End-of-the-Season Wrap-up

Well done to all! We have officially wrapped up the 2012 spring sprint season and we are winding down to the summer off-season. We'll miss our graduating seniors: Andrew, Holt, Jaime, Mike, Matt, Phil, Thomas, Alex, Hyunjin, Andi, Courtney, Reagan, Caroline, and Laura. Please stay in touch if any of you would like to row during the summer.

A huge thank-you to the Sigalas for hosting the end-of-the-year party. If anyone has any pictures they want to share, feel free to send them and I'd add then to this post.


For those wishing for additional opportunities during the summer, consider attending a camp. There are a number of "crew camps" in the mid-Atlantic region. Some that team members have attended include William and Mary and the Naval Academy. Others nearby include ODU,  UVA, George Washington, Carolina Rowing Camps, and Chesapeake Crew Camp.

Some web links:

Naval Academy

William and Mary

ODU 

UVA 

George Washington

Carolina Rowing Camps

Chesapeake Crew Camp

In addition to the above overnight camps, I will be having some rowing opportunities, especially for incoming freshmen, during August. I'll need some team members to assist (a couple of pairs in the eight, for example.)  More info is to come.

Also, as mentioned at the party, I'll be repairing the Hudson single and the Vespoli four that we got at the end of the season. Those wishing to help should drop me a note and I'll shoot e-mails as those projects come around.  Once the single is repaired, I'll teach whomever wants to learn the technique of sculling. Again, just drop me a note.

Lastly, we still have the concession operation at the May 30th middle school track meet as a huge fund-raising opportunity. I know it's during exam week, but since we get out at 1:00 it would be a nice break from cramming to relax and hawk a hot dog or soda. Last year we raised almost $2000 at this track meet! PLEASE plan on helping, even if it's only for a couple of hours.

Thanks, again for a great season.

48 pieces of teamwork!

Mr. B.

State Championships

 Pix needed from this regatta!  Send them to me and I'll include them in the near term.

For the first time in the history of the program, we sent crews to the State Rowing Championship Regatta in Occoquan. We couldn't make it out of the heats, BUT consider the following:

(1) No other school in the EVSRA even entered the W1stV8 event.
(2) Of the three EVSRA schools that entered the M1stV8 event, none made it out of the heats. All three (us, Cox, and Princess Anne) finished a distant fifth in their respective heats. We bettered PA's time by three seconds, and were but 4 seconds slower than Cox's.)
(3) All the other schools that entered eights in the EVSRA championships (e.g., Great Bridge, Norfolk Academy) opted to either break their boats into fours, row as qualified lightweight eights, or pull seniors and enter the junior eight event.

So,... lessons learned? It's obvious to me now, and possibly should have been before I registered, that rowing in the V8 events in Northern Virginia is a quantum leap from what we experience here in our region. Consider Georgetown Visitation Prep (who were placed in an adjacent lane in our WV8 heat  race.) This all-girl Catholic high school in downtown D.C. (with an enrollment of 450 girls)  only rows eights. They start their freshmen in eights (and compete in freshman eight events, none at the state championship regatta), then by sophomore year those same girls row in the junior eight event. In their junior year those same enter the second varsity eight event and finally as seniors row in the WV8 event. Our girls faced GVP and hung tough with them for the first part of the race only to fall behind and eventually finish 40 seconds off their pace. GVP finished 4th and qualified for the petite finals, we finished 5th and went home.

The schools that row out of Sandy Run also include trail running in their practices. I believe I heard from the boathouse area to the grandstands and back, twice, each practice.  Them be some conditioned athletes!

Below is the video of the M1stV8 heat race. I included the platform loading sequence for future coxswains.

The full results are available on Row2K at this link.

A word about the required progressions: At each level (M8, W8, M4, W4, etc.) schools must enter a 1st varsity boat before they are allowed to enter a 2nd varsity boat. Any junior entries must have all athletes in 11th grade or below, with no one 18 years old.  A school may enter a light event without a varsity entry, but all light athletes must be certified by the school's trainer at the start of the season (in February.)

With our seniors and with our available hulls we could enter the 1st V8 events, or we could have entered the 1st varsity 4 and 2nd varsity 4 events (assuming I could borrow 2 other competitive hulls for the 2nd V4 entries.)  For next year I'll seriously be looking at going the "four" route.

The 2012 Independent Schools Championship

subtitled... "Were we 2 tired?"

After a grueling 14 hour day at Mathews in the sun, 90 degree heat, and light winds we competed 16 hours later in the Independent Schools Championship at Botanical Gardens with a strong North East wind and much cooler temps. Perhaps we were running out of steam; perhaps NA is just that much better than us. At any rate we failed to win a race, but finished 2nd in nearly all of then.

Congrats to Norfolk Academy. They wooped us!  ...and we won't get a chance to face their MV8 nor their WV8 again since they are breaking each into a 1st and 2nd four for the State Championship.

Below are the videos and the score sheet.

The MV8 Race:

The WV8 Race:

The WV4 Race:

The score sheet:

Lastly, our entries at States:

The WV8 entry

and the MV8 entry

Pull Hard, Crusaders!

Mathews Regatta

The crew team participated in the "Big" Mathews regatta on Sinko da Mayo. We performed admirably against many schools from Northern Virginia that we haven't rowed against before. The only win was in the mixed novice events but we did place second in some significant events, including the MV8, MV4, WJr8, and WNov4.

Highlights at the end of the include a cox race and a coach race. Below are the results and some selected videos. More commentary to follow.

The MV8 race:

The cox race!

The coach race!

The results: