St. Catharines 2011: A Journey

15 June 2011Daniel H

From Brentwood, St. Catharines seems a long way away. It is. Over 4000 kilometers span the continent from our school in Mill Bay to Henley Island, the epicenter of the 66th Canadian Secondary Schools Rowing Association Regatta last Friday, Saturday and Sunday. That 8000-kilometer round trip was taken by 29 student athletes from our rowing program last week to compete in the National Championships Regatta, known also as “St. Kitts” or archaically, “Schoolboys”. Accompanied by Coaches Sage, Carr, Wismer, Backer, and Vermegen, as well as boatman Mr. Warren Featherstone, this journey may have lasted a day of air travel (or for Warren, 5 days as he hauled our boats across the country), but has also been an emotional, physical, physiological and intense journey from the beginning of this year, if not earlier.

For a rower, St. Catharines has a unique caché: a whispered glory, something to be hoped for and dreamed about, but never said fully aloud, as if to jinx it. From our very first faltering strokes and first flips in a single, St. Catharines always represents the pinnacle of success in the North American high school rowing world. For us, merely reaching that point has been a journey of determination and perseverance.

Hard training in the long wet winter has taken us here; early mornings in the freezing cold have taken us here; unity as a crew has taken us here. We have gotten here with friends and teammates, united by our pursuit of the perfect stroke. Our coaches have helped us achieve our goals, given us what we need to succeed and passed on the breadth and depth of their experience. They have been our guides and our support on this journey. It is this journey that earned our crew two bronze, three silver, and one gold medal, and all the other close finishes at the CSSRA regatta this past weekend.

We are not alone in this adventure. This is a journey that has been taken by hundreds of Brentonians for over thirty years. Since Mr. A.C. Carr first took this journey with the Senior Men’s Crew in 1972, Brentwood has had a long and storied tradition at the CSSRA Championships. Each with their own unique journeys up to and beyond St. Catharines, coaches and athletes like John L. Queen, Tony Carr, Malcolm Howard and Dave Calder all have vast experience at this regatta and with rowing as a whole. Each gave their own piece of advice to our crew this year, and we were privileged to hear some of their wisdom.

From Mr. Queen, a Senior Men’s Lightweight Coach for many a year, we understood the importance and power of desire in achieving goals. From Mr. Carr Sr, we learned that every stroke is its own chance and that in every race, you have hundreds of chances to make a difference. Malcolm Howard passed on a message of the importance of persistence for each and every one of those strokes. Dave Calder gave us an empowering insight into the minds of our competitors: he told us that if ever we had a moment of doubt in our race, we should think about the pain that we were causing in our opponents, that even if we didn’t win, even if we couldn’t win, we could make them hurt.

But, just as a journey begins, it also must end. For some of us, the journey of rowing at Brentwood has reached its close. A journey that started years ago with our first days as novice rowers has taken us, with training and determination, to the podium of St. Catharines and to the final weeks of our grade 12 year. For us, this particular journey ends here.

But for the Brentwood College Rowing Club and for the younger rowers who went to St. Catharines this year, the journey is just beginning. In rowing terminology, they have only just begun their start, are just coming to full slides after their ¾, ¾. and Rib, Rib strokes, not yet nearing The Hammer. Many will continue with rowing here at Brentwood, and some will even choose to participate in rowing outside our school. Jon H, Nick R, and Ian S, for example, will all be training for the Canadian Henley Regatta later this summer. We wish all of our rowers the very best of fortune in their respective competitions. They are our future.

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