For Crystal Lake native Padjen, rafting has become a way of life

Life is filled with interesting journeys. Just ask 2002 Crystal Lake South graduate Koreen Padjen.

Padjen, the daughter of former Streamwood football coach John Padjen and former St. Charles North girls cross-country and track coach Sandy Padjen, and the brother of former Daily Herald All-Area football player Tim Padjen, currently is in Indonesia - more than 9,000 miles from her native Crystal Lake.

Padjen is the manager for Team USA Women's Rafting, which currently is competing in the world rafting championships on the Citarik River in Indonesia - more on that in a second.

So how does someone get involved in competitive rafting you ask? For Padjen, it was another hobby to do when she wasn't playing rugby at Colorado State University.

"I started rafting back in college during the summers. It was my time off from playing rugby," she wrote to me from Indonesia earlier this week. "Back then I couldn't decide which I liked more. I guess I chose rafting, although I do wish there were that perfect small town that could have both."

Padjen received an invitation to be the Team USA manager after competing on the winning team at the Upper Gauley Animal River Race near Fayetteville, W. Va.

"I paddled with a bunch of friends on the team in the Animal race," she said. "That race was very close the entire way and every team finished at just over an hour one after the other. I was placed in the back calling the shots with the most experience, but racing very much involves the other members, especially the two up front. The ladies worked their butts off to come from behind."

As team manager, Padjen said she's in Indonesia to motivate, organize and be the team cameraman. "I decided to bring a raft so I could still get to see the river," she said. "It's been quite fun to follow the team down river and help out in that capacity as well as enjoy it for myself."

Most of the seven women on the self-funded team, which won nationals to qualify for the worlds, is from Colorado, while one other team member is from West Virginia. "We know each other from the rivers out in Colorado as well as the yearly voyage of Colorado guides to West Virginia from September through October to run the well-known Class V Gauley River," Padjen explained.

At this year's world six-man competition, the U.S. has teams competing in the men's and women's open divisions. Sixteen teams from around the world have descended upon Indonesia this week.

"It's a pretty tight competition," Padjen said. "It's hard to say where the ladies will end up, but they are willing and determined to fight for this. They've worked very hard and can definitely make a presence here."

Padjen is enjoying the local trappings in Indonesia sans perhaps the weather. (a quick check of the forecast in West Java Wednesday afternoon showed a temperature of 76 degrees with 94 percent humidity and thunderstorms). "Opening ceremonies on Monday were in a beach town, more like a city, about 40 minutes from the competition site," she said. "The teams have been friendly and the locals are nice, but the weather makes you feel like a snowman in a tanning booth."

Padjen, who has rafted extensively on the Arkansas River in Colorado, added herself and the seven women on the team either are current or former raft guides and kayakers. "It's an amazing opportunity all around to focus on the charge and precision on the river while doing something we are extremely passionate about," she said.

Padjen has trained in the winter for the past eight years in Breckenridge, Colo., while residing with her parents. John Padjen now is the head track coach at Highlands Ranch High School and has coached three Gatorade athletes of the year in the last five years and eight individual state champions. Her brother coaches track and teaches computer science at Mountain Vista, the rival school of Highlands Ranch.

In terms of training, Padjen explained rafting preparation includes plenty of cross-training and endurance work, but said getting in plenty of river work is essential. When not rafting competitively, Padjen plies her trade during the fall season at Adventures on the Gorge in Lansing, W. Va., and particularly enjoys the local river ambience the Mountain State has to offer.

"After 13 seasons I found a nice little home to work on in Fayetteville," said Padjen, an art major in college who would like to start her own pottery studio. "The New River (part of the Ohio River) is on the edge of town at the bottom of a massive gorge. The Gauley River is endlessly entertaining and runs spring through fall. Most people run the scheduled releases in the fall, but I have a special love for the summer trips out there. Rafting is my career. It's a way of life."

And an adventurous one at that.

Mike Miazga has been writing about sports in the Fox Valley for more than two decades. Email him at mjm890@gmail.com.