Best in Boathouse 1

3 October 2015Mr. Brian Carr

Eight years ago, Harold Backer ‘80, then coach of our junior programme, created an event that helped transform how we operate our fall rowing season. One concern of our junior rowers for years was the fact that they did race in the fall or winter terms. Harold’s plan was to race every second Wednesday in an intrasquad race with a handicap system based on times from the Canadian Secondary Schools Rowing Association Championships. These standards, which we created based on the winning time averaged with the top six place times are called “Gold Medal Standards”. The purpose is to see if crews racing are consistently fast enough to go to the national championships in June. It also gives all the junior crews an opportunity to get into “race mode” every second week and learn how to race. It has become an integral part of our rowing programme. To the victors go the spoils: they receive a “Best In Boathouse” pin which they can put on their school blazer. The first Best in Boathouse competition took place yesterday with a 2000 meter race for experienced crews and a 1000 meter race for novices. Experienced Race 1. AC Carr VI 91.8% – Boys Senior eight 2. Queen 88.1% – Boys other Senior eight 3. Legacy 86.6% – Girls Senior eight 4. Legacy 2003 – 83.6% Girls other Senior 8+ Novice Race 1. Barber – Boys Jr Novice 4x+ (coxed quad) 2. Crooks – Boys Jr Novice 8+ 3. Walbolm –Boys Jr Novice 4x+ 4. JLQ – Boys Jr Novice 4x+ 5. Shot – Girls Novice 8x+ (octet, an eight set up for sculling) 6. Ross – Girls Novice 8x+ (same as above) To follow the rowing programme from afar there are a few social media sites to see. 1. Brentwood College School Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Brentwood-College-School-Rowing-341972009175959/timeline/ 2. Twitter account – @bcsrowing The fall schedule of events is on the School’s calendar. The first competition is happening this weekend with Green Lake Crew from Seattle coming up for a training weekend with our senior rowers. On October 17th, it is the second annual Duel Race with Shawnigan Lake School. This is a race between the two schools with the top Senior Women’s and Men’s crews racing head to head. This year it is a 1000 meter sprint race. It is our turn to host and there are two special features to mention – 1. The alumni race between Brentwood and Shawnigan will feature a Brentwood alumni crew with eight Olympians, including all three Olympic gold medalists and three of the four Olympic silver medalists. 2. The christening of the AC Carr VI and the John Queen II, two boats purchased with funds from the AC Carr and John Queen boat funds. The racing starts at 12:30 pm with the christening of the two shells immediately following the alumni race. On October 24th we will be taking some crews down to the Head of the Gorge in Victoria to race in the five kilometer head race. Over the first three days of mid term, there will be a Senior Boys and a Senior Girls eight traveling to Seattle to row in two regattas, the Frostbite Regatta on Green Lake and the Head of the Lake out of the University of Washington. The term will finish off with the annual “Cake Race”, which is an intrasquad event, where we mix and match the crews from both genders and experience levels. The prize is not who finishes first, but, who has the best costume. This event will take place on November 30th. If you have any questions of the rowing programme, please contact our Head of Rowing, Debbie Sage at debbie.sage@brentwood.bc.ca Row Brentwood Row! Brian Carr, BCS Rowing

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