Junior, Tanner Gillespie has gotten “Bulldog of the Week” recently and for good reasons too. So far he has scored 1^st place in all of the 2km distance races and 2^nd in the 250m sprint. Paving the way to victory for the bulldogs another year, even against 8^th best sprinter in the world, Scanner Chung from Punahou. “I can’t believe how far I’ve come, racing only exhibition my freshman year and now beating the 8^th best kayaker in the world!” Said Gillespie after racing a 2 kilometer distance race against Scanner.

How and why the Le Jardin kayaking team can fair against such stiff competition are good questions. “Our boats and paddles are a collection of hand-me-downs and give-aways, every other school has full sets of Epic V10’s to epic V12’s; top of the line equipment. The only Epic’s we own have either been bought by us for ourselves or have seen better days. When we show up to races our school looks like a joke but we still hammer and win” said Junior, Coburn Hopkins. Hopkins’ view is not wrong either, the kayaking team has been arguably the most successful and largest sports team in the history of Le Jardin Academy but receives no funds in comparison to what other kayaking teams. It’s a good thing Le Jardin Academy is a school full of water sport champions to make up for it.

This year the team hopes to repeat last year’s wins in the championships; last year Le Jardin and its small kayaking team went up against huge odds take first and second in many of the different events. The team this year is on the fast track to achieving these same goals due to, as Taylor Hopkins puts it, “because we’re all nuts.”   However most of the other people would just call it a mixture of skill and determination.  The coaching staff for the kayaking team is some of the best you can get.  Kathy Irwin and her team of coaches are well respected within the kayaking community and have a long history of turning out champions; Brandon Woods himself is an ex-Olympian.

The students at our school may also soon be taking over this Olympic role as well.  The leaders of the team, Rinchin Harrison, Derek Rubenstahl, and Taylor “Caveman” Hopkins.  This year’s kayakers are not only some of the best on the island but some of the best in the country.  Taylor recently got back from kayaking nationals in Oklahoma.

The kayakers feel that they have been largely ignored because the sport only recently became popular, and they feel that the program is not getting the attention it deserves. “We need more funding because our team has tripled in size, we have a shortage of boats and we launch out of our coach’s back yard” commented Rinchin when asked what could be done to improve the program.  This continued to be a common theme no matter which of the kayakers were interviewed. There is still competition for boats that are able to perform against some of the larger schools who have equipment that, in many cases, outperforms the boats that our kayakers have to use.  Schools such as Punahou and Kamehameha are perhaps our biggest competitors because “they have a good team consisting of winners in every event,” said Taylor Hopkins when asked about the issue.

However, despite their issues they always manage to have fun.  “My favorite memory was when Mike [Dowsett] flipped, a fish swam up his pants, and he screamed like a girl,” said Derek Ruhbenstahl.  Memories, and looking forward to a trophy, are just some of the things that this year’s kayaking team will bring back home from this season.

Le Jardin competed with schools such as Kamehameha, Iolani, Mid Pac and Punahou. The Varsity team was lead by all star kayakers, Taylor Hopkins and Derek Rubenstahl.  Individually, Taylor Hopkins finished in 2^ndplace and Derek Rubenstahl finished in 5^th place.  Head coach, Kathy Irwin, accredits most of the team’s success to the fact that we have a small school, saying “We have all the kids on the water all the time, and the bigger schools have way more kids and it’s hard for them to put all the kids in water at the same time and supervise them.” 

All three coaches, Kathy Irwin, Brandon Woods and Erik Anderson, attended Le Jardin Academy (but did not graduate because of the lack of a high school division).  Last year all players on the varsity team won the JV ILH title. The future looks bright for the kayaking team as no players will be lost to graduation. So expectations will be high for the 2010-2011 Kayaking Bulldogs!  The LJA ohana would like to say congratulations to the kayaking team on their big win this year and wish them good luck in defending their title next year!

Varsity Boys 

Taylor Hopkins

Derek Rubenstahl

Rinchen Harrison

Joey Kiser

Ted Marr

Kenny Rupnow

Mike Dowsett

Sean Lambert

JV Boys

Ted Marr - 

Kenny Rupnow

Tanner Gillespie

Coburn Hopkins

Logan Spencer

Nick Whitcomb

Keoni Monahan

Michael Jenkins

Girls Team

Lauren Caspers

Mahina Kahalewale

Murielle Rodrigue

Alessandra Rodrigues

Jessica Juselis

Jade Nguyen

Development Team

Camron Miscovich

Anna Dunham

Jordan Gonzales

Coaching Staff

Brandon Woods

Kati Erwin

Erik Anderson

Kathy Erwin

“We are doing really well,” stated Taylor Hopkins, “We have a really good team this year, and we have a lot of potential.” Also helping the varsity team succeed are Juniors Joey Kiser, Mike Dowsett, and Rinchen Harrison.

Junior Varsity is also doing extremely well. Sophmore Kenny Rupnow got 1^st for the JV squad in the previous race at the Ala Wai canal.

“This is the best team I’ve ever seen at Le Jardin,” said Kayaking Junior Sean Lambert.

The next race is at the Ala Wai canal at 9 o’clock on September 26th . So come and show your support for the Bulldog kayakers!