The Brentwood College Rowing Club – Best in Boathouse

7 October 2014Mr. Brian Carr

The rowing season is underway and our 125 rowers are starting to get their sea legs under them. Last Wednesday we ran our first Best in Boathouse of the season. BIB was an idea conceived by Mr. Harold Backer six years ago. To get better data on how fast our crews were going, Mr. Backer created a time standard based on the Canadian Secondary Schools Scholastic Association’s national championship regatta (CSSRA). He took gold medal times for the past 15 years and averaged them out to determine a Gold medal standard. On alternate Wednesdays every athlete in the boathouse races 2000 meters (novices compete in a 1000 meter race for the first two months). The crew with the best percentage wins the elusive BIB pin, which they can wear on their school blazer. This allows all the crews wanting to go to St. Catharines an opportunity to see just how fast they are against previous champions. Once you win in one boat combination, you cannot race in that crew again. The Brentwood Board of Governors was on campus Thursday and Friday this week and there are some very prominent former rowers on the Board. Blair Horn, ‘79, went to the University of Washington before stroking the Canadian Men’s 8+ to an Olympic gold medal in Los Angeles, beating the Americans and Australians in the final. Karen (Middleton) Pire, ‘81, coxed Brentwood’s first girl’s gold medal crew at the 1980 CSSRA Regatta in the 59kg 4+. Karen went on to Lewis and Clark University where she continued her craft of tormenting her athletes from the coxswain’s seat. Samara Walbolm, ’89 is in her first year on the Board of Governors. After graduating from Brentwood, Samara went to Brown University. After Brown, she made her way north again and was selected to the Canadian Women’s lightweight team in 1993 and 1994. John McNeill, ‘82, rowed for John Queen and Brentwood’s lightweight crew. After Brentwood he continued his rowing career at Oregon State University on an athletic scholarship. Dale Martin, ‘78 was an all-round athlete at Brentwood. A member of the First XV and Sr. Boys basketball teams, Dale also rowed on the 1976 Colt crew that went undefeated and won the BC Championships. Three of these alumni, Blair, Samara, and Karen, got to meet the first 2014/2015 recipients of the Best in Boathouse, our Sr. Women’s quad, coached by Mr. Mark Wismer, which won with a percentage of 97%. The crew was Sydney P, Featherdawn F, Jessica N, and Evie A. On behalf of the Brentwood College Rowing Club, we would like to thank the Brentwood Board of Governors for their continued support of rowing at Brentwood. Mr. Brian Carr

Where Students Choose To Be