Campus Life 1

13 May 2014Marius Felix

Sitting in my office on the Friday afternoon of a Red Saturday weekend, the atmosphere is one of calm; there is anticipation of some additional and welcome rest tomorrow morning and the Grad class is starting to chatter about the dinner and dance in Vancouver next weekend. All of the aforementioned are the signals that spring is in full swing and the end of the school year is rapidly approaching. These are in stark contrast to the true start of spring in Mill Bay – namely the Brentwood International Regatta. An estimated 5000 guests and 1700 competitors enveloped the campus on April 25th, 26th and 27th. Our rugby fields were turned into car parks and shell storage areas. Every available square foot of floor space in the gym, squash courts, old dining room and selected classrooms were transformed into sleeping areas for an additional 1000 people on campus. The entrepreneurship classes created a mall of food and beverage stands in the plaza and of course, the waters of Mill Bay became the “raison d’etre”, a hotbed of highly competitive racing. The Brentwood Regatta has become a destination showcase – possibly the largest single sporting event hosted by a high school in North America- and a testing ground for future college, international and Olympic athletes. University recruiters from north and south of the 49th take advantage of the opportunity to review the outstanding talent racing in the regatta in the hopes of attracting a “blue chip” rower into their programs while Brentwood students and faculty roll up their sleeves and contribute, cumulatively, 1000s of hours of sweat equity in order to make sure the machine runs smoothly. There is little doubt that the growing popularity of rowing in the Pacific Northwest has its root firmly planted on our regatta. Long may this rite of spring continue! Marius Felix, Assistant Head

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