Good evening Justice Rowing family,
Week Past
This past weekend we competed in the final regular-season regatta of the year, the annual Al Urquia Regatta. The day started with our men’s novice 8+ taking fifth in their heat, missing finals, but still feeling good about their improved performance. Hours later, after the mid-day break, the women’s senior quad raced alongside junior quads in a packed event. Our women took third place overall in their fastest performance of the year! Not long afterward, our women’s novice 4+ also took third in their heat, missing a shot in the final by only 7 seconds. Great work and steady improvement from our novices! Next, our men’s quad took second in their event, picking up speed and closing the gap on first place from the week before. Unfortunately, our men’s junior quad caught an oar-shattering crab in the start of their race and were unable to finish. They’ll return to action on day 2 of VSRCs. Our men’s senior double took 2nd in their event, repeating a solid and consistent performance throughout the year. Finally, our women’s junior double also took second in their event, wrapping up a long and late day of racing.
Full results of the Al Urquia can be found here, with pictures here, at our Justice Rowing Photo/Video gallery
Week Forward
This week is the first week of VSRCs (States), this will be the final competitive opportunity for the novices, so come on out and cheer them on! Lineups for the end of the season are ultimately determined by boat speed and competitiveness. The coaches are all very proud of the seat-racing and sportsmanship displayed by our rowers in the past few weeks as they competed against their teammates for their spot at VSRCs. Rowers, even if you didn’t make the final cut for the boat, you made your team faster through your efforts. Below are the lineups for Day 1 and 2 of VSRCs.
May 7th: VSRC Day 1
| Event: | Lineup (Stern to Bow): coxswain* |
| Men’s Novice Eight (M-N-8+) | C. Hess, T. Trissell, J. Nowlin, A. Juarez, E. Maloney, D. Caudillo, S. Blackadar, S. Schnieder, N. Kenzi* |
| Women’s Novice Four (W-N-4+) | I. Brookes-Weiss, S. Ehmann-Jones, H. Rosen, A. Telleria, A. Forrest* |
NOTE: Varsity will practice Saturday, May 7! Varsity boats should plan to arrive at Sandy Run in the afternoon after VSRC racing is done. Exact time will be communicated ASAP once the regatta schedule is published.
May 14th: VSRC Day 2
| Event: | Lineup (Stern to Bow): coxswain* |
| Men’s Double (M-1-2x) | T. Wang, C. Brown Vasquez* |
| Women’s Junior Double (W-Jr-2x) | V. Peterson, G. Breed* |
| Men’s Quad (M-1-4x) | D. Coronado, N. Ward, K. Wilson, E. Sobol* |
| Men’s Junior Quad (M-Jr-4x) | P. Rice, L. Montfort, R. Bates, Z. Hardy* |
| Women’s Quad (W-1-4x) | S. Palacios, H. Ershadi, E. Buckhorn, S. Barrera* |
Please reference previous weeks’ emails/posts if you have questions about when/how lineups are determined, and, as always, please reach out to your coaches if you have more questions.
States and Stotes!
A few quick reminders and *updates* about this last month of the season and what to expect with competitions and practices.
Update — Stotesbury Regatta, Philadelphia – May 19–21: Last week I failed to mention that those rowing at Stotesbury will miss school on the 19th as well as the 20th if they are available. The team travels on Thursday the 19th and uses the afternoon to practice on the course in Philadelphia (which curves a little). Time trials and racing start on Friday the 20th with semi-finals and finals held on Saturday the 21st. I am aware that the travel on the 19th conflicts with the IB French exam. Rowers who are taking this exam can still meet the team in Philadelphia later in the day on the 19th; they’ll just miss an opportunity to row the course ahead of the race. Stotes lineups will be submitted by this Sunday (5/8) at the latest. Coaches are just waiting for final confirmation from rowers on their availability before paying for entries. For travel and logistics, the Boosters will help coordinate with the parents of those rowers selected to row to help make arrangements to attend, including carpool, food, etc. We have already booked hotel rooms for the event, May 19-21, and will provide more details later once the boats participating are selected.
Nationals — May 27th and 28th: The Scholastic Rowing Association of America (SRAA) Championship, or “Nationals,” will be held on 5/27 and 5/28 this year on the Cooper River in Camden, New Jersey. Should we have a crew qualify for Nationals (detailed in last week’s email), they would follow a similar field trip/excused absence process for that weekend.
PLEASE REMEMBER: Even if your rower is finished with competitions after VSRCs, they should plan on continuing to come to practices as we start to transition towards technical work and training for next year. Some of the most productive practice sessions I ever had as a rower were when I knew I could focus entirely on experimenting and improving without stressing about competing.
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. 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 at the Brogan’s, 6310 Crosswoods Cir Falls Church VA 22044
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 should 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 (contact Sandra Cortes Coronado to preorder, see email for instructions). For the most up-to-date information on Regattas/Sandy Run, follow @VASRAresults (on Twitter). 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. Photos and slideshows are uploaded post-event at the Justice Rowing photo/video gallery.
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).
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From the Boosters:
We’re down to the final month of rowing and there are lots of opportunities below where you can show your support for your rowers and the team.
May 5, 7 pm, Justice Rowing Boosters meeting
Join the Boosters meeting. The link to the virtual meeting is in the weekly email.
May 15, 11:00 AM–2:00 PM, Lake Barcroft Sand Day — NEW Fundraiser!
We’ve been invited to provide lunch at this event (as a fundraiser) to kick off the Lake’s summer season! We need volunteers to help serve, flip burgers/hotdogs, make baked goodies, and set up/clean up. If you can bring and/or bake something and/or spare a few hours, please sign up at here. NOTE: We are still awaiting confirmation from the event organizers on the size of crowd to anticipate, so the SignUp Genius may be adjusted in the future as we learn more.
May 22, 12:30-3:30 PM, Car Wash!
We had such a great success last week that we’re doing it again. Sign up today. Please spread the news to your neighborhood email groups, etc.
May 24 — &Pizza Fundraiser
Support Justice Rowing by eating at &Pizza and we’ll receive 50% of all proceeds from 11:00 AM to close that night. &Pizza is located at 6110 Arlington Blvd., Suite C, Seven Corners, VA 22044. Use CODE JHSRB at checkout. Flyer below.
Saturday, June 11, 12 Noon–2:00 PM — Annual Awards Potluck Picnic and Annual Booster Board Election
Join us to celebrate your rowers! This year’s annual awards picnic will be held again at the Sleepy Hollow Bath and Racquet Club (SHBR). In addition to rowers’ “paper plate” awards and Coaches’ awards, we will be honoring Coach Rob Walker in his final year with Justice Rowing. It’s also our annual Booster Board election (a list of Board nominees will be coming soon). Come out and show your support and appreciation for our rowers and coaches! Sign up today to make this a great event!
June Learn-to-Row Camp
In recent years, this short week-long mini-rowing camp has been a great recruiting event to introduce rising 9th graders (and some 8th graders!) to the sport of rowing and Justice Rowing. It’s run by our coaches and upper-class rowers and we need your support to pull it off. If you can help out by coordinating, providing snacks, or registration assistance, please send us an email. The dates are TBD in June but will be announced soon.
Thank you all for your support of our program and athletes!
Row Strong,
David Trissell
President
Justice High School Rowing Boosters
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
