Braggin’ Rights

Corey Hoover tops some 150 contestants to win the Installer Academy’s third annual Roe-D-Hoe, held at the 2010 Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo

Corey Hoover made it look easy. In winning the 2010 National Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association Roe-D-Hoe competition, Hoover scooped up three basketballs and dropped them through a hoop, snatched three bowling pins and placed them inside pipe-like containers, then deftly set a golf ball atop three equally spaced traffic cones — all while at the controls of a 9VX IHI compact excavator, and in less than two minutes.

Hoover’s winning time of 1:50:58 was the best among five finalists in the third annual event. The Roe-D-Hoe is part of the NOWRA Installer Academy, held for the first time this year in conjunction with the Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo International at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Ky.

Lots on the line

Mike Smallwood of Hamilton, Ohio, placed second with a combined time of 2:36:56; Vincent Sullivan of Austin, Texas, was third in 3:11:48; Chris Hartman of Shelbyville, Ky., was fourth in 3:33:41. Kent House of Hagerstown, Ind., placed fifth after failing to complete the basketball event in the allotted number of tries.

Finalists were chosen from among the top 10 times posted during preliminary competition on Feb. 25 and 26, according to Tom Fritts, NOWRA board member and chairman of the Installer Academy and Roe-D-Hoe events.

Hoover, 32, of Erie, Pa., received a first-place check of $1,000 from Jet Inc., a souvenir belt buckle, and the right to hoist the $3,000 WWF-like champion’s belt. He also earned a year’s worth of bragging rights.

“Something like this with a thousand bucks on the line, it’s tough to keep your cool, but it worked out,” Hoover said. His strategy? “The rings atop the bowling pins, when you set them up, the guys don’t look at the rings. I pointed them right to the excavator. You’ve got to be able to turn them where you need them. One of them screwed me up. I hit it, and it turned sideways twice on me. That hurt my time a little bit. But basically it was just luck.”

Big or small?

An employee of Dick Morewood Plumbing Heating, Hoover does most of the company’s excavation work. “I like being outside and love running the machines,” Hoover said. “We run mini-excavators. We have an 1,800-pound machine, too. There’s such a difference between the small ones and the big ones. The small machines are more technical. You can be real smooth with them. It helps that I have one of those at home. I’ve run them before. I know how they feel.”

NOWRA president Tom Groves estimated about 150 contestants took part in the Roe-D-Hoe. A number of entrants tried multiple times. “It went over really well,” says Groves. “A lot of people are looking forward to coming back next year.”

Of NOWRA’s 4,000 members, about half are installers who run backhoes, Groves said. And, as demonstrated during the three-event hoe-off, they run them very well.



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