Miners balance life of champions, but still college boys
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By Nicole Brown
Noah Millett is a dirty-blond Superman. He does it all.
Millett is the captain of the Mackay Miners, a father figure to his roommates and teammates, and a College of Science senator at the University of Nevada, Reno. He’s also a native Nevadan from Henderson as well as an accomplished senior-class student at the University.
“Noah is like our dad, he likes to give us life lessons; he likes to give us advice,” said Garrett Schult, a 21-year-old mining engineering major as well as Millett’s roommate and teammate. Schult is a senior originally from Reno.
Millett and his teammates practice jack drilling, a mining skills competition, at 9 a.m. Saturdays and between classes during the week.
In jack drilling, also known as hand-steeling, competitors use 4- to 4.5-pound hammers and try to pound deep holes into rock or granite. In a competition, each team usually gets 10 minutes to do this task; the group that creates the deepest hole wins.
The only aid permitted is water, usually, so that the fragments from the beaten stone will wash out of the hole. Individuals can then see their progress and target a hit point.
“In our last competition, we had our stronger players go first,” Schult said about the team’s technique in the hand-steeling competition.
Currently, aside from the Mackay Miners (once known as the Mackay Muckers — mucking is an old-fashioned word used to describe how miners dug out earthen or detonated material), there is a women’s team and another all-male team representing the University. The Mackay Miner members are teaching the other two teams about the events and techniques.
Last spring, the Mackay Miners won the world championship at the 29th International Collegiate Mining Competition (ICMC) as the newcomers to the competition, entering with a six-man team.
Now, they hope to go to the competition with 20 people by merging the three teams on campus.
Competitions offered during ICMC include hand-mucking, hand-steeling, track laying, gold panning and Swede sawing. All tasks mimic what miners did during the 19th-century Comstock era.
All the tasks are physically draining and are a way to honor miners of the past. Millett said current technology is an obvious boon to miners, but old-school skills used in the contests are not taught today.
“Nowadays we have huge haul trucks and excavators with GPS that do all the mucking and hauling,” the 22-year-old said. “You would never see a miner mucking (shoveling) into an ore car or a miner drilling a hole by hand, and then loading it with dynamite.”
The team walked away as champions last year, but members didn’t let the surprising win boost their egos. They’re starting to practice every week to prepare for a second-straight victory.
“But not during winter break,” said Sam Saunders, a 20-year-old geological engineering major, and Millett’s teammate and roommate. Saunders is a sophomore from Carson City.
Official try-outs for the teams will be held in February, but those who practice with the Mackay Miners are the only ones who will be able to vie for spots that could lead to international competition.
Millett said mining challenges don’t have to be only for mining majors.
“If you don’t mind getting dirty, hitting your hand a few times and having fun, you’ll enjoy this,” he said.
The University doesn’t sponsor the international mining skills event, but it pays the fees for each student to enter the competition.
Before they pack their bags for the spring 2008 ICMC competition, the Mackay Miners are entering the Single Jack Rock Drilling Contest, held in Carson City Oct. 27th as part of the Nevada Day events. The major event will be jack drilling.
Millett said he became interested in joining a mining team when he participated in a student exchange program in Australia.
He said he joined the team overseas because there wasn’t much to do and the team ended up winning a competition.
When Millett returned to the University, he decided to become a member of the Mackay Miners.
How does it feel to be the captain of a winning team? Millett is almost embarrassed to even hear his title.
“I like coach better than captain,” he said shyly while his two roommates/teammates were making fun of him.
Millett, Schult, Saunders and Jeff Shoffner are roommates, and three of the four roomies and teammates aren’t afraid to embarrass each other.
“We all play instruments, too,” Millett said enthusiastically.
“Sam is our do-it-all guy,” Millett said. “He rides a little scooter all around campus, and skateboards.”
Millett wasn’t shy to tease Schult either, saying, “He likes to play Guitar Hero (computer game) because it’s ruining his life.”
Schult, with a half smile, said, “That was Tuesday’s life lesson.”
Most of the roommates were laughing to the point of falling out of their chairs while teasing each other. And at the end of the day, championship winners or not, boys will be boys.
Nicole Brown is a student writer in University Communications.
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