Schools
High School Team Thrives on Dragon Boat Races
Mountain View High School's team just competed in the California Dragon Boat Association's regional sprint race Sunday at Quarry Lakes.
Dragon Boat racing, a sport originally from ancient China, has become so popular in California that the California Dragon Boat Association regularly holds races.
Minutes before competed in the California Dragon Boat Association's regional sprint race in Fremont Sunday, team members sat on the ground by Fremont's Quarry Lakes in the exact positions as they would on a dragon boat to listen to the coach's advice.
Larry Yang, president of the Mountain View club, talked more in depth on Sunday with Mountain View Patch about the team, on the 10th Annual Youth Dragon Boat Race in San Francisco.
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Mountain View Patch: We know this is a team that consists of students from MVHS and Milpitas High School. Which ones of you are from Mountain View?
Larry Yang: Peter Li (recent senior), Kevin Nguyen (recent senior), Larry Yang (recent senior), Andrew Chen (recent senior), Daniel Won (recent senior), Christian Veloira (rising junior) and Anthony Yeh (rising junior).
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Patch: Whose idea was it to establish the team?
Yang: Luke Cassereau was introduced to the sport by his father, who was a paddler on Diesel Fish [another team boat]. After competing and coaching Diesel Fish, Luke thought it would be a great idea to expand the sport to his own high school and united with some of his friends to start the first Mountain View dragon boat team.
Patch: Do your team members know how dragon boat races originated?
Yang: Some may, though it would be because of their own prerogative, as we do not discuss the history of the sport at all.
Patch: What's everyone's racial background? Are there non-Chinese or non-Asian members?
Yang: There are 12 Chinese paddlers at this race, with the other 50-plus percent being of other Asian/Pacific Islander descent. Many of our members are also of mixed race, whether it be Persian, Caucasian or different Asian.
Patch: How did you do on the race previously covered by Patch?
Yang: We were able to make it into the B division but barely lost to an elite high school team for third place.
Patch: Did you enter more competitions between the San Francisco race and the Fremont race?
Yang: No.
Patch: Who is your drummer?
Yang: We do not practice with a set drummer and are still deciding on who we will use as drummer for this race.
