Hello!

Hello All,

I hope that everyone has been having a great summer so far. I just wanted to touch base on a couple of things before the fall crew season is upon us.

First of all, our fundraising efforts have fallen a little short of our intended goal so far. We are about 10k short of where we needed to be to continue our equipment rollover program. Please keep in mind that all of our equipment is paid for solely through the generosity of the parents. If your son or daughter has just graduated, or will this year, please keep in mind that it was the generosity of past parents that enabled your child to row in the high quality equipment that we are lucky to have. If your son or daughter is a freshman or sophomore, I know that you will want them to have the best equipment in order to be able to compete with other schools on race day.

Now, on to a lighter note about the upcoming season:

In the fall, we typically only have about 15 to 20 rowers, so everyone gets a lot more individual attention from the coaches. We also tend to focus more on sculling (rowing with two oars each) and establishing good technique. Unfortunately, the school does not allow incoming 9th graders to row in the fall, but if you know of any upperclassmen who would like to row, let me know and we might be able to get them on board. If you are already planning on rowing in the fall, please make sure that you e-mail Katelyn Martin in the athletic office if you are not already listed on the fall roster to help us with planning our boats for the fall.

The fall pre-season begins on Monday, August 22nd. During the pre-season, practice will be from 3:30 to 6 pm, Monday through Friday until school begins. We won't have any weekend practices during the pre-season. Rowers are responsible for getting themselves to and from the river, so those that are too young to transport themselves, you may want to look into arranging carpools now.

Once school begins, we will shift to our normal weekday schedule of Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday practices. We do not practice on Sundays in the fall, so those days are off unless there is a race that day. As we did last fall, we are planning on driving vans to and from the river, rather than spending the money on a full sized bus. The vans will leave from the gym's circle (assuming that they are done with the construction) and return to the same location. Departure times will be the same as they were in the spring (3 pm on Tuesdays and Fridays and 3:20 on Mondays and Thursdays).