Turkey Trot

So far I have recieved just three names to participate in the Turkey Trot in Philadelphia. The entry deadline closes tomorrow, so if anyone is interested in doing it, you should contact me today.

I will send out an email today to those three individuals to make sure they are still interested.

HT Winds Down In Philadelphia

The HT Crew Club finished its' fall season today at the Bill Braxton Regatta in Philadelphia PA. HT raced 35 athletes, 6 quads, 2 fours and one HS 2x today; the largest group it has taken to race this fall; on a sunny, perfect day on the Schuylkill River. All Novice got an opportunity to stretch their water wings, some for the first time and all peformed admirably. Racing against Varsity athletes, our large novice group got a great opportunity to get a preview of spring racing today in this; their first 1500-m sprint race. All boats represented the good name of the club well but the highlight of the day was the successfull performance of the High School Men's 2x of Quinn Fitzpatrick and Greg Cuneo who jumped out to an early lead on Bachelors Barge club and held it throughout the course to win; with a 5 second margin to spare. HT's Varsity Women's Quads faced some of the toughest competition they've seen all year, racing hard and finishing 3rd, 5th and 3rd in their respective flights.

HT members had a busy weekend to close their fall season racing at the Braxton Regatta today and the Frostbite Regatta on the Cooper River yesterday. HT's women proved just how much depth they have by finishing 1st, 3rd and 5th in the Varsity Quad Event. HT's top quad of Julie Cippon, Emily Gartland, Emily Davis and Tori King defeated home town rival the South Jersey Rowing club to claim the gold hardware. HT's Greg Cuneo also raced to a sizable lead early in the race to win his Open 2x event.

Rowers will now have an opportunity to rest their tired legs, overcome any nagging illnesses and mentally recharge before returning to organized practices in January.

Rowers should remember that they should report to the boathouse at 3 15 PM tomorrow for boat rigging. Captains; Emily Davis, Emily Gartland, Tori King, Quinn Fitzpatrick and Greg Cuneo should work together to make sure all of their teammates are aware of their responsibility to attend this rigging session. With a large group armed with 7/16 and 10 mm wrenches, this task should take less than 1 hour.

I hope practices have been going well. I have unfortunately gotten strep throat and am still pretty sick, so, I will most likely not be back to practice until Monday at the earliest. The following are the boatings for next weekend. We are still working on finding one boat for Saturday and get confirmation for Sunday boats; so some things may be subject to change, parents please, talk to your children about which boat he/she has been rowing in and will likely row in next weekend.

Frostbite on the Cooper will have only Varsity Boats Racing due to shell restrictions. All Varsity Boats have been entered including 3 x Varsity Girls Quads and 2 Varsity Boys 4+'s, we have attempted to make a late entry for Greg Cuneo in the Open Double so he should expect to race. Race schedule is located here. Some novice subsitution may be necessary due to illness.

Braxton Regatta. We will race the following boats:
2xNovice Boys quads-(listed as Men'sVarsity HS 4x on the schedule)
1xNovice Girls Quad-(listed as women's Varsity HS 4x on the schedule)
3xVarsity Quads-(listed as women's Varsity HS 4x on the schedule)
1xVarsity Boys 2x (Listed as Men's Varsity HS 2x)
2xVarsity Boys 4+ (listed as Men's Varsity HS 4+)
Subject to change due to illness or injury.

Final Note. Including myself there are a lot of people on the team and in your school currently ill. Although attendance at practice is very important, it is not in spite of your health. If you are having any serious flu like symptoms, please take the time to completely recover before returning to practice. It is in your best interest and that of your teammates.

We will have more information on optional winter workouts and the start of the spring season in early January in a few days.

Head of the Schuylkill

First and foremost, everyone must have an online waiver filled out in order to race. You can access that here. Course maps, parking instructions, tips on the best place to view the regatta can be found here. Rules of the regatta are here. Lineups and event times are listed below. As you know you must be on the river 2 hours prior to your race. Novice women and the quad coxed by Kelsey M. should report to boathouse row tomorrow at 3:30 for practice. The address is:

6 KELLY DRIVE
PHILADELPHIA, PA 19130

Mens High School Fours w/ Cox (Under 19)
08:00 AM
Endeavor:
Quinn
Erik
Ryan Clark
Bill
Angelie Romano
Service
Matt G.
Johnny
Sam M.
Nelson
Gina

Mens High School Singles (Under 19)
08:45 AM
Greg Cuneo


Mens High School Quads (Under 19)
02:05 PM
Sam L.R.
Nick
Alec
Brandon
Womens High School Quads (Under 19)
02:05 PM
Julie
Jill
Emily G.
Tori

Francesca
Emily D.
Caley
Mandy

Catie E.
Katherine A.
Emily C.
Kelsey

Emily Donovan
Cassidy
Abbie
Salena

As you know the schedule will flip flop next week. Varsity women will be at 3:15 and Varsity Men and novices will be at 5:15. Piece days will have all varsity at the 3:15 practices on Monday and Friday. Again, these cycles run for 2 weeks.

A Note on "Conflicts"

Parents and athletes please do your best to be responsible with scheduling other commitments during practice time. Looking over the calender for the next two weeks we have over 20 conflicts including marching band, family commitments and anything else. These are commitments that, if marked on the calender we can plan for and around, and we have designed a system to make them as minimally disruptive to practice as possible. However, we simply cannot continue to accomodate the growing number of "very important" things that continues to plague our participation at practice. Commiting to something as challenging as being on a rowing team means that you sometimes have to make sacrifices over things that you want and feel are important to you. But when deciding to come to me with conflicts please ask yourself if this is a nice thing for you to have or is essential for you to have. Tutoring for a student that is struggling in class may be a good example of something that is essential and potentially unplanned for. Even with something like tutoring an athlete is still expected to plan and organize their schedule so we can plan appropriately.

Our successes thus far this year are because, as a group, we have made the serious commitment to the sport and followed through in our actions. In doing so, we are committing to teaching life skills such as; organization, goal-setting, responsibility, accountability and commitment that will help give our student/athletes tools that will better prepare them for college and beyond.

HT Comes Back to Philly in Style

After months of preperation and hard work, the HT Crew Club returned to Philly this weekend to participate in its first Head Race since I was hired. Although our practice on Friday was not our best, I think it was very important to getting the nervous energy out of everyone's system and have the kids become more familiar with the regatta course. Bow people and coxswains were able to get a dry run on the course from the comfort of a borrowed Vesper launch before attacking the course in shells at practice and racing on Saturday and Sunday. Crews came to St. Joe's boathouse yesterday with a new focus; relaxed, but attentive and serious. The results proved their new resolve, finishing 1st, 10th, and 15th in the women's open junior quad event and 13th out of 23 in the men's open 4+ event. A special congratulations to Angelie Romano, Tori King, Kelsey McSorley and Amanda Fry who all steered well on a challenging course. The women's top quad of Sophomore, Julie Cippon, Junior Emily Gartland, Senior Emily Davis, and Junior Tori King bested Episcopal, Conestoga, and South Jersey to win this event by over 5 seconds. All boats performed adrmirably yesterday and the level of growth, maturity and leadership on the team far surpasses any performance we've had at previous regattas.

The busy weekend for the Haddon Township Crew Club continued today at the Row for the Cure Regatta which also took place in Philadelphia. Despite some disruption and distraction from inconsistent regatta officials, HT performed equally well today, finishing 1st and 3rd in the Women's 4x, 5th in a very competive Junior 1x event, and 2nd in the Boys 4+. The quad of Julie Cippon, Emily Gartland, Jill Krieger and Tori King posted the fastest time for any women's quad of the day. A special congratulations to our novices Abby, Courtney, and Salena, who competed in their first ever regatta!

HT will roll on this week and practice times will again switch. The novice/varsity men's practices will return to 3:15-5:15 and the Varsity women will return to 5:15 practice. We will have all varsity boats at the LATE (5:15) practice this week on Tuesday and Friday and lift at the school on our regular days, Wednesday and Saturday.

Although this was certainly an incredible weekend for the club, all crews will have their hands full in two weeks at the significantly more competitive, Head of the Schuylkill so we are looking forward to a solid two weeks of practice in preperation. Note to parents: we will race on Saturday only at the Head of the Schuylkill. If possible I would again like to get on the river on the Friday before the regatta.

Reminder: All crews will have the day off tomorrow. For any individuals who did not race on Saturday and Sunday, I encourage you to do a 40 min run, erg, or body circuit.

Practice Monday and Next Weekend.

Because of the half day on Monday, practices will be at 1:15-3:15. Varsity should all be at the early (1:15) practice. The following are the entries for the Row for the Cure. I tried to enter as many boats as I thought could safely get down the course and we wanted to give some of the novices an opportunity to race but unfortunately we could not boat everyone. Of course you are still encouraged to donate to this great cause here. Additionally, for those of you participating in this event, please work to get your family and friends to donate money as well. Get information on how to become a fundraiser here.

Event 12: Mens HS 4+
Quinn Fitzpatrick, Nelson Remetz, Ryan Clark, Bill Harte, Courtney Quinn (cox)

Event 24: Womens HS 4x
Julie Cippon, Emily Gartland, Jillian Krieger, Victoria King

Emily Davis, Salena Silvaria, Abby Dugan, Kelsey McSorley

Event 36: Mens HS 1x
Greg Cuneo

For next weekend we will need to have the trailer in Philly by 2:30 PM on Friday and we will have to leave it there until after the race on Sunday. Practice for the Varsity will be in Philly on Friday, novices are tentatively scheduled for practice on Friday with Jenne and will have off on Saturday. You are certainly encouraged to attend the Navy Day Regatta to cheer on your teammates. The entire team will have off on practice the following Monday. We will need to return to the boathouse and rig on Sunday.

The schedule for Navy Day is now up here.

The prelim. schedule for the Row for the Cure is here.

The lifts are:
1. Dead Lift/Lat Row
2. Bench Press/Wrist Curls
3. Squat/Tri Extensions
4. Lunges/Curls
5. Twisting Core/hanging leg raises
6. Back extensions/Lateral leg raises

The course map for Navy Day and the Row for the Cure are here. Bow people you need to know this course better than the Geese that live there. PARENTS; unfortunately, this course is not particularly viewer friendly. The best place to see your kids race and get pictures will probably be at the finish line on the West River Drive Side of the river (opposite boathouse row) after Girard avenue bridge. In the best interest of race focus and parental safety we ask that; if it is necessary to meet with your child, that you do so away from the trailer and prior to 2 hours before their scheduled race time.

Rules for the regatta are here.