Justice Rowing family,

Week Past

The Regional Park Regatta is in the books! This past Saturday we fielded a 5-boat fleet across 4 different events and tested ourselves against legitimate competition. We started the day with our varsity boys’ quad (M4x) taking third in the first event of the day behind two very experienced crews. Shortly after, in event three, our varsity boys’ double (M2x) took third in their first competition in the small, technical-focused boat. In event seven, our novice women’s four (WN4+) competed for third in their first-ever race! Lastly, wrapping up our events for the day both of our varsity women’s quads (W4x) took 4th and 5th place in their events In a large and competitive field.

The coaches were all pleased to see our varsity boats finishing ahead of all local competition and incredibly proud of the fight within our novice women. It was a chilly but great day for racing and we can’t wait to do it again! Full results can be found here.

Photos are available at our Justice Photo/Video Gallery.  Note: Videos do not autoplay. Click the arrow to watch.

Week Forward

This week is the Walter Mess Regatta! With the upcoming break, coaches have had to adjust lineups and try new things, but we’re happy to get some more first-time racers on the water and continue to build consistency within the varsity squads. Events and lineups are below:

Event:	Lineup (Stern to Bow): coxswain*
M-1-2X (Men’s double)	T. Wang, C. Brown-Vasquez*
W-1-4X (Women’s first quad)	S. Palacios, E. Buckhorn, H. Ershadi, S. Barrera*
W-Jr-2X (Women’s junior double)	Grace Breed, V. Peterson*
M-Jr-4+ (Men’s junior four)	D. Coronado, R. Bates, N. Ward, E. Sobol, Z. Hardy*
M-Jr-8+ (Men’s junior eight)	C. Hess, K. Wilson, L. Montfort, T. Trissell, A. Juarez, J. Nowlin, D. Caudillo, E. Maloney, N. Kenzi*

A quick note on event listings: A “+” at the end of an event listing indicates a sweeping event (one oar per rower) where the boat is piloted by a coxswain who does not row. An “x” in the event listing indicates that the event is a sculling boat (two oars per rower) where the bow-seat rower acts as rower and coxswain simultaneously. This is also known as a “bow coxswain.” Coxswains have the special job of steering and directing their boat throughout a race and practice. Coxswains are often good motivators with strong situational awareness. A coxswain in a sweep event, who does not row the boat, can compete in both boys and girls events since there are typically fewer coxswains available to fill these seats. Every Thursday, coxswains and bow coxswains will log in to a virtual meeting after practice to meet with regatta officials about course information for the upcoming race.

We are very excited to get our novice boys on the water for their first race. This week, they are entered as a “Junior Varsity” boat because we had to fill two seats with varsity members to compensate for absent novices. Having any varsity member in a novice boat lineup bumps that line-up up to a “junior” category. Junior boats are made up of rowers who have more than a year of experience but are not yet seniors. In the future, depending on attendance, we’d like to consistently field a true men’s novice eight (MN8+) or four (MN4+), to make sure that they compete against other crews with a similar level of experience.

Please reference last week’s email if you have questions about when/how lineups are determined, and, as always, please reach out to your coaches if you have more questions. Heatsheets are released for each regatta and may change as late as the day of; check the left-hand column on vasra.org homepage for a live link.

Regatta Rower Logistics

Timing: On FRIDAY, coaches will let rowers know what time their race is and WHEN they should be at Sandy Run, usually 2 hours before the race to allow time for parking/drop off, warm-ups, boat adjustments, and race planning. All rowers (and those not competing but who want to watch) should be dropped off at Sandy Run.  When you arrive tell the parking attendants that you are dropping off a rower and they will direct you to where you can go. Non-competing rowers are always welcome to cheer their teammates on! If you would like to stay at the regatta yourself, more info on parking is below.

Friday Night Pasta Dinners

Friday nights before each regatta, a team host serves pasta to the rowers. Please sign up to host here. Thanks to those who have already signed up to host; two open dates remain. If we don’t have volunteers to host, the rowers won’t have a team dinner that night. An example menu is here. Plan for approximately 35 rowers. This is a rower’s only event—no parents. Drop off your rower Friday after practice and pick them up promptly at 9:00 so they can rest up before Saturday’s race! This week’s dinner is hosted by Jennifer White/David Caudillo (address in email from Justice Rowing).

Regatta Reminders

Important Regatta Reminders: There is no parking at Sandy Run Regional Park (unless you are a volunteer that day); you will need to park at South County High School (SC), 8501 Silverbrook Rd, Lorton, VA 22079, and take a shuttle ($10/round trip) to get to the regatta site. The ScCo Parking lot is about 15-20 minutes from Sandy Run. From the Sandy Run drop off it’s about a 15-20 minute walk down to the Grandstands where you can watch the race. NOTE: Spectators plan to be at the SoCo parking lot at least 1 – 1 1/2 hours BEFORE the scheduled race time. Please plan for traffic, congestion, etc. which can cause delays. A concession stand and restrooms are available at the Grandstands. Regatta t-shirts ($20-25) will be available. For the most up-to-date information on Regattas/Sandy Run, follow @VASRAresults (on Twitter).

UPDATE as of 3/31: Follow @VASRAStart to know when a race is “on the water” and which teams are in what lane. Information will be up-to-date including scratches and if teams do not start (or finish).

Thank you all for your support of our program and athletes!

Coach Rob Walker (he/him)
Special Ed. and English Teacher
Justice High School Rowing Team Head Coach
www.justicerowing.org
riwalker@fcps.edu
Twitter: @CoachWalker91