One of the most highly anticipated rowing competitions/boat races in the country descends upon the Scenic City this coming weekend on Saturday and Sunday with Head of the Hooch and this will be the 18th year this event is taking place here in Chattanooga.
Regatta Director, Mike Connors joined Greg Larnerd in studio on The Word With G on ESPN Chattanooga 95.3 earlier this week to discuss the event.
Head of the Hooch began back in 1982 in Rossville, GA but as the event's popularity expanded it quickly outgrew the area and moved out to Lake Lannier in Georgia in 1997.
The race then outgrew that area and moved to Chattanooga in 2005 where they received a little more than 1,000 entries, Connors told us.
Since then, the event has doubled its growth with Mike Connor telling us that they've got about 2,100 entries and 5,000 athletes that'll be partaking in this year's event.
One of my biggest questions to Mike was, why Chattanooga?
"A couple of years before 2005 when they were realizing they were outgrowing the venue over at Lake Lannier, right around that time is when the 21st century waterfront was being completed here in Chattanooga and the stadium seating was being put in," said Connors.
"We were doing the Chattanooga Head Race here at the time and the folks who were designing the waterfront actually got us involved a little bit, (and asked) how can we do this, so it'll be better served for the Regatta's and in 2005 we brought it here to Chattanooga."
There are also different age brackets that you'll see racing this weekend with high school and college kids being well represented as well as master rowers who will be competing. The races are all on a time trial basis, meaning the teams aren't competing against one another at the same time, they'll race individually, and the best time will win each different age bracket and specific type of race.
The local flavor that'll be represented at the Head of the Hooch will be:
- Chattanooga Juniors
- McCallie
- GPS
- Baylor
Mike Connors also told us that UT will have a team coming down as well as, Alabama, Georgia, and Georgia Tech just to name a few more regional types of schools that will be competing.
This is a two-day competition which will begin on Saturday November 5th at 9:50 a.m. with the first race of the event and then day two will begin on Sunday with the first race bright and early at 7:50 a.m.
For all the event details click here.
To hear the full conversation with Regatta Director Mike Connors you can check it out here: open.spotify.com/episode/4jOBUWfGhWS1CW8U5MKqVc