Andover Crew 2008

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2008 Crew

Recent news

We will have a new trophy in the spring that will be awarded to the winners of the G1 race between Andover and Kent. It will be named for Hart Perry. There are sports that people play and there are sports that become a life long passion. They are students who try crew for a term and go on to other things but there are more students for whom crew becomes an intense lifetime passion. People who are intensely passionate about something often have an affinity for others with the same passion. The love of the river binds rowers together. Rowers often have fond memories of those who introduced them to the passion. A person who has coached for over 30 years will have many passionate supporters. One such man is Hart Perry. His web of friends knows almost no bounds.

A probably incomplete catalogue of Hart's rowing achievements would include coaching at Kent for over 30 years, Coast Guard, rowing judge-referee, supporter of the Mystic Seaport Rowing Museum, executive director of the National Rowing Foundation, US Rowing board member, founding member of NEIRA, member of the Leander Club and, I believe, the first foreigner ever elected a Henley steward.

Our own Coach Peter Washburn first met Hart when Peter's father coached teams that raced against Hart's Kent boats. Hart proved a great friend to Andover crew and Peter in his early years in New England. When Peter's boat pulled off a surprise victory in the quarterfinals at Henley '06, Hart Perry was in the judge's launch rooting for Andover. Long before Title IX, Coach Brown at Andover and Coach Perry at Kent both started girls' crew in the 1970s as full equal members of the rowing programs.

Our Coach Kathryn Green was coached at BU by Stewart MacDonald who also served under Hart Perry at Kent. Coach Green went on to coach girls' crew at Kent for 5 years before coming to Andover. Stewart married Cynthia Doggett '79 who rowed for Andover. Again the rowing passion of Kent and Andover is intertwined.

The boys B1 boats race every year for the Dent oars, named for John Dent who also coached at both Andover and Kent. Stewart MacDonald and Hart Perry created the Dent oars. When Stewart and Tia thought of creating a similar award for the girls' G1 boats, Hart Perry seemed the perfect person to honor with the trophy.

This past weekend Stewart and Tia presented a beautiful 19th century silver trophy to Hart at a dinner held in their house with 35 friends of Kent and Andover Crew. There were many speeches. Most of them short, all of them emotional, all containing stories of lives touched in a positive way by Hart Perry. There could be no doubt that Stewart had selected a worthy person to be honored by this trophy.

Andover and Kent boys have battled for over thirty years for the Dent Oars. The girls will now battle for the new Hart Perry Trophy. It will be awarded for the first time after the spring races at Kent School in 2009. Our thanks to Stewart and Tia for their thoughtful generosity and to Hart for his lifetime of contributions to the passion of crew.

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Alumni Summer

Andover alums have been busy these past few months capturing national, international and olympic rowing titles. Please let us know if we have missed anyone. If you are a new Andover student who has what it takes to become a tall tough rower or a small spirited coxswain, then sign up taste the charms of the Mighty Merrimack River with Fall Andover Crew. Perhaps in a few years we will be reporting your rowing feats on the national or international stage.

2008 Olympics

USA Olympic team - Gold Medal Winners - Caroline Lind '02

Caroline Lind '02 won GOLD with the USA Olympic womens' eight in Beijing. This is the first time for the USA women since 1984 and I think back then they raced 1000m instead of the full 2000m. The team will appear on Oprah the week of 9/8. Read Caroline's own account at Caroline's Blog For more Olympic coverage check out Row2k Olympics and NBC Olympic coverage.

2008 FISA World Rowing Junior Championships

USA Junior National Team - World Champions - Erika Roddy '07

Erika Roddy '07 made history on the U.S. Junior Women’s eight at the 2008 FISA World Rowing Junior Championships in Linz, Austria, winning the first U.S. gold medal in the junior women’s eight event in the history of the championships, and the second gold medal by a U.S. junior women’s crew.

2008 IRA National Championships 2008 (Men)

Andover was well represented at the IRAs. Sarah Sherman '04, Taylor Washburn '03, Colin Smith '07, Geoff Martin '07, Scott Morgan '06, Karl Hirt '06 and Travis Green '04 were rowing for Princeton, Cornell, Brown, Harvard and Dartmouth. Rush Martin '07 was the bow man in the CAL freshman eight that won the Freshman 8 championship and Michelle Darby '07 coxed the UW four that won the Freshman 4 championship and broke a 15 year old course record. Now they both have to wash about 23 new rowing tee shirts! Congratulations to them all!!

Rush Martin '07 - National Champion	Michelle Darby '07 - National Champion

NCAA National Championships 2008(Women)

At NCAA Womens' Championship, Katherine Adams'06 rowed in the Yale JV and Mia Kanak '06 coxed the winning Yale varsity eight to a National Championship. Erika Roddy '07 was rowing in the Stanford boat that came second. Congratulations!!
USRowing has invited 61 Athletes to 2008 Junior Women's National Team Development Camps. Our own Alexandra Farrell will be one of the lucky ones. Scott Morgan '06 was invited to the tryouts for the US under 23 national team squad at Dartmouth, Hanover NH.

Reunion Village - Head of the Charles - October 18th & 19th

We had two clear if slightly chilly days by the river. The major race successes were Mia Kanak who coxed the ladies Yale boat to the top spot for USA colleges in the open womens' eight and Scott Morgan who rowed in the Brown boat that was second only to the University of Washington in the mens' open eight. Ian Acccomando rowed in the Dartmouth Light boat. We had a steady stream of young and not so young alumni dropping by the Andover tent for some hot chocolate. Our big thanks to our friends from Abbott who hosted the tent.

Fall Crew

For pictures of the fall on the Merrimack Click Here
And for more pictures of the fall on the Merrimack Click Here

Parents Weekend '08

We were blessed with bright sunshine and a big crowd of parents for our Parents' Weekend open day. Most of our newbies had never rowed before Andover and for most of the parents this was a new experience. Coaches Washburn and Green gave short speeches of explanation and answered questions. Taylor Washburn '03 and Jackie Latina '04, our youngest new additions to the coaching staff circulated amongst the parents answering questions.
There were expressions of surprise, awe and pride on the parents' faces as they bundles of joy manhandled or womenhandled the launches down the docks followed by the 200 lb 55 ft racing shells. The parents we so taken with the spectacle that most followed the boats down the ramp to the dock for the best view. Many parents had felt the passion in their sons and daughters descriptions of their afternoons on the Mighty Merrimack but had struggled to grasp what was special about paddling on a river for a couple of hours. Most left the boathouse infected with the passion. One mother said that she hoped her daughter continued with crew so that she, the mother, could come back for the races in the spring.
The Parents and Friends of Andover Crew provided a food table and handouts about the program and the seemingly weird words that had slipped into the student's vocabulary. Click here for pictures of Parents' Day

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Interschol '08

New England Championships 2008

Results:
Race results - Click here
Team trophy results - Click here
Interschols' Pictures Page 1
Interschols' Pictures Page 2
Interschols' Pictures Page 3
Interschols' Pictures from Eric Engelsted
Interschols' Pictures from Bob Moss
Another amazing season for Andover has come to an end. We are saying goodbye to another batch of amazing rowers. They arrive almost as delicate as seedlings in a spring garden and leave like redwoods, taller, stronger and more confident. Andover is not for the slow of mind or faint of heart. Crew is hard on the body and the soul. Everyone on the boat wins or everyone loses. Andover usually has more wins than losses. Older Alumni always tell me they remember the losses, especially the close ones more than they remember the victories. This year all our teams had respectable results as told by the number of boats beaten by Andover versus the number that bested us:
G1: 20-4, G2: 19-4, G3: 17-6, G4: 5-4, G5: 1-0.
B1: 17-4, B2: 20-1, B3: 16-5, B4: 1-5, B5: 0-3.
The Washburn rule is that there is only one race, the next one. This is the only race that can be changed. We had some very tough races at the beginning against Kent and Exeter. The first boat boys lost by 10 seconds to Exeter and the girls by 13 seconds, G3 lost by 14 seconds. At our level a boat length is about 3 or 4 seconds. These losses would have been enough to destroy weaker teams. All of our boats did what they needed to do….suck it up and focus on training. The coaches made some changes in the boats.
A reasonable assumption would be that if a rower were moved up to B1, then B2 would go slower. It didn't happen. Over the weeks of the season all the boats grew in speed and confidence and by Interschols those early boats that had lost by oceans of open water were a feint memory in the dim and distant past. The transformation was the result of weeks of determined graft by every rower and coxswain.
Those boats of distant memories would have been hard pressed to make it through the heats at Interschols but our boats of this present weekend came first or second and where we came second we beat those teams in the finals. By lunchtime we knew we were in the hunt for medals. This year's teams had looked adversity in the face and adversity had blinked.
All our rowers were heroes this year but we should mention a particular hero. Our G1 coxswain, Sardis, this year was stricken with an allergic reaction that became a nasty infection that meant for the whole season she had been unable to walk on her left foot. Now left feet can be very important, a fellow countryman of mine even named his book after his left foot although in that case it was his best working part rather then the injured part. Sardis never allowed her foot to interfere with her boat and maintained her glowing disposition in good times and bad. She will bring a joyous contribution to the lucky university that has captured her for college as will our other graduating seniors that will go on to make the world a better place for all of us.

Happiness has a silver lining

And so back to the story of Interschols at Lake Quinsigamond…did I mention the absolutely amazing food table that started with pancakes and French toast in the morning and ended with barbeque in the afternoon. All this while holding onto a billowing tent that tried to take off in the blustery wind. Our huge thanks to our wonderful food service, you know who has the best food when the regatta staff drops by looking hungry. ...but back to the races. After lunch the skies darkened a little and wind stiffened up. It was a strong tail wind so it helped the race speed and created some choppy water but did not favor any lane over another.
The first final for us was B3. Our team had entered seeded 5th. We watched with anticipation and growing joy as the boats stepped stroke-by-stroke towards the final 500 m. Our B3 was moving out in front and looking strong. Then just as they would have been jumping up the rate for a sprint to the line there was a large spray of water and our hearts stopped as we realized the boat was stuck to the water. They scrambled to sort out the oars and restart again. They threw every last once of energy into the drive and moved the boat faster than probably any B3 boat has gone before, desperately trying to regain a place in the race. They managed to grapple their way into 4th place. Unbeknownst to us at the time they had just ensured our victory in the team prize by pushing Exeter into 5th place. As wise people say "do not measure people by their success but by how they react to adversity". Our B3 was tested and passed with flying colors.
Our G3 was seeded 3rd and had been 2 seconds behind Kent in the heat in the morning. They rowed strong and steady pushing past St. Paul's and Kent to claim the silver medals.

We won!

Our B2 had lost to Kent in the first race of the season and then had to be rearranged as we moved some rowers between B2 and B1 to find the best set. After the Kent race B2 found their groove. They just carved their way through all opposition and today was to be no different. They beat Exeter by a second in the morning heat and by almost 5 second in the final. Their only mistake of the day was rowing to the awards dock first causing the officials to try and hand a bronze medal on the coxswain. A mistake quickly corrected.
Our G2 had been second to St Paul's in the morning. In the final our G2 rowed well but could not match a strong Exeter boat but did push St. Paul's aside to take the silver medal and to finish the year with an impressive 19-4 record.
Our B1 had lost to both Kent and Exeter during the season but this was a new race. We started out well and tried to pull away from our main rivals down the middle of the course. We took care of Kent but Exeter proved too strong in the final 500 meters. The B1 boat took silver to continue string of Interschols medals that has seen them win silver, silver, gold and silver over the last four years. Impressive by any measure.
The G1 race was the last event of the day. They entered the race seeded third. All the boats raced well with the following wind and G1 finished up third to take the bronze to complete the day with every girls' boat making it to the medals.
In all the excitement of the races we had forgotten to keep tally on the team points. At the end we tallied up to collect second team place for the girls and first place for the boys' team for only the second time in history and for the second successive year.

The Team Trophy

The hackneyed phrase "when the going gets tough, the tough get going" could have been scripted for Andover crew this year. We started with a very rough patch and drove through to a very successful Interschols. Our congratulations to every single one of our athletes and to all of our fantastic coaches and their helpers.
It is with a tear of mixed sadness and joy that we say goodbye to our departing seniors. We wish them well in their life travels and hope they stay close to our crew family. At Interschols we were visited by many alumni including Morgan Broccoli, Liv Coffey, Pia Heilmann, Erin Mullany and Geoff Morgan from '07 and Chris Maietta '74 as well as Coach Moss (retired) who has supported many of our races this spring.

Now for a little housekeeping. The school is still working on a proposal for an improved boathouse. We are living proof that a luxurious boathouse is not a requirement for a successful first class crew program. But we also do not believe that the hardships endured by our rowers and visitors are necessary to toughen our rowers or the parents, friends and alumni that attend our races. We do not have to match the levels of Exeter, St. Paul's or Salisbury but we do believe that we owe it to our coaches to make their lives a little easier with better facilities. Our boathouse has been honored with visits from Barbara Chase and Rebecca Sykes this past season as well as from Oscar Tang who also shared the boathouse and 12 inches of rain with us during the 2006 reunion. When the school has completed some legal issues involved in planning we hope to create a proposal that will be the basis of a fund raising effort probably starting later in the year.

We have been blessed over the years with kind donations of boats and other equipment as well as financing for trips to Henley. This support has ensured the quality of the program. I have been asked about donations. There are two ways to help the program. One is to donate money for specific equipment or project. The girls' parents are currently raising money for a boat. We also have the William Brown endowment for crew. Over the years we have had feast and famine years for donations and so in 2006 we started the endowment with the goal of using it to smooth out these variations once it has reached a level to self sustain. If you are thinking of making an end of school year donation to the school as a graduating parent or for a class reunion, you can mark you check to be assigned to the "William Brown Endowment for Crew". Our endowment founders did just that to kick-start the endowment.
There will be the usual reunion this coming June. If anyone would like to visit the boathouse or even round up a boatload of people for a quick row on the Merrimack please contact pwashburn@andover.edu or andovercrew@andovercrew.net. If any of you want to relive your past glories by reading Phillipian crew articles from bygone years, email us and we will find PDF copies for you.
As we slide into the summer we will update the website. If you find any old pictures of Andover crew as you do a belated spring clean, please contact us. We would love to add to our sections of older alumni pictures.
Lastly a huge thank you to everyone, students, coaches, parents, alumni and friends who have made this another great year in the history of Andover Crew. May the wind always be at your (coxswain's) back.

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NMH '08

We were blessed with the weather. Bright sunshine, mid 60s, best weather by the Merrimack in 4 years. We were joined by our friends from NMH for the last day of racing before Interschols. We also joined food tables with NMH and invited an ice cream truck to make it a party day for the last day of crew for our 4th and 5th boats. The chimes of an ice cream truck seem to connect with the inner child of even the more sophisticated teenager. Three bars of the siren call and the truck was surrounded by Andover and NMH rowers.Fun was had by all!

Our boys and girls of the B1-B3 & G1-G3 boats raced NMH. All the boats were in good form and won their races with ease. Given the glorious weather and the race victories is was destined to be a day of coxswain sacrifices to the mighty Merrimack but many of the "throwers" couldn't resist the temptation to join the coxswains in the water.
These races were followed by races between our own B4 & B5 and a brace of '4s' made from G4 and G5. The combined winners of these fun races were awarded a new "teamwork" trophy by Coaches Hurley and Quattlebaum. This new trophy was instigated to honor the contribution of the rowers in these boats. The names of the winners will be engraved on the plinth of the trophy for all to see down the ages of Andover Crew.

Icescreammmmmm

Winners of the Teamwork Trophy

For pictures of the races of Andover vs NMH click here Part 1 , click here Part 2 and click here Part 3


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Exeter and Tabor May 10th. '08

This past weekend we hosted the Big Red and our old friends Tabor. Three weeks ago Andover meet Exeter at Lake Quinsigamond and lost every race except B2 and B3 by significant margins. Over the past three weeks the coaches had been working to improve our teams. All schools improve as they progress through the racing season. Were we improving faster than Exeter?
At Andover we race down stream starting above the I-93 bridge and finish just past our boathouse. The day was clear with medium currents and a head wind blowing up stream against the current. This made for very rough water especially as the boats came out from under the bridge, so rough in fact that we had to cancel the G5 race at the end of the day because of the conditions.
The rough conditions added another twist to the day as the boats took on large volumes of water and some crews had to call for help to lift the boats out of the river only to be treated to one last shower of freezing cold water as they turned the boats overhead. Luckily the food table had ample supplies of hot food to warm them up. We also had a clutch of visitors today, parents from as far away as Illinois and California and visiting alumni Kart Hirt '06, aka The Big Hirt, our huge Texan who continues to grow, Stacey Middlebrook '07 who coxed B2 to win silver and the boys team trophy at Interschols last year and Justin Accomando, recently returned from Navy sea duty who treated his new girlfriend to her first every crew day. We were also graced with a visit by Ms. Chase and her husband delivering Andover Blue Sharks to our athletes.
So we had tough water, a huge crowd and a small matter of racing Exeter and Tabor. The G5 race was cancelled and Exeter took the honors in the B5 race. In the B4 and G4 section Exeter also won the races although Andover beat Tabor. In the boys' race Andover raced well to be about 2 seconds down at the finish. In the 3rd level Exeter took the girls' race and Andover took the boys'. The girls improved on their Lake Q. performance. The boys' race was a spectator's special with both boats digging hard into the water as they passed the boathouse to enormous screams of support from both blue and red fans. At the line Andover had it by about half a second.
At the second boat level the girls again improved on their past performance while the boys won a very solid victory with almost two lengths of open water at the end. The G2 was also disturbed today because one rower had to move up because of an injury on G1. At Lake Q a few weeks ago the B1 and G1 were well beaten by Exeter. Today G1 had to row without captain Tori Brophey and still managed to improve on the past performance. I joked with Tori that the boat went faster without her but once she returns next week, the boat will be more competitive and hopefully by Interschols we will be pushing Kent and Exeter for the medals. At Lake Q the B1 went down to Exeter by 7.4 seconds or over two boat lengths. The boys knew they had work to do. And work they did, improving their rowing and this week for the first time they produced a powerful sprint in the last 500 m. They came from behind chomping on Exeter's lead and almost took the race finishing only 0.4 of a second behind Exeter. They have now discovered a depth to their strength unknown before this week. They have two weeks of training to feed the monster so that they can roar down the last 500 m at Interschols. It should be fun.
At the end of the day we had only two coxswains to sacrifice to the gods of the Merrimack (see photos) but the whole team should be very proud of the progress over the past three weeks. Churchill said, "Kites fly highest against the wind". Our adversity will only make us better.

Ms Chase visiting the boathouse

No Regrets

Help ! Extra hands required :-(

The price of winning

For pictures of the races at Andover vs Exeter click here Part 1 , click here Part 2 and click here Part 3


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St.Pauls '08

Great Supporter

For pictures of the races at St.Pauls go to St Pauls 1 and St Pauls 2

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Salisbury '08

Let's race Coach Washburn to the trailer

The flying B2, all eight do actually row when needed

For pictures of the races at Salisbury click here

Lowell '08

Look Mum, only one hand

Food, glorious food

For pictures of the races at Lowell click here

Groton

Today we had Groton visit the boat house to race G4 and G5. The Merrimack can be a challenge for a rookie coxswain with the currents and the change in water as you come out from under the bridge. Here is Luc’s description of what sounded like fun races.

"The first race of the day was PA G4 vs. Groton 5th & 6th combined. The race was closer to 1300m as we started a bit below the official start. Both coxswains were a bit erratic with their steering, but stayed pretty much on course. The flag didn't actually go back up for Groton's crossing, but PA had the lead by 1/3 of a length and we are guessing it was about 2 seconds.
The second race was PA G5 vs. Groton 7th & 8th combined. This race was also just shy of 1500m. Groton lost their 7 seat just after 500m due to a jumped slide, but rowed on stoically and was only a few seats down on PA, who at the last 20 strokes caught an over the head crab, stopping them enough for Groton to overtake them at the finish. A dramatic and thoroughly fabulous novice race.

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Lake Quinsigamond '08

The weather at lake Q was about as perfect as it has been for many years. The lake was being used for College races in the morning and high schools in the afternoon. This along with the fact that we had to launch from the Donahue Rowing Center near the start made for a tough day for us poor supports. We had to choose between being at the boathouse to cheer our boats as they launched and landed or going to the state park to see the finish line. Some very fit supporters walked the mile there and back.
We had a great turnout of supporters with some driving from as far away as New Jersey, New York and Long island and others flying in from Louisiana, Illinois and California. Some of our recent graduates, who raced with their colleges in the morning, hung around to support us in the afternoon. Kit Wise '66 took advantage of the weather to combine a motorcycle outing with an afternoon by the lake. He could not remember starting near the road bridge but we both surmised that maybe it wasn't there 40 years ago when his raced this lake.

Many hands make light work

Pay back time

For pictures of Saturday's races at Lake Quinsigamond go to LakeQ Page 1 and LakeQ Page 2

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April 12th Kent, Lowell & Brookline '08

Yesterday was a typical New England day by the river, bright warm sunshine, heavy rain, thunder storms and lightning...all within a couple of hours. We managed to squeeze in 29 boats and about 250 rowers thanks to the cooperation of everyone parking away from the boathouse. Kent arrived fresh from their training in the southern sunshine and their rowing had a sparkle that reflected the benefit of their spring break trip. Our rowers fought bravely but for the most part succumbed to the superior Kent boats. Our spirited G1 and G2 boats were able to douse the Kent sparkle with G1 providing a very impressive performance for this early in the training schedule. Check the

Looking cool

Hanging tough

For pictures go to Kent Page 1 and Kent Page 2

We have updated the race schedule and we have posted Tori Brophy as the '08 captain for girl's crew. The guys wait until the season begins to select their captain.

This past Wednesday we had bright sunshine, freezing temperatures, howling wind and a raging Merrimack carrying melting snow to the sea. Andover is preparing for the first battle against Kent on April 12th. Click here for some pictures.

Will England '03 stroked the Oxford boat to a commanding and gruelling (English spelling) 6 length win in the Boat Race on Saturday. Congratulations to Will!! Click here for a Race report
The oldest rowing class reunions this year will be the boys of '58 and the girls of '78. Does anyone know why the girls G1 of '78 should be famous?

If you needed a song to go with your bottled water, we have added a link to a huge collection thanks to the Twickenham Rowing Club. Links


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Andover Spring Racing Schedule

Date	Day	Team	Opponent	Site	Time
12-Apr-2008	Sat	Crew Boys B1-B4	Kent, Brookline & Lowell	Away	Results
12-Apr-2008	Sat	Crew Girls G1-G3	Kent, Brookline & Lowell	Away	Results
19-Apr-2008	Sat	Crew Boys B1-B4	St. John's,Simsbury,Exeter,NMH	Away	Results
19-Apr-2008	Sat	Crew Girls G1-G4	Simsbury,Exeter,NMH	Away	Results
26-Apr-2008	Sat	Crew Boys B1-B5	Salisbury	Home	Results
27-Apr-2008	Sun	Crew Girls G1-G3	Lowell HS	Away	Results
03-May-2008	Sat	Crew Boys B1-B5	St. Paul's	Home	Results
03-May-2008	Sat	Crew Girls G1-G4	St. Paul's	Home	Results
10-May-2008	Sat	Crew Boys B1-B5	Tabor-Exeter	Home	Results
11-May-2008	Sat	Crew Girls G1-G5	Tabor-Exeter	Home	Results
14-May-2008	Sat	Crew Boys B?-B?	Belmont-Exeter	Home	3:00 PM
17-May-2008	Sat	Crew Boys B1-B3	N.M.H.	Away	Results
17-May-2008	Sat	Crew Girls G1-G4	N.M.H	Away	Results
24-May-2008	Sat	Crew Boys B1-B3	Interscholastics (NEIRA)	Away	Results
24-May-2008	Sat	Crew Girls G1-G3	Interscholastics (NEIRA)	Away	Results

The teams and supporters arrive a couple of hours earlier to setup for the races.
Plan your Spring weekends now. Your chance to picnic in scenic places with your teenagers while supporting the team. Come on down to the river!! GO BLUE!!

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