An extraordinary first week of the spring season in so many ways!
Let’s start with Mother Nature, who saw to it that Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were sunny and close to 70 degrees; most of the athletes were just wearing unis! And although they donned many more layers on Thursday and Friday, the temperature was still much warmer than what’s expected of mid-March! The weather was definitely more welcoming than it was last year, and hopefully helped remind everyone how great spring rowing can be!
The beautiful weather and water also served us well for mixing lineups and putting out several smaller boats. This week was meant to serve as an equal playing field for everyone – to identify each rower’s talent – and to help our less experienced rowers hit the ground running by putting them in boats with the more experienced group.
Shaking things up a bit helped to familiarize the rowers with our band of new coaches as well, who had the chance to work with several different crews throughout the week. Our three new coaches - Previn, Melissa, and Andrew - bring with them a wealth of knowledge and many different rowing backgrounds and experiences that will help PCRA flourish as the club expands.
Despite all the changes and fluidity of the lineups, this first week saw phenomenal attitudes coming from all different sides of the varsity program. The rowers showed up to practice ready to work and with smiles on their faces! Their positivity echoed through the novices, who were tremendously respectful of all the coaches and older athletes as they went through their boat handling clinics.
On the water, the athletes were able to show off their technique and newly earned fitness, moving the boats along fantastically well. The various boat speeds were remarkable, especially for the beginning of the season. It will be exciting to watch this spring unfold!
Our athletes had the remarkable opportunity to train with two Jr. National Team rowers; Hannah Solis-Cohen (stroke of the 4x in 2010 and stroke of the 2x in 2011) and Abbie Young (stroke of the 8+ in 2011). Their being at the boathouse was inspirational and helped set a tone of expectation for what will be an extraordinary season for PCRA. Their presence and advice certainly helped two our own female athletes, Yas and Lily, who participated today in one of the ten nation wide Jr. National Team Identification Camps. Both Yas and Lily hope to be invited to Selection Camp, from which they would either be chosen for the team that will race at the World Championships in Bulgaria this summer or for the World’s Development Team that will scrimmage the German Junior National Team in Germany.
Exciting things are happening at PCRA! Our boats are gaining speed and should be very competitive this spring. Stay tuned for more updates!
