2018 Erg Pull scheduled

The date has been firmed up for next year's erg pull, again to be held here at school. Put it on your calendar and start the training!

Congrats to Reilly!

Reilly has signed her National Letter of Intent to row for the St. Mary's Gaels in Moraga, CA. She will be competing in the Western Athletic Conference. The Gaels regularly finish in the top three with Gonzaga and the University of San Diego. 

GO GAELS!

In addition to rowing Reilly will get a workout running up Lombard Street! You go, girl! 

Running up Lombard Street

New Crew Uniforms

New uniform tops have been ordered for next season! Go Crusaders!

Cross posting from the sailing blog

Recently I posted a piece on the school's sailing blog about how to get better. The post is copied below. Replace the word "sailing" with "rowing" and most of the ideas translate directly. Following the picture is a few more comments as we get close to erging and winter conditioning.

A quote from Ed Adams

A recent article in Sailing World quoted multi-class National, World and Olympic champion Ed Adams. When asked by parents "How can I make my kid be the next Olympian, the next gold medalist?," his reply was that "...doing well in sailing is probably 25 percent athletic ability. And it's probably 25 percent preparation: taking the kid to regattas, getting him good equipment, hiring him some good coaches. And it's 50 percent ambition and drive, which is not something you can purchase."

The quote struck me as something our team needs to focus on. No, we will probably not be producing Olympians. Look instead at the quote as a roadmap on how to get better. Yes, there are some physical aspects of dinghy sailing that are advantageous: flexibility in drifters,  light weight in moderate conditions, height and upper body/ hand strength when it blows. The "good equipment" comment is pretty much a non-issue for high school sailing since we rotate boats, but at least now we have our own equipment. It's the 50 percent "ambition and drive" that will allow us to have the greatest improvement and that's on you.

As winter approaches, sailing small boats winds down, but if you have the will you can still improve. First, keep up with all school work. Then keep in shape physically. Excess weight is seldom useful. Cross training with other sports is advised. Study the Racing Rules. Read articles on techniques specific to small boats. Think sailing. Look for opportunities to sail (it would be on a keel boat, or in a mid-winters regatta in Florida.)

We will get on the water again in the late spring/early summer!

I think rowing requires much more of a dedication to fitness than sailing. That being said, at the high school level, novice rowers can be very successful (unlike sailing, where a whole lot of experience is required for success.) As we get close to formal winter conditioning, think about your "ambition and drive."  You start with the physical aspects of strength and conditioning and let coach O'Brien and me worry about the technical aspects of moving boats.

Congrats to Coach O'Brien!

Coach O'Brien is the navigator on Triple Lindy, a Swan 44. The crew just won their division in the esteemed Rolex Middle Sea Race in the Mediterranean Sea. This year's race had conditions that were called "gnarly" by one website and on the Triple Lindy team blog the crew reported "dropping off a 30 foot wave."

Triple Lindy, with a dark blue hull and carbon sails, nailed the leeward end of the start for her class, shown at 2:14 in this video and at 0:28 in this one, and then went on to defeat 21 other IRC Class 5 yachts. She finished 10th overall of 70 starters in (ORC - Offshore Racing Congress) and 13th overall of 91 starters (in IRC.).
 

 Since the owner is retiring this boat, it was the last race for the boat with this crew.

The picture below show Triple Lindy entering Malta Harbor five minutes from the finish. Coach O'Brien is on the rail wearing the yellow trous.

Here is the link to the team blog. Congrats to the whole crew!

Congrats to Mrs Schoening!

BSCHS can now boast about having another US Rowing referee associated with our program. Congrats to Fran Schoening for successful completion of Assistant Referee qualifications.

For more info on getting the best seat on the racecourse, see this from US Rowing.

Coach O'Brien in referee mode

8th LTR on the 30th

We had another nice day with the novices. Coach O'Brien is grateful for the assistance of some varsity members in getting the novices to feel comfortable.

Some more pics:

I hope to see many at Thursday night's pre-season meeting.

Seventh LTR session on the 23rd

Our seventh Learn To Row session was held on Saturday September 23rd with quite a turnout. We were able to launch and row an 8+ and a 4+,  thanks to help from some varsity members: in the 4+ was Clare stroke, Delaney 2 and  Nicole bow, together with Ashley, a St Greg's 8th grader in the three seat. With help from Clare,  Enzo (Bobby's brother and also an 8th grader from St Greg's) served as cox.

In the 8+ for the first part of the session, we had Nina coxing, Charlie in stroke and Bobby in bow.  The middle six were novices Jo Marie 2, Nolan 3, TJ (Thomas) 4, Mia 5, Ray 6,  and Austin 7 . For the second half of the water time Nicolas was switched into bow and Ricardo into 7.

The session was kicked off with technique review on land on erg's and then we did review of sweep rowing technique on dock, and then got on the water.  

Coach O'Brien was very pleased with everyone's enthusiasm and noted our novices are picking up rowing very quickly.


Again thanks to all the parents who stayed and to John Laing for the pictures. Keep 'em coming!

LTR on the 9th

The session today was headed by Coach O'Brien and saw newcomers Eliza, Ashley and Nolan join Austin, Thomas, and Nicholas. Charlie and Noah from last year filled out the eight rowers. Nina again was in the cox seat. The weather was just about ideal and some productive time was spent in Badger. 

One exciting (?!?) thing happened as the floating dock became separated from the piling. Luckily, Granby coaches Torsten, Gino, and a bunch of their rowers helped re-secure the dock. 

We'll look forward to next week on the 16th when Coach O'Brien will again head the session from 10:00-12:00.

Thanks to Ashley's dad for the pictures.

LTR on the 2nd scrubbed due to weather

We'll hope for better conditions next week!

Time Change for Next Learn to Row session

This Saturday, the 26th, the Learn to Row session will run from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. I hope to see you then!

Second Learn to Row session

Our second Learn to Row session was held on August 19th. We rigged a second boat, did some work on the ergs, then launched and had a demonstration of oar handling by coach O'Brien. Next week we expect to get some water time in, weather permitting.

Thanks to TJ's mom for the pics above and to Austin's mom for the video below.

First Learn to row session shortened due to weather

The first LTR session on Saturday the 12th was only run from 10:00-11:00 due to inclement weather. Thanks to Nina, TJ, Austin, Nick and Charlie (and their parental units!) for braving the rain and flooding. We rigged up a four and discussed boat handling. Hopefully we'll launch and row next week!

See you then!

TIME	DESCRIPTION	TEMP	FEELS	PRECIP	HUMIDITY	WIND
9:00 AM SAT	Thunderstorms	77°	77°	80%	92%	SSW 4 mph
10:00 AM SAT	Thunderstorms	78°	84°	85%	88%	SW 5 mph
11:00 AM SAT	Heavy Thunderstorms	79°	85°	90%	87%	SW 7 mph
12:00 PM SAT	Thunderstorms	79°	86°	75%	85%	SSW 6 mph
1:00 PM SAT	Thunderstorms	81°	88°	65%	81%	S 8 mph
2:00 PM SAT	Thunderstorms	82°	90°	90%	80%	S 8 mph
3:00 PM SAT	Heavy Thunderstorms	82°	90°	95%	82%	S 9 mph