Ending in 2: Seeking ’72, ’82, ’92 and 2002

26 April 2012Brian Carr

In the fall of 1964 my father, Tony Carr, started his tenure as Head of Rowing at Brentwood. He began with some lofty dreams of creating a good high school rowing program, but his immediate goal was finding decent boats for his crews to row in. I still remember going over to Brentwood Bay as a young lad, sitting in the dilapidated old coach boat and bringing back a number of shells.

With trips to Victoria, Shawnigan and Seattle with the boats strapped to the top of the bus, he was on his way to creating that dream. In 1969 the Carr family (dad, mom, Rory and I) travelled all the way across Canada towing a tent trailer, to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to watch dad’s sculler, Joel Cotter, compete in the Canada Summer Games. Joel won the bronze medal that year in the single and it was the first of many medals to follow at the national level for the school.

In 1971, Joel and his partner Brian Crooks competed in the Pan American Games trials where they finished second to a crew from Ontario. The Brentwood rowing program was on its way!

In 1972, Brentwood sent the Senior Eight to St. Catharines, Ontario to compete in the Canadian Secondary School’s Rowing Association (CSSRA) Championships. Surprising many, but not Tony Carr, Brentwood won the Senior Men’s Eight in a time of 4:25, beating the perennial favorites, Ridley College.

In 1982 Tony had to recreate his crews after a disappointing early season. After the Maple Bay Regatta, he changed some bodies around and brought a few juniors into the crew. Magic happened and, in the end, the Brentwood Senior 8+ won the Calder Cleland Trophy for the first time. The Calder Cleland Trophy is the most expensive trophy in all of Canadian sport, amateur and professional. The winning crews of 1972 and 1974 received a smaller trophy. Eight years had passed from the 1974 crew to the 1982 edition. It would be another six years before they won it again.

In 1992 the Brentwood Senior Eight was made up of five Americans and four Canadians. Tony Carr decided to do something different. He decided to take the crew to the American Championships instead of the CSSRA’s to see if he could beat all of the top American schools. The 1992 yearbook article of the race reveals that it did not go according to plan: 30 strokes into the race they were sixth. With the race only 1500 meters, the crew had to make quick work of catching up. That they did and in the end, were crowned American champions! Greg Hughes and Adam Gray, two members of that crew, were the drivers of the “Tony Carr Boat Fund.” The fund is currently over $230,000, only eight years after its inception. Between the three legacy funds, the John L. Queen Fund, the Girls Fund and the AC Carr Fund, there is over $425,000.

In 2002 Tony had a young group of keen athletes that wanted to follow in the footsteps of those before them and win a national championship in the eight. These athletes had some success in the junior ranks and now wanted to test their mettle in the senior division. The strong competition on the West Coast geared them up for a run at the Championship. In a closely contested race on the final day, they did prevail and Brentwood won the senior men’s eight.

This is the weekend of the Brentwood Regatta. The regatta continues to grow; last year there were over 1700 athletes competing in the 54 events. There is an alumni dinner on Saturday night at Arbutus Ridge. It would be great if we could get as many of you from the 1972, 1982, 1992 and the 2002 crews to come back to the school and see where we have come from that sunny day in 1964.

Brian Carr, Senior Boys Coach