CSSRA: Day One

29 May 2013Mr. Brian Carr, Wet Coach

At 4:00 am this morning there were three Junior Boys sitting outside Crooks Hall, waiting patiently for the doors to open so they could grab their snack bags before jumping on the bus to head to the Victoria airport. The rest of the club showed up 30 minutes later. Well done lads, you’ve set a very high standard! Mrs. Sage had organized a coach bus to take us to YYJ to catch the direct flight to Toronto. It was a fantastic flight! Our student athletes got a chance to sleep for a couple of hours on the plane before opening their books for a two hour study session. The plane arrived five minutes early, but Air Canada lost the entire plane’s luggage except for Mr. Wismer’s! He’s a ‘Mark’ed man from now on! An hour later our baggage arrived and we were able to jump on the bus to St. Catharines. After unpacking and then a dinner in J. J. Kapps in the hotel, the team was ready for the assault on Henley Island where the trailer was waiting for us. Our travel day to St. Catharines was wonderful up to the moment we arrived on Henley Island. As we got out of the van, Mr. Carr met the Ridley Head Coach who told us that there was an intense storm cell coming over the island. He was not telling a lie. All of a sudden there were big winds and the rain came down in buckets. Most of the boys crews were hanging onto the Shawnigan tent so that it did not fly away. Mr. Backer and his boys were rigging their boats under the same tent. The St. Georges boys were there as well hanging onto their shells. Some of our boys grabbed all of the St. Georges bags and threw them in the back of a Brentwood van to prevent them from getting soaked. We got all our boats off the trailer and tied them down on the racks. The rest of the boats will be rigged tomorrow. The Senior Girls were treated to Hudson Boatworks arriving in the middle of the storm and dropping off our new women’s eight, The Legacy – The Crew of 2003. The only problem with the Hudson trailer arriving at this time, was that there were a number of new boats on the trailer from other schools as well. As we had been doing all evening, the senior girls unloaded the entire Hudson trailer in the deluge of rain. St. Michaels and Claremont were spared being in the rain to unload the trailer! Good karma for us! All the crews got back to the hotel in one piece hoping for a better weather day tomorrow. One special note about the Brentwood kids this evening: they did not bat an eye when we asked them to help the other BC clubs when the storm hit. We are very proud of our kids tonight! Mr. Brian Carr, Coach

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