Since 1997, I've gone to Cincinnati to see the National Junior Invitational. Nationals, as it is better known, began in 1995 and my team earned a silver medal. My association with the race since has always been close, as my former club hosts the regatta.
USRowing wanted a race that crews around the country would have to qualify for. The bar was set high, with a top two finish required in a regional regatta. The best teams from around the country would gather in a centrally located site and decide the fastest in the country.
Is that great or what? Name another sport on the high school level that offers a true national championship. Doesn't happen that often.
Anyway, in 1997, the race followed the Harvard-Yale regatta, so I came home. This was the third nationals, and the organizing committee was still perfecting the process. On a lark, the regatta director asked if I could take a boat and announce the races from the water. I was given two walkie-talkies, a schedule and a launch. Off I went.
I was a little rough, as I was trying to drive the launch and announce at the same time. I got a driver halfway through the race after I waked the last place crew in a petite final. However, the reaction from the parents of the crews was very positive, and the crowds on shore seemed a little more animated as the boats got closer.
Since then, I've always tried to make it back to Cincinnati the second weekend in June. Not because I wanted to watch my old team in the race, but because I got a front-row seat to great racing, and I loved sharing it with the parents on shore. It was easy to get charged up when you're watching three boats dead even with 500m to go in a grand final for the National title. You see the entire story of a race unfold, from the frenetic starts to daring flutters in the middle to heart-stopping, come from behind sprints.
As I've become a coach, I've wanted to take my own crews to this race. Both years, the FC guys have qualified a double scull. I've been a little torn about what I wanted to do on those Sundays.
Last year, I didn't go on the water until my boys had landed from their race. I didn't know what, if any, effect I had on them by being there to launch them. This year, I'm taking a different course.
By taking Jesse along, who was in last year's double, I've got an assistant who can get the guys off the dock on time and be their advocate if they need one. I can announce the entire finals slate and get a chance to see my guys race. I'm greedy. I want to see their entire race, start to finish, something I don't get an opportunity to do many other places.
No, I don't care more about announcing than my own team. If I had to choose between the two, there wouldn't be any hesitation. This weekend offers an opportunity, because I'll be launching to announce the same time as they will for their race. If I had a heavy 8, I wouldn't be announcing. That race goes off the last part of the day, and I would want to be with the team all day.
It's the best seat in the house, and there are great stories to watch unfold.
Categories: Regattas, Rowing, Coaching, Memories, Yale, FC, Personal
10 comments:
Jay, you'll get to watch the girls race too. That should be interesting.
Is there any chance either the 2X or the 8+ will race sunday afternoon? If they are, I'll drive up from Louisville.
next year, youll be on land the whole day.
shut up aaron.
hey whoever just told aaron to shut up, his comment was sweet, i don't know about you, but next year taking a heavy 8+ to nationals is something i'll be striving for
Yeah dude, what the wtf was that? The 8+ is the ultimate goal. It is something for all of us to strive for. That means Aaron too. He has to work hard to get into that boat too. (not just to fit into the cox's seat)
Correction "8+'s". Give the "snacks" some love.
Steve what you said is true. When you get to the level of compitition we are now at the coxswain job gets quite difficult and nerve racking. escpecially when there are quotes like "coxs don't win races, they lose them"
it takes NINE men to get to nationals
Ten.
Recipe for nationals:
8 hardcore rowers
1 messed up coxswain
1 crazy coach
Mix thoroughly for fall and winter seasons and let sit to gel in beginning of spring. Race hard.
Good catch foxbat.
By the way. I firmly dissagree with the quote I posted earlier.
did you announce this year? It was so exciting to hear the narration and imagine the boats coming down. The boat I was in made petit finals, and we had no idea anything was being announced until we watched the boys open 8s... It was great to "see" the whole race, not just the finish. Strange that I randomly found your page a year after this post was posted...
Post a Comment