| Andover Crew 2012 |
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As an example: Move your mouse over the headings on the top blue line and a drop down menu will appear to show the selections available.
Under "Schedule" you will see the "Food Selection", move the mouse over it and left click to get to the food selection menu page.
Charter
To provide information and news for the Parents, Friends, and Alumni of Andover Crew.
Andover Crew Community
Some of us still use ink and paper while others use Blackberries and iPhones to communicate. You can participate with Andover crew via this web page and the links at the top of this page to our Guest book, our Facebook group, our Twitter feed and our LinkedIn group. You can also sign-up for our email newsletter by contacting us at andovercrew@andovercrew.net. We welcome participation, comments, suggestions and especially stories and pictures of Andover rowers young and old. We are happy to help people reconnect with old boatmates.
Our LinkedIn group is our latest addition. We hope our LinkedIn group will provide the opportunity for the Andover Crew family to provide support for our younger rowers as they move into the world. Our young men and women who have maintained good grades while spending 25 to 30 hours a week on competitive rowing at the countries top colleges have already proved that would be valuable additions to any organization that wants to be successful. Membership is only open to rowers, alumni and parents. Click on the picture to join the LinkedIn group..
News November 21st. 2012
Oscar Tang is a product of Andover who returned to lead the school with great wisdom to become even better than most thought possible. His "youth from every quarter" mantra ensures that every place is filled with the best possible student. Our lives are enriched because Oscar has touched us all through his involvement with Phillips Academy. Best of all he is an Andover Crew rower. Thank you Oscar Tang.
Click here for Oscar Tang '56: An Andover Life
Parents Weekend Sept 2012
For Parents' day we had the picture perfect New England fall day. Calm water, crisp sunshine and a bunch of happy kids showing off their new abilities to the audience. All the boats looked sharp and ready for the racing spring. The benefits of our new home were on show for everyone. The spacious functional boats bays and the common room oozing the tradition of Andover crew with the team pictures from 1955 onwards and the coffee tables and bookcases made from an old wooden shell.
From the new super stable dock we could see the full length of the race course as the boats of mixed ability lined up across the river and raced past the dock to give us a little taste of spring racing.
Rowing at Andover is unlike any other sport. In other sports the students are divided into the different levels and students are "cut" from the program. They usually train with only their team. With crew all the "teams" or boats of boys and girls and differing levels leave the school together after class and travel to the distant boathouse. They return like a hungry nomadic tribe towards the end of commons. They speak with strange tongues and their handshake is unmistakable with strong calloused hands.
There are no MVPs in rowing eights. It takes eight rowers to move a boat. You start the race together in the boat. You can’t row faster than everyone else. You finish the race together. You win only if everyone gives their very best. The rhythm of the eight is more important than any rower. Success or failure is shared equally. If you want to be an individual superstar find another sport.
By Parents' Weekend some students have decided that rowing is not for them. Others have been infected with the passion that will propel them to continually strive for the excellence that captures New England Championships. There is only one crew team. The lower boats push the higher boats to do better. The boys and girls feed off each other’s competitive spirit. A victory or loss for any boat is a victory or loss for everyone.
As parents we obviously support our favorite rower but we support the whole team.
In the fall parents have the opportunity to see the sport during Parents' Weekend. In the spring everyone is welcome at the Saturday races and parents have important responsibilities. Parents come to the Saturday races to cheer the boats to the finish line and feed the hungry rowers to recover after the races. With over a 100 students and 12 or more races, a spring race day is a big event. We will need volunteers to take pictures, update the scoreboard, judge the finish line and of course prepare and serve the food. We race in every type of weather except lightning and in New England we usually have every type of weather. So if your favorite new rower has been infected with the passion, plan for crew races this coming spring.
Hands of a girl spring rower
Parents' Weekend at the new William Brown boathouseFor more pictures click link below
Parents' Weekend pictures 1
Fall Crew
Andover crew is on the Merrimack again with a fresh bunch of newbies. Unsuspecting boys and girls, some whom have never been on a river and most of whom have never been in a shell. Spending afternoons gently paddling on the river may have seemed like a soft alternative to a real sport. Little did they know!
When they watched the older kids, it looked so easy. How come their boat rocks from side to side, wiggles through the water and splashes in every direction? How can eight very smart people be so uncoordinated? How come the boat moves so slowly?
What little do they know? How quickly will they be molded into shape. Some will find it difficult and drift off to lesser sports. The best will learn the passion for the hard smooth rhythm that drives the boat through the water like a shark.
And the poor newbie coxswains. Rowers that pull the boat to one side, the wind that moves the point and the river that never stops stealing the boat. And just when you think you are getting the feeling of the boat, you have to land at the dock. Once again the rowers, the wind and most of all the river seem to conspire to make you look silly. You spend the last 3 minutes of practice wishing you were on the shore but if you are to be a real coxswain, after an hour ashore you will be longing for the river again.
In the spring I envy the coaches their jobs. Hard working crews determined to gain that extra inch of speed. But Fall crew, where blade position seems guided more be the Heisenberg uncertainty principle...well in the Fall I envy their determination and confidence.
By Parents' Weekend the coaches will have transformed chaos to harmony. They will have overcome the fundamental law of the universe to increase entropy. They will have harnessed the enthusiastic drive of the students and calmed it all into smoothly driving the shell through the water. The students will have learnt that they have to strive for the physical strength of Hercules, the grace of Pavlova or Nijinsky (the dancer or the horse) and the mind focus of Buddha. Every little step forward on the path will make them better rowers and better people.
Some rowers will take the Fall experience and move on to other sports. Others will have been infected with the passion and will never shake the river from their hearts.
Crew takes a major commitment from the students in effort and time. They disappear from school in the afternoon and return when most have finished dinner in commons. It is as though they have joined a secret tribe. If you are a new parent you will have found your child talking a new language of port, starboard and crabs. Have no fear, It is not a new version of tweet talk or a new video game but the strange terminology of crew. There is a translation available at Crew Speak
.
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Boathouse News - September 23rd. Dedication Day 2012
The dedication will be on September 23rd. Everyone is welcome to celebrate the opening and house warming of the new boathouse.
We will start the day with an early morning row at 6.30am followed by the dedication at 9 am and a light breakfast. The boathouse will remain open for anyone who wants to row after the dedication or just hang around and feel the spirit of the new home for Andover Crew. Please sign in at this link to make sure we have the correct numbers for breakfast.
Dedication Sign-inThe boathouse is almost complete. Only a few last details remain to be done. The new docks are in. They are everything you would wish for in a set of docks. The only problem is that the rookie coxswains will need to be even more careful not to crash into these docks. The will not be gentle on a boat.
We have added new pictures of the boathouse construction to the boathouse page.
The boat bay is clean and the racks are assembled. The cox box storage area is the best I have seen in many a boathouse. We will have plenty of space to store the launches in the winter and during the season this space makes for very easy access to the boat racks.
What will appear as a complete luxury to the alumni are the addition of changing rooms for visitors and the great and toilets for ourselves. The boathouse has also given us a place to display our history. One wall will have team pictures from all the years. We still need originals of a few years. Another wall will honor team members for their achievements or sacrifices on our behalf.
A fun addition to the furniture are two coffee tables made from sections of a wooden racing boat and two bookshelves made from the stern and the bow.
Here is the link to the Boathouse page
A HUGE thank you to the Andover Crew family of Alumni, past parents and present parents. We started out 2011 with approval for a boathouse project. The goal of raising $6.5 million in the prevailing economic climate seemed daunting. Oscar Tang took the lead in the campaign assisted by the fund raising staff of the school and a group of volunteers. The campaign included mailed information, emails, phone calls and personal visits.
The building season in New England is spring to fall. The building program is projected to take 6 months. We needed to have most of the 6.5 million in hand to start the project. Thanks to the fund raising efforts and the generosity of the Andover Crew family we have raised $5.5 million in time for the school to agree to allow the program to go ahead in the pring.
We still need to reach the final goal of $6.5 million for completion. If you need help or assistance in making a donation please contact Ann Harris at 978-749-4312 and aharris@andover.edu or Sam Darby at 978-975-4152 and andovercrew@andovercrew.net. There are still some naming opportunities.There are three major parts of the project. The building, the site and the docks. The building has operated as a truck dealership. The shell will be stripped down, cleaned and refurbished to house a workshop, boat bays, coach facilities, changing rooms for visiting crews and a large multi-function room that could host an erg practice or training course or an alumni dinner. The site is in sad shape and needs extensive work including re-creation of wetlands, re-grading and tarmac. Last but not least we have to build docks out into the Merrimack to launch our racing boats.
We hope to have all this completed by the fall. If all of our gods smile on us we should be able to throw a party in late September to officially open the boathouse. Mark your calendars now! The boathouse will be a utilitarian racing facility but we want to wrap it in the rowing tradition of Andover. The great room seems to be the best place to do this. We might have team pictures, oars from great races or audio of coxswains’ calls. All suggestions welcome!
It has been a long 5 years since the idea of a new boathouse was first broached. When Coach Brown was asked for his advice he said "just start the program and don't worry about when it will finish". We are sad that we lost him before we managed to finish but it will be a fitting home for his active positive spirit that is embodied in Andover Crew.
Below are some pictures of the early work. Please go to the Boathouse page for more recent updates.
March 10th: The contractor has started to prepare the river bank for the installation of the new docks. This inlcuded removing some trees for access the docks. We have added a few more pictures:
Clearing access to the Merrimack
Making ready for the new docksMarch 3rd: The dream is real. Work has started on the new site. The site has been fenced. All the surface garbage has been removed. The inside has been cleared to a bare empty sad metal shell. More pictures of this phase are posted on Boathouse Phase 1a
Dozer and digger ready to start
Inside has been gutted to an empty shellSept 2012: The dream is fulfilled. The new boat house is completed.
New Boat House
New Boat House
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Alumni News
Reunion Weekend events: June 2012
We had a good group on a walking tour of the boathouse. It is progressing well. The concrete footings for the dock ramps are in place. These will support ramps with much better stability and lower access angle than is possible at our current home. Inside the building the studs are being erected for all the walls. In about another two weeks it will start to transform from an empty truck service bay to a utilitarian boathouse combining Andover efficiency with 55 years of rowing tradition.
On the Saturday morning while most alumni were still fast asleep a band of intrepid crew alumni gathered at the edge of the mighty Merrimack. We had reunion rowers from '57 to '07 and one '10 who helped to complete our full boats.
The weather was perfect and the water as gentle. After a few wobbly maneuvers the boats settled into an Andover rhythm and by the end of the day were almost race ready. The returning boats were all smiles despite an excess of perspiration and newly acquired blisters.
For pictures click link below
Alumni Weekend pictures 1
Alumni Weekend pictures 2We have now posted all the rowing pictures from all the Yearbooks we managed to find. Thanks to Ann Harris for arranging the scanning. We have now posted all the yearbooks to http://www.andovercrew.com/YearBook/indexYearBooks.html. Enjoy!. We are still missing Yearbooks for the following years 1958, 1959, 1984,1985, 1991 and 2004.
We have started digging into the history of Andover Crew again.
Here are some old pictures from Henley:
Henley boat
Two of the boat are here
1959 - First Andover trip to Henley
1959 Andover vs Thames Rowing Club1959 Boat: Bow-Bill Taylor, 2-Chris Miller, 3-Jack Allen, 4-Renny Maier, 5-Dick Masland, 6-Art Burnham, 7-Bill Sanford, stroke-Maynard Toll (Captain), cox-Patrick Cary-Barnard. (Thanks to Bill Sanford)
We have also started a web page for the rowing entries in the Year Books from 1956 when Coach Brown founded Andover Crew. Below is the first entry from 1956. We have now posted all we have on Year Books Andover Crew
We are still missing Year Books for the following years 1958, 1959, 1984,1985, 1991and 2004. If you have a Yearbook for any of these years and are willing to scan it or send it to us to scan please email us at andovercrew@andovercrew.net.
1956 Year Book
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Interschols '12 races
Interschols - Girls exceed expectations and Boys score triple gold
Congratulations to all of our boats at Interschols. Each boat had a different challenge to face but every boat did better than their seeding going into Interschols with the exception of B2.
Our G1 was seeded 18th and raced to 11th place, G2 was seeded 8th and raced to 6th place and G3 jumped from 5th place to win bronze medals.
The boys B3 were seeded 2nd but blasted though in the final to gold by two boat lengths. B2 was seeded 1st. and held off a strong challenge from Exeter to make it two golds.The B1 race was the clash of the Washburns. The Tabor boat coached by Taylor Washburn and the Andover boat coached by Peter Washburn fought stroke for stroke down the length of the course. Coming into the last 500 Tabor had a slight edge but by the finish line it was Andover by 0.233 of a second! With three golds Andover boys also took the Team Trophy for the 5th time in 6 years. According to our friends at Rowing History it is also the first time a school has won gold in all three events since 1995.
For pictures from Interschols click link below
Interschols pictures 1
Interschols pictures 2
Interschols pictures 3
Interschols pictures 4
Interschols pictures 5
Interschols pictures 6
Interschols pictures 7
Interschols pictures 8 Thanks to Lisa Arnold
Interschols pictures 9 Thanks to Lisa Arnold
Interschols pictures 10 Thanks to Lisa Arnold
Interschols pictures 11 Thanks to Virginia Sigal
If anyone would like to post their pictures on the website, please email andovercrew@andovercrew.net
For video from Interschols click link below
Interschols video 1 - Morning heats
Interschols video 2 - Afternoon finals
Thanks to Coach Joe Bouscaren.
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NMH '12 races
May 19th: As the flag was lowered by this year’s seniors like a single tear running down a cheek to the strains of Auld langs syne on the bagpipes 30 years racing from the boathouse donated by the Greenway family came to an end. The boathouse is not luxurious, it is not very stylish, it is a grey box with metal doors. But out of this frugal, almost monastic structure boats of racing giants have emerged. High school NEIRA champions, college national champions, Boat Race winners, international racers and Olympic gold medalists. Even more important people who took the passion they felt for Andover Crew and used it to achieve unrelated victories in other facets of their lives.
It doesn’t take 5 minutes to win a race, it takes a winter of fitness followed by weeks of tough grinding training. The winning boats are driven to excel by all of the rowers on the team pushing to claim the highest position in the racing order. For 4 years every Andover rower pushes themselves beyond pain and discomfort to squeeze out one more second of speed. Once on the water, erg scores are meaningless. Height, weight and strength count for naught unless it can be translated into water speed with rowing skill. Every day for the past 30 years rowers have driven themselves to their limit and the grey boathouse was the home for this experience. I am sure old rowers will drop a little tear as the boathouse winds down a 30 year career.
A big thank you to everyone who helped out this Saturday with the food and ice cream treat for the team. Thanks to our master piper, Alex Smith ’12. Mr. Washburn also thanked the seniors of the team for their years of contribution to the team. These young adults will be valuable assets to the institutions that host them for the next phase of their education.
We were joined for the races by our friends from NMH, Brookline and Hingham. G1 was not able to strike a winning rhythm. They have only 3 days for hard practice before tapering for Interschols. Our G2, G3 and G4 won well in their races with NMH. For G4 it is the end of their season so they went out in style with the best margin of the day for the girls.
In the middle of the order our B7 divided in two well match fours for their own race. It was a spirited battle to the finish. B5 took off like banshee followed by B6 with NMH B3 struggling to keep pace. Our B3 and B4 raced Belmont Hill and Hingham finishing in this order. B3 looked ready for Interschols. The top B1 ad B2 boats raced both NMH and Hingham. Andover won both races by open water.
These races signaled the end of the rowing season for our lower boats. The performance of our athletes was a honor to program. We wish them all a happy summer and hope to see our returning students again in the fall. Thanks also to Coach Waldo and Coach Darby especially for their transformation of our new students into Andover rowers.
Old Boathouse Last Race
Old Boathouse Last RaceFor pictures from the NMH's races click
NMH 1 pictures
NMH 2 pictures
NMH 3 pictures
NMH 4 pictures
NMHAC 1 pictures
NMHAC 2 pictures
NMHAC 3 pictures
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Exeter-Tabor '12 races
A big thanks you to all the food table helpers especially with grilling the burgers. We had a special delivery of blue sharks for the day along with visits from Barbara Chase and Rebecca Sykes. Also a special thank you to all the grandparents who came to cheer the blue.
In the past we had an Andover Exeter trophy for the boys B1. Recently we recycled the competition concept with a new plaque awarded for the team results of Andover, Exeter and Tabor. It is a little more complicate to decide the winner but it is more in keeping with the rowing ethos of one for all and all for one. This year the winner was Exeter.
There was a good tailwind and strong currents to help fast races. We use floating starts so races may be of slightly different lengths so times cannot be compared from race to race.
Our Big Red friends from Exeter are always a formidable team. Their girls are normally the first seed New England although this year they suffered one defeat at the hands of St. Paul’s. Tabor, a rowing power house in the 1960s, have been less successful in recent years. Tabor have been working to improve their rowing team and are unique in that they are the only school in New England to have a coach for every boat. They turned up with 8 coaches for 8 boats. One of these coaches was an Andover alum, Taylor Washburn ’03 coaching the much improved Tabor B1.
As expected Exeter girls took first place in a every race. Our G2 and G3 won over Tabor and our G5 won over the Exeter G6 and a Tabor G4.
In recent history on the boys side Andover has been the stronger team followed by Exeter who usually win over Tabor. True to form on the boys side all of our boats won by open water over Exeter including our B7 over the Exeter B6 in a race won by our B6. Our B3 looked especially strong and smooth. All except B1 won over the Tabor boats despite their advantage in coaching numbers.
Our B1 race was a little special. Both boats were coached by a Washburn. I was invited to join both coaches in the launch along with Hunter Washburn ’00. Both boats started off well with Andover doing slightly better off the start. Tabor probably had the better mid 500 meters setting up for a hard battle for the last 500 meters. Both boats rowed with a similar style and similar quiet determination. The last 500 meters was a very tight battle with both boats matching stroke for stroke. At the finish line we had to ask the Peter McKallagat our long time finish line judge to name the winner. One of Peter’s sons shared an Andover boat with Hunter and another shared a boat with Taylor. Sadly for us Peter lived up to his honest reputation and declared Tabor the winner by a deck. No more hot sandwiches for the finish line judge ?. Our Coach Washburn was obviously disappointed to suffer defeat but also proud of the improvement brought to Tabor by the Andover trained Tabor Coach Washburn. Both boats will continue to improve until Interschols as Washburn boats always do. May the best boat win.
For pictures from the Exeter's races click
Exeter-Tabor's pictures 1
Exeter-Tabor's pictures 2
Exeter-Tabor's pictures 3
Exeter-Tabor's pictures 4
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St. Paul's '12 races
The weather smiled on us today. In the past this race date has also been the start of black fly season but I think the mixed weather had confused them and saved us from their attacks.
Our thanks to Shirley Fung P’13 and Xiaohong Yin P’14 for running the food table today. Kathy made the extra effort to drive from New Jersey. We should also mention Richard Kennelly who made a last minute detour off the highway to pick up some additional chickens to feed the large tribe of over 100 hungry mouths we had today.
Today was a day for mixed loyalties. For example, Richard Kennelly P ’13 arrived in St. Paul’s as a student with limited athletic talents according to his good wife. St. Paul’s introduced him to the sport of rowing and he responded with a passion that won an Olympic Silver medal in 1988. Kathryn “Luc” Green, our long time girls’ coach, is now teaching at St. Paul’s and helping their girls’ rowing program to their best season in many years. He husband, Chad, will be joining the staff at St. Paul’s in the fall.
Community Rowing Inc. (CRI) was founded in 1985 to bring the benefits of rowing to the Boston Community. Dick Cashin ’71 is a long time supporter of CRI. CRI is now a powerhouse of rowing in the Boston area. CRI has about 1500 people rowing with them each year in programs including high school, adult, military and special needs. Many local Andover rowers join CRI during the summer. CRI has been a leader in developing programs for military and civilian special needs rowers and also in training programs for coaches. The CRI teams we raced today are from their Boston high school programs.
In recent history the CRI girls’ team has been very strong and the boys’ team has been growing in strength. The St. Paul’s team have made the grand final at Interschols but rarely made the medals. This year the girls’ team has been very strong as exemplified by the victory over Kent and Exeter last week.
We raced G1 to G5 and B1 to B6. In the B1, B3 and B4 races Andover won by a length or more over CRI with St. Paul’s coming in third. In the B2 race our boat was 13 seconds ahead of St. Paul’s but was beaten by CRI. So B2 is still undefeated in the NEIRA league. Our B5 won their race with a commanding margin over CRI followed by B6 who were open water over the St. Paul’s B5.
In the girls’ races CRI gave a powerful performance winning all the races. St. Paul’s took second place in the G1 to G3 races as we would have expected from their performance against Exeter and Kent last week. Our G4 managed to beat St. Paul’s by about 6 seats. The G5 race was a dual competition with CRI coming out on top.
Overall a good day for the boys and a tough day for the girls. We have three weeks of training and two home races until Interschols on May 26th.
For pictures from the St.Paul's Day click link below
St.Paul's pictures 1
St.Paul's pictures 2
St.Paul's pictures 3
St.Paul's pictures 4
St.Paul's pictures 5
B7 Lawrence races
On Friday our B7 divided into 2 fours and went to do race pieces with the Lawrence rowing club. Our boats did very well, coming first and second in every piece.
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Salisbury '12 races
We had a great day at the lake in Salisbury. A big thank you to all the parents and grandparent who made the trip.
On this Saturday we raced B1 to B7 against Salisbury. Salisbury were down a few rowers due to illness. Overall it was a great day for our boats. As always Salisbury were wonderful hosts. Thank you to the brave parents who made the long journey. It was a fun day for all in a beautiful lakeside setting.
The first race was B3. Our B3 lived up to Coach Hurley's exhortation "Remember, if you are not enjoying yourself what do you do? Row harder!" The results reported on Row2k have been corrected to show Andover B3, Andover B4, Salisbury B3. Our B3 rowed "harder" than everyone else.
Our B2 and B1 fell into a pattern and got the job done with strong winning races.
Our B5 brought home the final Andover victory in style. Andover B6 jumped a seat in the first few meters and effectively rowed the race with their 7 seat unable to move full distance because the stroke seat was stationary and rowing with arms and no legs because he did not have a moving seat. Bravo to B6 for coming in second out of four with only 6+ rowers. True Grit! Our B7 closed the day with a good effort.
First Outing
Sending off B1
Parental Support
Near empty food tableWe have uploaded some pictures from Salisbury.
Salisbury pictures 1
Salisbury pictures 2
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Andover Exeter Invitational at Lake Quinsigamond '12
Some photos have been uploaded.
We raced B1 to B5 and G1 to G4 with Exeter, Simsbury, Brookline, and Shrewsbury for both boys and girls plus St. John's in the boys' races and Boston Latin in the girls' races.The weather was bright and sunny but with a strong head wind. The wind made the floating start more like trying to catch multiple butterflies with one net. Floating starts mean that the starter tries to get the boats to line up for the start. No mean feat with 6 or 7 boats on a calm day but with a strong head wind the chances of all boats staying in line for more than a few seconds are pretty small.
A link to the results has been posted in the race schedule table.
Multi-boat start in the wind
B2 to after a less exciting win this weekWe have uploaded more pictures from from Lake Q.
Lake Quinsigamond pictures 1
Lake Quinsigamond pictures 2
Lake Quinsigamond pictures 3
Lake Quinsigamond pictures 4
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Kent '12 races
Well we had the best race weather of many years for our battle with Kent. The turnout of supporters was wonderful and we had visits from the Athletic Director, Mike Kuta and Associate Head of School, Rebecca Sykes.
Our boys and girls teams are at very different stages of their life cycles. The boys are in a very strong position and our girls are rebuilding their teams. Both the boys and girls went into this weekend with strong respect for the Kent boats that are normally very powerful at the beginning of the season. Andover usually improves more over the spring and by Interschols is the equal or better of Kent.
Traditionally the lower boats race first and the top boats race last. I am not sure if this is to make the afternoon more exciting or it is just the way it has been done for 100 year but this weekend we upset the applecart because some senior boys had to leave early to start their college visiting weekend.
So first out of the blocks was the B1 race for the Dent Oars named for a wonderful gentleman, John Dent who coached at both Andover and Kent. He currently lives and coaches in Cambridge England. Our B1 was the same compliment of rowers as the previous week against Essex but with a little rearrangement of the seating. There are many books and web pages dedicated to the science of rowing and coaching but people will still tell you there comes a time when a good boat just ”clicks”. It comes together, everything finds a balance and feels as one. And so it was with B1 this week.
The Kent boat looked strong and fit. Not that our boat did not look well. The rowing fashion watchers might have noticed that this year instead of wearing the now ubiquitous uni-suit our boys are wearing spandex shorts and rowing shirts. Almost all colleges have gone over to the uni-suit except Washington and CAL who just happen to be almost always in the top three fast boats in the country.
Both boats were strong off the start and raced hard going through the bridge. Andover settled and found a solid rhythm and started to stretch out ahead. As they came towards the last 500 meters you could feel the tension amongst the Kent supporters. Kent did make an attempt to push into the Andover lane but even this did not phase our boys. They held tough through the last 500 meters and came in about a boat length ahead.
After this we reverted to the more tradition race order with the G4 race. This was a first ever race most our G4 girls, many of whom are new to rowing. Our girls rowed well given their experience level but gave up open water to the stronger Kent boat.
We raced our B4 and B5 against the Kent B4. This race displayed the depth of the program with B4 rowing hard to fend off competition from our B5 by about a length and followed by the Kent boat in third place.
Next up were the G3 and B3 boats. A pattern was settling in. The B3 boat scorched up the river winning with margin of almost 20 seconds while our girls put in a respectable performance but could not match the speed of the Kent boat.
In many races the boats try to make a last desperate dash in the last 500 meters. This usually involves moving up in the rowing rate. This is a difficult transition especially early in the season. With about 600 meters to go our G2 caught a “crab” but recovered well to stay In the race. Coach Washburn has been heard to tell his rowers to have a boring race. Well B2 provided us with the most exciting race of the day. They started very strong and pushed out almost a length ahead of Kent. It looked like another Andover victory but the Kent boys came back with a vengeance from the 500 meter mark and as they passed the boathouse you could see that Kent were gaining on Andover with every stroke. By the time they reached the finish line the spectators could not tell who as in front and the finish flag went up and down it seemed as fast as the finish line judge, Pete McKallagat, could move his arm. We had to wait for the coaches launch to come back down to tell us that Andover had held on and won by 3/10ths of second or in boat terms – a deck. You can’t help but feel for the Kent crew and you knew that B2 would be hearing from the coaches about boring races.
The last race of the day was the G1 race. The Kent girls were visibly larger. They rowed with the precision and style of a boat that had gone south for pre-season and had a solid extra 2 or 3 weeks of water time. Our G1 did rowed courageously but did not have the speed to threaten to take the Hart Perry Trophy from Kent this year. We will meet again and next time the race will be closer.
We presented the trophies to winners and dined at the food table including hot homemade Sheppard’s Pie all the way from New York. We had parents from as far away as Florida and the West coast.
The Dent Oars stayed home!.
We have posted pictures of the Kent races
Click here for more pictures Kent 1
Click here for more pictures Kent 2
Click here for more pictures Kent 3
Click here for more pictures Kent 4
Click here for more pictures Kent 5
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Racing April 7th Essex
A big thank you to all the parents who brought food last Saturday and to the photographers who have shared their pictures with me. I will post them in the next 48 hours. It was a great start to the season.
This past Saturday was a day for the unusual. We were racing Essex rowing club as a preseason scrimmage for our boats. It was a bright sunny but cold day. Our boats launched and returned to our boathouse but raced upriver well out of sight of the boathouse.
Normally the water by the boathouse is rough compared with the more sheltered area above the bridge but last weekend the opposite was true. As the day progressed the wind increased and the rowing conditions became worse. The wind combined with the currents to make the coxswain’s job a little bit testy.
Our hosts had decided to use stake boats. Strange name since you cannot put a stake in the river. A stake boat is a boat that is moored to a fixed place for the start of a race. Each boat is required to reverse to the stake boat so that the stern can be held in position until the start. Sounds easy with a boat of rowers experienced at rowing in reverse with no wind and good instructions. Needless to say the river gods had their fun with all the boats on Saturday. The river gods also played with the wind and current to take some boats off course and out of the central current. A couple of boats found themselves at a disadvantage as the river took them off course. After the races we did throw some coxswains in the river. Hopefully this will appease the river god and we will be treated better during the Kent race.
On the girl side we graduated the majority of our G1 and G2 boats so this spring the coaches have a very tough job of rebuilding the top boats. The first race of the day was G1 and G2 against Essex. The river gods had a little bit of fun. On the luck of the draw G1 was on the outside lane where the wind and the current conspired to take them away from the center current. Essex rowed a good race to take victory with G2 second and G1 coming in last.
As the conditions became tougher G3 went against the Essex G2 and lost by open water. We have significant work to do before we face Kent. The Kent girls have been on the water longer than us and will come ready for battle.
The first boys’ race was B6 and B7 against Essex. These boats were entirely novices with only 3 weeks rowing experience. Rowing all eight at the same time should be a challenge for these boats. Essex took a length lead off the start and seemed certain to win. Some people say you can only judge character when you see people in adversity. If that is true then our B6 has character by the bucket load. Essex jumped out in front off the start. It seemed the race was over but B6 dug deep into their souls and went after Essex taking them in the last 500 to win by a second. B7 came in third The Andover boats were selected to be equal in height, weight and strength but B6 found the grit to overcome adversity.
We have started to post pictures from last week
Click here for more pictures Essex 1
Click here for more pictures Essex 2
Click here for more pictures Essex 3
Click here for more pictures Essex 4
Click here for more pictures Essex 5
Enjoy!
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Early Spring Crew
The girls are preparing for racing season under the watchful eye of Coach Bouscaren.
Our coaching staff includes USA rowers and national champions but only Coach Bouscaren has had his rowing exploits documented in a book, “The Amateurs” by David Halberstam and a movie “Rowing Through”. Despite a busy medical practice and coaching at CRI, he takes the time to share his knowledge and experience with the Andover girls rowing team. He understands the physical effort and mental focus required to be a successful rower.
Style and power
Wishing for the water
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Spring Schedule
To live is to row, to row is to race, to race is to test the limits. NEIRA beckons.
A Call to Oars:
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To the full height. On, on, you noblest rowers.
Whose limbs were made in New England show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'Go for myself, my family and Andover Crew!'
(Mostly from Henry V Act 3 Scene 1)
- Apologies to Will Shakespeare.
How many boats depends the other school.
Proposed Andover Spring Racing Schedule 2012 Date Day Team Opponent Site Time 07-Apr-2012 Sat Boys B1-B7 Essex tentative Home Results 07-Apr-2012 Sat Girls G1-G3 Essex tentative Home Results 14-Apr-2012 Sat Boys B1-B5 Kent Home Results 14-Apr-2012 Sat Girls G1-G4 Kent Home Results 21-Apr-2012 Sat Boys B1-B5 St. Johns,Simsbury,Exeter Away Results 21-Apr-2012 Sat Girls G1-G4 Simsbury,Exeter Away Results 28-Apr-2012 Sat Boys B1-B7 Salisbury Away Results 4-May-2012 Fri Boys B7 Lawrence Home Andover 5-May-2012 Sat Boys B1-B6 St. Pauls Away Results 5-May-2012 Sat Girls G1-G5 St. Pauls Away Results 12-May-2012 Sat Boys B1-B7 Tabor-Exeter Home Results 12-May-2012 Sat Girls G1-G5 Tabor-Exeter Home Results 19-May-2012 Sat Boys B1-B7 N.M.H. Home Results 19-May-2010 Sat Girls G1-G5 N.M.H Home Results 26-May-2010 Sat Boys B1-B3 Interscholastics (NEIRA) Away Results 26-May-2010 Sat Girls G1-G3 Interscholastics (NEIRA) Away Results For past years' results go to http://www.row2k.com/results/
The time listed are approximate times for the first racing boat to go on the water. The teams and supporters arrive about an hour earlier to setup for the races.
GO BLUE!!
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