Westerville Crew Booklet

8/22/2019 Westerville Crew Booklet

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Westerville CrewHigh School Rowing Team



What is Crew?

Crew is the sport of rowing. Rowing has a long history in the

U.S. Harvard and Yale had their first rowing race in 1852,

predating their first football game by nearly 25 years. In the early

1900’s, a rowing regatta in Philadelphia could attract more than

250,000 spectators.

Westerville Crew is a club team with members from Westerville,

New Albany, Worthington, Big Walnut, Olentangy, Columbus,

Johnstown, Dublin, Gahanna, and other school systems.

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Where are workouts?

Workouts are on Hoover Reservoir. Hoover is an 8 mile, tranquil

lake in Westerville. With its 9.9 horsepower limit, there are no

water skiers, jet skis, or fast bass boats.

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When is the crew season?

Crew has two seasons each year, a spring sprint season and a falllong-distance season. Crew’s spring season consists of exciting

side-by-side sprint racing on a six-lane buoyed course with the

season culminating in a Midwest Championship Regatta. The top

three finishers from the Midwest Championships qualify for the

National Championship regatta.

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When are workouts?

Westerville Crew has workouts throughout the year, startingabout the middle of August to the last week of October.

Workouts last for 2 hours each weeknight, from 5:15 to 7:15 p.m.

and on Saturday mornings from 8:00 -10:30.

Spring & Fall seasons follow the same workout schedule.

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What is the winter schedule?

The rowing shells are packed away after the last fall race and indoor rowing starts for the winter. Indoor rowing is done on rowing

machines called ergometers (“ergs” for short). Indoor rowing

continues until the winter ice melts on Hoover .

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What makes the ideal rower?

The ideal rower is tall and lean. While most non-rowers believerowing takes lots of upper body strength, actually most speed in

rowing originates from leg strength.

The typical high school rower matures significantly over 4 years

and so physique in 9th grade does not represent physique as a senior.

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Advantages of Crew?

Rowers typically start in the 8th or 9th grade, so everyone in highschool is new to the sport. Nobody has the advantage of years of

private lessons and summer camps.

The rowing stroke is quite easy to learn — often learned in the first

rowing session. Still it takes years to perfect. Rowing is for the patient athlete — like the swimmer and cross country runner who

understand it takes years to develop.

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Is there much travel?

Westerville Crew attends 8-10 regattas per year and all but twoare in the state of Ohio.

Spring regattas are during the months of April and May and fall

regattas are during October.

An important goal of Westerville Crew is to keep costs as low as

possible. Travel costs for the team would sky-rocket with significant

out-of-state travel. By staying closer to home, costs are lower.

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How competitive is Westerville Crew?

Westerville Crew is a competitive rowing club, qualifying boats

to the Youth U.S. National Championships each year since 2005,

including 7 crews placing in the top 10 nationally. Last spring,

our men’s 4 won 3rd place in the country!

Westerville Crew’s goal of creating nationally competitive boats

is one of its founding principles. Another is to be inclusive by

having no cuts and no tryouts. Every athlete rows in every regatta;

there are no bench-warmers. The rowers reach competitivenessthrough persistence and hard work.

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Are there college scholarships in Crew?

Between 2006 and 2012, over 20 Westerville Crew graduatingseniors received athletic scholarships to such schools as Stanford,

Cal Berkeley, Clemson, University of Minnesota, University of

Oklahoma, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Marietta

College, and many other schools. All Big Ten universities offer

20 full-time rowing scholarships. Other colleges, for example

Cornell, have supported our rowers.

For example, Jessica Leidecker, rowed for Westerville Crew

while in high school, received a full scholarship to Clemson

University (where she joined the varsity squad as a freshman)

and is now a member of the United States National Team. She

stroked the USA U-23 National Team to a silver medal at the

World Championships. (Jessie is second from the left)

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Who are the varsity coaches?

Matt and Trish Chase are two founders of Westerville Crew. Matt

coaches the varsity men and Trish coaches the varsity women.

Both have extensive rowing experience, winning medals at

USRA national championship regattas and competing at such

famed venues as the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, the Charles

River in Boston, the Potomac River in Washington DC, the

Olympic Rowing Stadium in Long Beach California, and the

Royal Canadian Henley Regatta at St. Catherines.

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The Costs?

Westerville Crew attempts to keep expenses low. The cost of crew is generally less than the cost of a travel soccer team.

There are no fund-raising activities such as selling candy bars or

Christmas wreaths. Instead, primary fund raising is accomplished

by hosting two large regattas each year — The Hoover Invitational

in the spring and the Columbus Fall Classic each fall. The Hoover

Invitational is now in the USRA “mega-regatta” category, having

more than 1750 competitors from 8 states in 2010.

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Community Action

Westerville Crew is involved in the northeast Columbus community.In 2006, it initiated Westerville Crew’s Breast Cancer Survivors

team. Since its founding with more than 20 breast cancer survivors

taking the first Learn-to-Row class, these women have practiced

and competed each fall alongside Westerville Crew high school

rowers in scores of regattas.

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How does my son or daughter start?

Westerville Crew offers two summer “Learn to Row” programs,one in June and another in August.

Go to www.WestervilleCrew.org to learn more.

Also, at the beginning of each competitive season, there is an

opportunity to join Westerville Crew.

Questions? Call Matt or Trish Chase, two founders of WestervilleCrew (and its varsity coaches) on their cell phones at 614-565-9199

(for Matt) or 614-565-9198 (for Trish).

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http://www.westervillecrew.org/





Westerville Crew is a 501c3 organization founded

to promote competitive rowing in the Columbus

area for those in 8th through 12th grade.

Documents

Westerville Crew Booklet