Contact: Jenni Brockman
Telephone: 804-443-3357 (w); 804-443-2703 (h)
Fax: 804-443-6781
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
This spring St. Margaret's starts the first ever rowing or "crew" program.
This spring, 24 students and two coaches, are eagerly awaiting the start of St. Margaret's first ever rowing or "crew" program.
"The Rappahannock River is a true asset to the Tappahannock community; one of the special places where learning happens at St. Margaret's. We are so fortunate to be able to use this wonderful resource for the school's rowing team," says SMS Headmistress Margaret Broad.
SMS Crew Team hoists an eight-person shell, February 1999
Rowing races, popular both in high school and college, have developed into well-organized amateur sporting events. In racing, there are two main kinds of rowing: sculling and sweep-oar rowing.
In sculling, each rower, or sculler, uses two oars. In sweep-oar rowing, each person uses one oar. Sweep oars are larger and longer than sculling oars. The boats used in this form of rowing hold two, four, six, or eight people, and are called pairs, fours, sixes, and eights.
Eights, and most fours, are designed to hold an additional crew member called a coxswain. The coxswain steers the boat by pulling on tiller ropes to turn a rudder. The coxswain may also direct the timing of the oar strokes for the stroke, the rower who sits closest to the coxswain, and motivate the team while the race is in progress.
Jenn Klar, who teaches world history at SMS, will coach this year's inaugural team. Klar, a four year rowing veteran, was the coxswain for the heavyweight men's team at Brown University in Providence, RI. Klar also coxed the lightweight men at Thompson's Boat Center on the Potomac River.
SMS English teacher Cathy Boyd will assist Klar with coaching. Boyd rowed on the University of Virginia (UVA) women's crew team in Charlottesville.
Recently, Klar and SMS biology teacher John Wemple traveled to pick up three used shells, two eights and one four, and twenty oars for racing this spring. A yellow Vespoli-brand four was purchased from Loyola College in Baltimore, MD. Two eights, one from William & Mary, and the other from Langley High School in McLean, VA, are roughly 60 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 250 pounds each.
Eight old-style "macon," "tulip," or "spoon" oars, in reference to the blade's shape, came from T.C. Williams High School in Arlington, VA. Concept III, a rowing supply company, supplied twelve additional oars: 8 brand new "hatchet" oars made smaller for high school girls; 4 top-of-the-line ultralight adjustable oars.
In addition, SMS purchased 4 ergometer rowing machines from UVA to outfit the program. "The 'ergs' are excellent for testing the girls' strength on land and offer a great workout for anyone," says Klar. Klar and Boyd plan to spend the majority of their time practicing on the water, but guarantee the girls will do weight training, erg circuits, and fitness runs on land as well.
The $10,000 - 12,000 estimated start up cost of the crew program was funded by the school; part by donations of SMS parents, alumnae, and friends. Martha Heric and Joe Heyman, parents of SMS ninth grader Kelly Proctor, initiated interest in helping to fund a crew program. Heric and Heyman agreed to outfit one of the shells, which they named Gone With The Wind, and encourage other parents to help support the program.
On Saturdays, beginning March 27 - April 8, SMS will compete in sweep-oar rowing races in Occoquan, VA. SMS, one of 50 member National Capital Area Scholastic Rowing Association schools, will race on a 1500 meter straight course buoyed in lanes for five competing boats at a time.
