000 JCCA National Championship held in Portland, Oregon,
July 6th - 9th.]
Hi all,
We made it back from Portland safe and sound today. Oregon is a beautiful
state, but we still like Colorado best. We did not get to see too much of
the state with only one free day. We took the kids to Cannon Beach and
collected sand-dollars and shells. Later we drove to Mt. Hood, but it was
getting late and we did not have time to get out and do anything. We
actually had two days of sunshine which we hear is rare there. The climate
is nice -- a little cooler and a little more humid. The trees are what
really stood out -- they are down-right huge!
Well, we just came down off an awesome cloud of excitement at the 2000 JCCA
Nationals. We were very happy for Amanda to do so well at the
pre-qualifiers and make it to Nationals. She climbed much better than last
year with some stiffer, older competition this year. In the prequalifiers,
she competed against 11-year-olds and made it to the qualifiers. On
qualifier day, she finished 26th out of 30 competitors, flashing her first
route and making it nearly half-way up the second route. She is excited
about next year and really wants to get into the finals round. She should
have a good shot at it.
Daniel stole the show this year for the entire competition. He, Scott Cory
and Clark Allan are three awesome climbers and they were hard to shake off
the walls. All three flashed every route from qualifiers to finals which
put them in a three way tie for first place. I think there was some
anticipation of this happening on my part and Scott's dad saw it coming as
well. I knew Daniel would be able to flash the finals route (a 5.12b) and
Scott climbs very similar to Daniel -- very precise and fluid. Clark was
the unknown, because he did not have the same level of technique as the
other two, but he was unbelievably strong for a ten-year-old. His feet cut
loose constantly and he ended-up campusing to stay on the wall. He managed
to pull it off, though.
We were all tense on the day of the finals. By coincidence, our Youth
Pastor's father pastors a Church right across the street from the gym and we
were able to go and worship for a few minutes before the competition began
on Sunday. A Missionary there read us an email he received from the
Caribbean islands concerning severe persecution of Christians on an island
there. We got our perspective changed and realized how fortunate we were to
be indulging in our kids' activities while people elsewhere were fearful of
their lives.
Back at the gym, the three-way tie had to be broken. They whisked the kids
off to isolation right as each one came down from the finals route to
prepare them to climb in a super-finals round. The route chosen was the
men's 12-and-13-year-old finals route (a 5.12? that Daniel later said was
easier than his finals route). Daniel climbed first again and he literally
hiked up the route without a single mistake. I let out an ear crushing
shout and the rest of the gym seemed to enjoy the show as well. Clark
climbed the route with plenty of steam left over, then Scott flashed it as
well -- another tie! The crowd was really enjoying this by now.
"Super-duper finals," we kept hearing from the crowd. Scott's dad was
sitting right next to me during the super-finals and we were having a great
time watching the kids show their stuff. At this point, it did not really
matter who won, the three kids were doing some awesome climbing.
After sending them off to isolation once more, Tony Yaniro, the head route
setter, made a few adjustments to the men's 16-17-year-old route to allow
for the kids height difference. The super-super-finals route was a solid
5.13 and at least 60 feet in length on a severely overhanging wall which
turned into a vertical head-wall for the last 20 feet. By JCCA rules, the
kids had to climb on top-rope, so the rope was preclipped to each quickdraw
on the route -- nine total. Finally, the kids came out to entertain us some
more. They had been given Hanson Energy drinks and Clark was pinging!
Daniel had his hand over Clarks mouth to keep him quite while they sat
waiting to climb. (I learned later that someone had knocked a Hanson off
the bouldering wall in isolation and it hit Daniel in the eye just before
the super-super finals. I kept wondering why he was blinking so much --
ouch!) They seemed very relaxed and even playful as they sat waiting to
climb a route meant for much older, more mature climbers.
Daniel once again climbed first. He started out on a leftward traverse then
began climbing the steep, overhanging wall. He finished the overhang with
no problem then pulled onto a vertical section with very technical moves.
He made it to the crux, nearly 45 feet into the route, and with some
difficulty managed to pull through it. He got to a descent hand-hold at the
eighth clip but was spent and threw everything he had at the next hold,
slapping it for the extra 1/3 of a point. He made it just past the eighth
quickdraw and we sat anxiously awaiting the unknown. We knew this was the
determining route now.
Clark climbed and campused his way up the overhang. He pulled onto the
vertical section and managed to move a little higher, but peeled off just
before the crux section. We knew Daniel had second for sure now.
Scott climbed, as Daniel and I watched and cheered him on. We really wanted
Scott to take second. He is a great kid, as is Clark, but I felt that he
and Daniel grew closer as friends this time. Scott looked
very good on the overhang and then he hit the vertical section. He misread
a hand sequence which prevented him from pulling past the roof and onto the
vertical wall. He was pumped and came off. Daniel had won Nationals,
back-to-back, and against some great competition!
We were sad for Scott but happy for all three of the kids. They had the
lime-light for sure this year and put on a great show for the spectators.
Daniel, though, made a huge statement at Nationals. He outclimbed every kid
in every other age category and pulled off a decisive first place win in his
category. He was an instant "celebrity". I heard comments from the Texas
coach like "He's a machine." and from Daniel's coach who said "He's
a man
in
a boy's body." Despite the attention, he is still as modest as ever about
his accomplishment. (His parents do all the bragging.) After winning, his
first question was "Can we go do the Go-carts now!?"
All total, Daniel's team did very well. Robby O'Leary took 1st in 12-13 and
Emily Harrington took 1st in 14-15 -- both won in a super-final round.
Seren Rubens took 2nd in 16-17. There were some others that placed in the
top five, namely Ben Roth, who took 5th. He was Daniel's climbing buddy and
competition last year.
Well, the next time the three climb together will be 2002. Daniel moves up
to 12-13 with Ben Roth next year while Scott and Clark don't move up until
the following year. They are only 10 months apart but the age cutoff at
December 31 determines when they move up. We're hoping for another great
competition then as well!
Take care,
Steve
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