On to better things:

So we kicked off our spring season on April 4th for the kids, April 5th for the adults. We had about 35 kids come check us out and close to 30 adults sign up between the morning and evening groups combined. We offered a Learn-To-Row Day on Sunday April 17th, but again the winds made an appearance and we had to cancel it. We did start our Learn-To-Row Class on Monday April 18th and that's been going well. Below are some pictures of our first day of practice for the youth, and some pictures of our WONDERFUL volunteer members that were on hand ready to go for the Learn-To-Row Day. I love our members!!!

Alright bloggies...time to catch up

Let me apologize for my long absence from the blog! We've been pretty busy lately and on Wednesday afternoon I got a rather sad phone call. It turns out that our entire boat rack went for a ride, and we're not talking an amusement one. You see, we don't have a boathouse yet so all of our boats live outside. They were strapped to a pair of aluminum A-frame racks on Popes Island, which happens to be a pretty small island that is wide open. We set up our operation pretty much in an open field. Well, we were expecting rain, but not the high winds that came through. The winds scooped up our entire rack and sent it "tumble-weeding" across the field until it hit a playground structure. All of our boats were damaged in some way, and one of our launches flipped in the water and the engine went for a swim. Some of the boats are toast, but some are repairable including one that we were able to get back up to speed by Thursday night for the adult program to use. The engine went to the shop and was also back in time for Thursday. So our programming never stopped, but we have been quite busy dealing with the unfortunate accident and trying to keep things moving along. Here are some photos of the sad site:

There is some good news, though. We've gotten a lot of great support from our community. Tabor Academy a few towns away in Marion, MA has offered to loan us 2 8's and Cape Cod Rowing from a little further away has also offered to let us borrow an 8 for the season. Cape Cod Rowing is hosting a regatta on May 8th and has graciously offered to find equipment for us to use so we won't have to try to borrow a truck and trailer (we don't have these yet). Additionally, Captain Jono Billings of the ferry to Cuttyhunk Island has offered to let us use the boat in June for a fundraiser! They will waive their normal fee of $600 per hour and let us have a 2 hour tour free of charge. We will be hosting this on Wednesday June 15th from 6-8pm so please come out and support our club. Tickets are normally $40 for a trip to Cuttyhunk and back, and we'll be charging $45 dollars and providing food. The food will be provided by our wonderful friends at Cork Wine & Tapas Bar (thanks, Mike Galvin!) and trust me - it's delicious! Help us buy some boats!!

F.L.A.M.E. Program through US Rowing

Well, we don't have any college athletes YET, but below is a program that we hope to send kids to once we first send them off to row in college. Big opportunities surround us and I'd like to thank all of the people that have supported NBCR in our first year. Even the little things like going to last night's Trivia Throwdown and paying the $10 support fee keeps us running and able to offer kids new opportunities. So THANK YOU!!!

U.S. Olympic Committee announces 2011 F.L.A.M.E. program taking place July 16-19
F.L.A.M.E. celebrates its 18th year; Applications due April 29

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) announced today that the 18th annual F.L.A.M.E. (Finding Leaders Among Minorities Everywhere) program will be hosted at the Olympic Training
Center (OTC) in Colorado Springs, Colo., July 16-19, 2011. For the past 17 years, the USOC has inspired minority students with this dynamic, educational program packed with leadership enhancement opportunities.

F.L.A.M.E. is designed to empower college students to cultivate their desire to succeed and rise above the ordinary. The young men and women selected to participate, who already demonstrate a pursuit of excellence within their own communities, have the opportunity to further their personal and professional growth through unique seminars and workshops led by Olympic and Paralympic athletes; USOC and National Governing Body (NGB) leaders; and others who have achieved personal, professional or athletic success in life.

During the four-day program, F.L.A.M.E. participants will reside in the Olympic Training Center dormitory; eat at the athlete dining hall; and have daily opportunities to interact with Olympians, Paralympians and hopefuls. The program’s itinerary includes motivational presentations, leadership seminars, networking, financial literacy workshops, Olympic/Paralympic sport demonstrations, field trips to local attractions and information on the USOC internship
program.

Previous speakers at the F.L.A.M.E. program have included legendary Olympic track & field champion Billy Mills (1960), Olympic speedskating champion Derek Parra (1998, ‘02), and Paralympic track & field champion April Holmes (2004, ‘08). Presenters for the 2011 session will be selected in the coming weeks.

How to Apply
Qualified applicants should be minority undergraduate or graduate students (ages 18-24) who have demonstrated leadership through academics, athletics and community involvement. Special consideration will be given to applicants pursuing a degree in the field of sport management. Additionally, applicants must have a minimum college grade point average (GPA) of 2.75. Applications are available online at www.teamusa.org. The application deadline is April 29, 2011, and selection announcements will be made no later than May 18, 2011.

About the USOC
The USOC is recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the sole entity in the United States whose mission involves training, entering and underwriting the full expenses for the U.S. teams in the Olympic, Paralympic, Pan American and Parapan American Games. In addition to being the steward of the U.S. Olympic Movement, the USOC is the moving force for support of sports in the United States that are on the program of the Olympic, Paralympic, Pan American and Parapan American Games.

For more information, please contact the USOC Communications Division
at (719) 866-4529 or visit www.teamusa.org. Follow us on Twitter and
Facebook.

Launches, Launches...

Well we seem to have one heck of a finicky engine. Coach Ken and I both couldn't get the bigger one started and it's been giving us trouble for over a week now. It's been looked at by 2 different shops, had some repairs done, but yet it's still in a bad mood. Cross your fingers that we can figure out what's ailing our poor little engine so we can get her back up and running. We need her!

Great practice otherwise, this morning. Had 2 boats out with 6 people in them. Nice flat water allowed us to go over 'feathering'. Poor Ken was in the "little" launch and he's not a teeny fella so his launch couldn't keep up very easily. But that must mean that our rowers were moving the boat well! At least I like to think of it that way :) Nice job, rowers!!

Saturday

Saturday was a busy day but we managed to get through it and get all of the rowers on the water for a pretty fantastic day of rowing. The sun was out, the water was calm, and our brand new coxbox had arrived! UPS seems to have a tough time finding our office so I had to go to UPS and wait for about an hour Friday night, but it was worth it. The coxbox mini's are back-ordered, which is unfortunate, but when they come in, we'll be in great shape :)

We also had a nice surprise visit from Will Mahoney!! He came to practice on Friday and then again on Saturday. Coach Ken was quick to use him as a coxswain, while I stayed on land and tried to put all new hardware on the Little Bay 4+. Unfortunately I wasn't successful, but it's about half done. More problems with the engine and lots of people taking a stab at fixing it, but Mohammed Jafri and one of our youth rowers Dylan Soares managed to get it up and running. It's been to 2 different shops and still breaks down so we're hopeful that it was just being finicky!

All in all, it was a long day but a good one and it was great to see Will. What a nice birthday surprise for me, and thanks to all of you that wished me a happy birthday. :)

Lots of stuff

Well it's been a busy week, but at least the weather has started to improve! The kids got out on the water yesterday and it was the first time for the "newbies" to do more than row on the dock. They actually moved the boat and officially became rowers! Our "veteran" rowers (ha...all of a few months of rowing, but hey) were great being the 'end pairs' of the boat so they could lead and also help the coaches steer the boats. We had some kids really pick it up well and one of our kids, Janny Dos Reyes, even stuck around to row with the adults afterwards. 4 of our kids started the practice by pulling a 2k, and for one of them (Walker Fuchs) it was the first 2k ever. He did amazing! He pulled a 7:03 right out of the gate and not only that, he was extremely consistent the whole way through. The next piece is SURE to break 7 minutes and he's only been rowing with us for a few weeks indoors. Not bad, kiddo!

The engines have been giving us a bit of grief, but we EVENTUALLY got them running so all is good in the end. The kids seem to be having a good time, although I'm sure it's all a bit overwhelming. Our brand new coxboxes are scheduled to arrive today (hopefully in time for practice???) and our coxswains (thus far, Jenna Neves and Kelsey Barrett) will undoubtedly enjoy not having to yell down the boat. Microphones and speakers make it so much easier!

Our uniforms are scheduled to ship by Monday, so we will be ready to race in STYLE :) We also have candy to sell for the kids to raise money for team jackets. Larissa McLaughlin took care of that and delivered 18 cases to practice yesterday. If you know of any NBCR kids - buy some candy bars from them!! I've got some if you'd like to support buying jackets for the team. They're great candy too - Kit-Kats, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Twizzlers, and Hershey's Chocolate bars. They're all King Size and $2 each. YUM!! (now I gotta sell my case fast so I don't eat them all!)

Good stuff happening here in New Bedford! Also - BIG shout-out to Peter Durant at Community Boating for loaning us the beautiful dock for the season! Kristin Decas and her HDC guys did a wonderful job putting it all together and in time for our first practice. Those guys are GOOD.

The Adults have made it back to the water!

The weather yesterday wasn't very nice so we moved the Adults first day on the water to today. It was a bit windy and cold but we had 7 troopers make it today get out on the water. 2 were 'newbies' that have been training with us indoors on the ergs but this was their very first day in a boat and they did a great job.

Unfortunately neither of our coaching launches would start so they didn't get any coaching. Ken had untied from the dock before he realized the motor wouldn't start so he spent the morning doing his own rowing. I was in the coxswain seat without a coxbox (voice amplifier) so a) they could barely hear me, and b) I couldn't see what they were doing. But nevertheless, we made a series of loops (around Ken) and were rowing by all 7 pretty quickly!

John Bullard, in 6 seat, loved when I called for port pressure "It's music to my ears!!" he said. He's a big guy and loves to pull hard so I'm excited for the men's 8+ we can put together this season. David Filipek and Larry Shwartz were our newbies and they've been pulling some great numbers on the erg. Once they get the feel for the boat, they'll be some powerhouse guys. Put them together with some of our other guys, and man this is going to be a fun season!! I'm still hoping that a few guys I haven't seen register yet will come out.

As usual, we had Anne Eisenmenger in the stroke seat followed with Margaret Ishihara in 7. They were a great stern pair with wonderful control, even if it was to the frustration of the guys behind them that just wanted to go fast. :) We had Laurie Bullard making a return and holding down the 2 seat, with Nancy Durfee owning the bow seat. They were great in the strong wind and when I needed to turn the boat, they were spot on.

It was a chilly but fun morning and I'm hoping they've all thawed out by now. See the next batch of adult rowers tonight at 5:30!

Spring Season has begun!

At least I'm told it's Spring. The weather yesterday and today hasn't really cooperated with us. The kids that showed up yesterday seemed pretty cold but at least we heard a few comments like "I love it". There were a few kids that came to check things out and left within the first hour, but hey - they came to see what we were all about. The weather might have had something to do with them deciding to leave but even without them we had 29 kids come to practice yesterday. Word on the street is that a few girls had a field hockey game yesterday but wanted to row so hopefully we'll see them today.

The weather was forecast to be pretty nasty (freezing rain) for this morning so rather than kick off the adult morning team in that, we're going to try for tomorrow instead. Today is much warmer than yesterday but not much nicer. This is not helping me recruit for an outdoor sport, that's for sure!! But we're confident this spring season is going to be a great one, no matter how many rowers we have. One parent yesterday even said that he was glad to see the team wasn't huge because he knew his daughter would get attention and not sit on a bench being ignored. Not that crew teams have a bench to ride, but we got his point. And his daughter is only a sophmore so we hope to see her for several years to come!

Here are some pics taken by Wisner Murray at yesterday's youth practice...

Regatta Central

Things are in the works for a new and improved (can something really be both of those things??) registration system. It should up and running on our website later today once I iron out some glitches with a bit of help from people that are actually good at website stuff. I'm so excited to get programs started this week and this new registration system should help us keep better track of information on all of our rowers. And hopefully that'll be a lot of people!!

Here we go!

Well, some registrations are coming in and so far we've got over 20 kids signed up to try rowing this week and that's not including several of the kids that have been coming the last few weeks that haven't registered online yet. We've got about the same number of adults and in a couple weeks we'll have our Learn-To-Row class begin. It's been a lot of work getting everything set up for this upcoming week but everyone is so excited to finally get back out on the water!!!!