All, 

The weather will be better for us this week … leading to our first competition on Saturday, the Polar Bear Regatta.

The coaches will decide at the end of Tuesday practice on the Stuart race entries; a draft schedule should be out from VASRA on Thursday. This is the shortest regatta of the season and only involves upper boat events (no 3rd, 4th, or novice boat entries). However, this doesn’t preclude us from using a novice if necessary to fill an upper boat.  

At this point we expect about half of the team will compete. This is based on availability of rowers and the ability to field reasonably prepared boats given projected absences. For those not selected to compete this Saturday, the coaches still want you to come to support your teammates.  here’s always room to help prepare and check the equipment, support launches and recoveries, and to cheer.  As in other sports, you should always come prepared to compete … there have been times where a rower had to be replaced at the last minute due to injury or illness.      

On the second topic … for planning purposes the coaches need to know as far in advance as possible about absences.  Parents/rowers, please check your calendars and determine if you have known conflicts that will cause you to miss practice or a regatta between now and the end of the season. Some upcoming events that might be issues … ACT (April 8), SAT (May 6), Spring break trips, Music Department Chicago trip, and IB exams. Parents please send me your list of conflicts by this Tuesday.  

Absences generally have a negative impact on the team. At this point boat lineups are somewhat fluid as coaches experiment with rowers in different seats and work on sculling for 2nd year rowers. However, in the next few weeks we will look to start setting boats that we expect to compete at the State-level and beyond.  This helps a group of rowers to jell as a unit, improve their timing, and become faster … absences in this case could impact multiple boats if someone is moved from one boat to cover another.  

I very much appreciate the hard work of the rowers and coaches, as well as the involvement of many of our parents. The coaches have seen good progress over the last weeks and look forward to the start of the regattas.

Coach Mike

JEB Stuart Crew. Rowing Strong for 50 Years.

[Scenes from Polar Bear Regatta 2016}