Here at Boston Latin School, the crew team goes on annual training trips, where they can not only perfect their skills, but also create strong bonds and memories that will last a lifetime. This February, a group of 14 boys and Coach Conor Fearon, set out for Oak Ridge, Tennessee. With Tennessee’s perfectly still waters and amazing scenery, the location easily stole the team’s hearts. 26 miles of rowable water on the lake proved to be the perfect place to train for these five days.
The rowing conditions were much better in comparison to the Charles River in Boston and Florida, the location of the last trip the team had before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aiden McVay (I), who has been part of the team for five years and is now closing off the season as a senior on the varsity team, describes the temperature as “significantly warmer than in Boston” and “much more comfortable” than their practices on the Charles River, providing them with a training experience that “realistically would not have been able to happen in Boston.”
Team captain Rhys St. Crawford (II) adds to this and describes the process of each rowing stroke. Concerning the wind on the Charles River, he said, “When you’re taking a stroke, you have to take your oar out of the water and the bounds can really make or break that recovery [into the water] as […] it’s not easy when the wind is pushing on your boat.”
In Florida, there would be days when the weather created conditions that disabled them from being able to go out onto the water. In Tennessee, however, they were able to row two times a day!
Every day the team would wake up at 7:30 A.M. for a full day of training, consisting of a two-hour practice in the morning and another in the afternoon. They would take a bus from the hotel to a lake about 20 minutes away. The first practice was a rowing session from 9:00-11:00 A.M., followed by a lunch break where they would watch their recorded practice. At 1:30 P.M., they would drive back to the lake and do another session from 2:00 to 4:00 P.M. The morning practices were chilly and the team wasn’t excited to go out. Without the coxswains, who help steer the boat, the team had to rotate and play around with the line-ups to learn how to row with different people in different positions.
The focus was to get as much time on the water as possible. Each practice they would focus on different technical aspects and rowing together as a team. Charles Ellrodt (III) notes that these extra practices “helped with the form, skills and team cooperation.”
While it was primarily an athletic endeavor, it succeeded in bonding the team through the shared memories. Each night the team would participate in a nightly bonding activity. These activities included a trip to the arcade, a fancy dinner at a steakhouse, bowling and an ice cream night. These experiences helped form connections between the varsity and novice rowers. “As a captain, you have to build connections with teammates, which isn’t always easy,” St. Crawford remarks. “During this training trip, I got more of an idea of how it’s supposed to be.” One thing he learned was that it’s perfectly reasonable to step down and let people take care of themselves, and he was able to see them more as friends than just teammates.
McVay hopes to qualify for New England Interscholastic Rowing Association championships this year. The crew team is headed towards a successful season with the hard work and determination of its members. As Coach Fearon says, “Row well and row hard.” They plan to return the following year, hopefully with even more participants from the team.
