Happy Memorial Day!

The long weekend is over but it seems the heat and humidity are going to stick around a bit longer. That's fine as long as the wind doesn't. As long as we can keep putting boats out on the water, we're happy!

Make sure to get your tickets to our fundraiser on Wednesday June 15th! We're taking a ferry to Cuttyhunk Island and back from 6-8pm and the ticket sales go to NBCR so that we can replenish our damaged fleet of boats. Join us!!

www.newbedfordcommunityrowing.org

We've got tough kids..

So yesterday was a fun practice for the kids as we had some coxswains learning to row, and girls that had never sculled go out in doubles. One of the doubles flipped, however, and there was an opportunity to teach them how to get back in a boat. Morgan Teixeira and DeAnna Dang had huge smiles on their faces and they said the water was actually quite nice. I love it. They had great attitudes and were having fun with the whole thing. We've got some great kids and I love coaching them :)

Great News!

When it rains it really pours, so they say. Not only have we gotten great news about Andrew and his future in rowing, but the adults had an amazing practice this morning and we somehow managed to be on the water during the only break in the fog. But also, I got a call today from Michelle Murray who has read about NBCR in the paper (thanks Standard-Times!) and wants to become a supporter! She's a member of a book club and every time the club meets, they put money in a hat. When they get a substantial amount of money, they donate it to a local charity. Not only have they chosen NBCR, but they contacted the Women's Fund (who has given us a $5000 grant for girls programming!) and the Women's Fund will match Michelle's donation!! This is fantastic news as there are several girls on the team that could use a scholarship. Many are on scholarship already but there are others that are either having a tough time making payments or the scholarship isn't enough. So this will be great news for our rowers!!! Thank you Michelle, the book club, and the Women's Fund!!

HE DID IT!!

That's right - Andrew made the cut. I spoke with Rick Brown - the Head Coach of the Junior Development Camp - yesterday and he officially invited Andrew to Dev Camp!!! Way to go, Andrew!! We're all so proud of you!!

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110525/SPORTS/105250319/-1/NEWSMAP

Andrew Pereira

Great news! The Standard-Times wrote an article about our very own Andrew Pereira. He's been doing a great job and it's wonderful to see his accomplishments get recognition. It's also great for our sport and our club, both of which are mostly unknown to the area.

Great job, Andrew!! And the rest of our rowers are also amazing. Good things are happening here!

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110523/SPORTS/105230306/-1/NEWS01

Yay Adult Rowers at The Mayor's Cup!

We had our adult rowers compete in Providence at The Mayor's Cup Regatta hosted by Narragansett Boat Club. They had a women's master 8+ and a mixed master 8+ entered. Thank you to Cape Cod Rowing for loaning us a trailer to take our boat out there!! Bonnie Lippencott did a great job driving the trailer and David Filipek was the hero my loaning his truck when he couldn't even race. What amazing members we have!

Job well done to all of our rowers!!!

Great News!!

So not only is Walter Chang great for giving us money to purchase a used four, but he's flexible as well. He gave me a range in which I could spend and he's willing to either purchase a 4+ for us, or give me a certain amount to spend on more than one 4+. Well, I'm a sneaky little devil at times and so I've been doing some research.

Our rowers are awesome and I wanted to find a boat that is worthy of them - not just something that will do. We're nearing our first full year of existence and thus our rowers aren't going to all be novices anymore. I need to find a boat that can be a "racing" boat for them - the kids and adults alike.

Then comes the dilemma of having a really nice boat but having to use it for Learn-To-Row programming because we don't have enough to fill an 8+. Racing fours are often what's called "bowloaded" where the coxswain is lying down in the bow of the boat rather than sitting in the stern of the boat. This wouldn't be good for beginners and I would also worry about the boat getting banged up with 'newbies'.

SO - I found 2 fantastic racing boats for a good price but pretty much at the limit of my given budget. One boat is local but they won't budge on the price. The other is a year newer but down in DC. They, however, are flexible on the price. I also found an older boat that is similar to the yellow 4+ that was damaged in the wind storm. This boat is in Shrewsbury, MA and would be perfect for our Learn-To-Rows.

After some negotiating, Potomac Rowing Club in DC gave me 10% off the price of their boat, may give us 4 oars to go with it for free, AND will transport the boat to Philly at no charge! The boat in Shrewsbury will bring me just a hair over my budget but we're close enough that we're going to do it.

Yes, that's right folks - thanks to Walter Chang's donation, and the generosity of Ed Ryan in DC, and my wiley ways...WE'RE GOING TO BE GETTING TWO (new-to-us) BOATS!!!!

I feel so blessed and I'm so happy to be getting a boat that our rowers are going to love. They deserve it and I couldn't be happier!!

Rain, Rain GO AWAAAAYYY!!

The week has been a wet one and while that often times means flat water, not always. We can deal with getting wet (and I have to say that these kids were like drowned rats but kept going with great attitudes) but the thunder and lightening is a different story. Unfortunately we had to cancel practice today which is unfortunate as we need all the prep time we can get to get ready for the District Championships this weekend. I have faith that we'll still do well this weekend. I'm very proud of these kids and I also had the pleasure of coaching the adults this morning. We did quite a bit of work on starts and I have faith that they will also do well at their upcoming race this weekend. The adults will be competing in their first away regatta of the season - The Mayor's Cup hosted by Narragansett Boat Club near Providence. Good luck to all crews this weekend!! Let's hope it dries up a bit, shall we....

Walter Chang!

Walter Chang is a friend from California. I coached his son at Junipero Serra High School and got to know the family pretty well. Walter's son Chris is now rowing for the Naval Academy and Walter came out this past weekend to see his son race at Eastern Sprints (great job, Chris!!) Walter came down to New Bedford to check out our club and he rode along in the launch for our youth practice. He met a few of the kids and got to see our operation.

Afterwards, we went to Cork to have a bite to eat and catch up. It was great to see him and hear about his other 2 children (his daughter will be attending Boston University in the fall) and how well his family is doing. He's always been a great supporter of rowing and is very involved.

After dinner, he headed back up to Boston where he was staying and I headed back to the office to get a few more things done. Surprisingly, Walter called me on the drive and offered to donate a used four to the club!!! He gave me a price range and told me to start looking for boats because he wanted to support us. How wonderful is THAT?!?!

I can't thank Walter enough. Having a four will help NBCR is so many ways. Our kids need to have the option of racing fours because they are all very different in size, ability, and power. Putting them all in an 8 isn't necessarily the best option and if we can separate them into fours, they can match better and hopefully perform better. Having a four will also help us when we don't quite have enough people to fill an 8 which is often the case for the evening adult program or our Learn-To-Row programs.

A HUGE thank you goes out to Walter Chang and his family for their amazing support of NBCR and for believing in me and what we're doing here. I personally will never forget this.

NBCR Crews do well at Lowell Invitational!

Getting to race in the Lowell Invitational at the last minute was great for an additional racing opportunity but it turned out to be so much more. Not only do we have more parents involved this season (which is great to see), but we also got to race against many crews that we otherwise would never have had exposure to. Much thanks to Jen Bauer for including us and many thanks to Cape Cod Rowing for letting us hop on their trailer.

The girls were in a 7 boat race that was one of 6 flights for the Girls Novice 8+ event. Since there were so many events, they ran the flights as 'finals' rather than going to heats, then semi-finals, and then grand finals. Once we get the overall results from the regatta, we can see how the girls stacked up against the whole field. In our flight, they placed 6th but Coach Blood and I know already know what we need to fix and have every confidence in the world that next weekend (same location but it's the District Championships) will be a better performance. The girls did a great job and we're very proud of them!

The boys were in a 6 boat race that was also one of 6 flights and treated the same as the girls event. It was a hotly contested race between the top 3 boats, NBCR being among them. It was difficult to see from shore which of the 3 boats managed to get their bowball across the line first and I waited until after 2:00 (the kids were out of there by 12:30 or 1) to get the results. The boys pulled out the win!!! Our boys bested Lowell by just one second and their coach was bitter about the loss. I can guarantee they'll be talking about us this week as they try to find that one second and take it back. Won't happen fellas - our boys have a taste of winning now, and I doubt they'll prefer any other flavor....

First Learn-To-Row Day!

We held our first Learn-To-Row Day today and it was a great success! We had 6 "newbies" come through in 2 groups. They were led by our fearless leaders, coach Ken and rower/coxswain Rachel. Bonnie, Diane, Kacie and Kanhai were our rower extraordinaries and they were fantastic. Several of the "newbies" plan to join our Learn-To-Row Class which starts on Monday. Hopefully they do and the LTR Day will be a great way to recruit new rowers. Thanks to all the wonderful volunteers!! You're the ones that make it all happen!

Martha Maguire, Anne Eisenmenger, Margaret Ishihara & the Wareham YMCA

NBCR is so lucky to not only have great board members, wonderful members, but also great supporters that just believe in what we're doing. There is a group in Wareham that have been in our corner for a while now, all thanks to boardmember Anne Eisenmenger, and teammember Margaret Ishihara. Anne hosted a wonderful dinner at her home a while back and I had the pleasure of meeting a handful of new friends. Ever since then, Martha Maguire, Oleg Simanovsky, Dick Wheeler, Tom and Sherbie Worthen, and Christy & Wayne LaGue have backed us and come up with several ways to support us.

The latest was a brunch that Martha hosted this weekend after the Wareham YMCA's road race. She set it up as a fundraise for NBCR and raised $335!!! That's incredible. I'm so excited and feel blessed to have friends like this. They have great ideas so stay tuned as they are sure to please. I know of one idea that I personally can't wait for!!

Thank you to all of those people that help drive this club. Thank you for believing in us!

Cape Cod Rowing supports NBCR yet again :)

Not only is Cape Cod Rowing going to help us out and bring their trailer by for us to load 2 8's onto for the race on Sunday, but they're probably going to help us next weekend for District Championships too! Dan Baker and everyone at CCR has been a great source of support for NBCR. They understand that it's very hard not having our own way to transport our equipment so they have helped us out on a number of occasions. The relationship began with Mike Baker - Dan's twin brother - contacting me last fall offering to help with our fall regatta. It was the first I'd ever run so I was ecstatic to receive his phone call. Mike is now working with the Varsity Girls at CRI and Dan has taken over the helm at CCR but the support is just as strong. They are both amazing guys and I'm glad to be able to call them allies. THANK YOU BAKER BOYS!

Racing this weekend

Since several of our kids' racing opportunities have ended up getting cancelled, we decided that instead of giving the kids this weekend to rest (from what??) we would try to find them another race. The Lowell Invitational was kind enough to let us participate in their regatta this coming Sunday. I haven't been to this regatta before but Coach Blood has and praised Jen Bauer of Lowell High Crew for how well she runs events. So we're looking forward to it and are excited to race against 34 other crews that we'll be pitted against next weekend (21st & 22nd) for the District Championships, conveniently at the same location.

Cape Cod Rowing is going to let us put 2 eights on their trailer for a small fee since we're out of their way (thank you, Dan Baker and CCR!). Since most of the races were at capacity, or at least the number of entries wouldn't require having heats, the 8's are all we're going to race. At the Champs, however, we'll be racing the 8's, a girl's 4, and 2 boys 2x.

We also had a parents meeting last night after practice. We had 8 or 9 moms show up as we tried to make sense of our sport and what our goals for their children would be. We talked about how we are trying to help them go to college and for some, to get aid. We mentioned our incredible tutor, Rachel Eisenhaure and how she helped Andrew Pereira bring his GPA from a 3.2 to a 3.8 in less than a year. We talked about how schedules for races often don't come out until the last minute - something many of them were having trouble with. A lot of the parents were used to games so they just needed to know what time the game started and where to go. Regattas aren't that simple so we tried to make it a little less confusing.

Two of the parents, Maria Pereira and Jill Taylor are going to spearhead a Parents Committee to help the coaches with several things. The first is making sure the the kids have the proper food and hydration available at races. They are going to team up on many different areas such as fundraising, carpooling, etc. but it was fantastic to see some parents get so involved. It will really help Briana and I focus on coaching rather than who brought the peanut butter for the sandwiches....

Cape Cod Mother's Day Regatta

Our weekend was supposed to be chock full o' races but unfortunately that wasn't the case. The race up in Lawrence on Saturday ended up getting called off due to logistical reasons. We hope to scrimmage with Greater Lawrence and Westford Crew at a later date.

Yesterday's race on John's Pond in Mashpee still went off, but due to bad water, the sculling events and novice fours were all cancelled. This was decided, however, AFTER our girls double launched for their race. There were 4 boats in the event, 3 from Cape Cod Rowing, and our very own Danielle Lopez and Lauren Dufresne. Half of the entries flipped...that's right - they joined the swim team. The Cape Cod boat that flipped did so right at the start. Our girls waited until they were about half way down the course. Brenda Dufresne somehow snagged some binoculars from someone so we could see them getting back into the boat and all of us on shore were pretty certain they'd be really shaken up and the launch would be towing them in. These girls had been out in the Zephyr singles before but had never rowed the skinny double before. This was their maiden voyage together and we all had confidence that they'd be fine. Well, despite our reaction on shore, when the launch driver asked if they wanted to get towed in, they said NO! They got back in that boat, fixed their point, and rowed it to the finish! They even placed third!! The heart that these girls showed inspired us all and the coaches couldn't have been more proud of them.

We were bummed that the boys doubles didn't get to race because we had 3 entered and had some really high hopes for at least one of them, if not all. It was unfortunate that the novice fours were cancelled as well and that meant that poor Lacey Fournier didn't get to race. We were left with just our novice eights and while they both came back with quite a bit of water in their boat and some comments about the "crazy waves I could surf!", they raced their hearts out and gave it their all.

Youth races on Sunday!

That's right, our youth teams will be competing in Cape Cod Rowing's Mother's Day Regatta on John's Pond in Mashpee this Sunday. We'll be fielding a few sculling boats (2 oars per person) as well as some sweep events for both the girls and boys. Wish us luck as there will be many fast teams participating!!

Good luck rowers!!!

NBCR's Acushnet River Sprints!

Our first ever sprint race has come and gone. We had Boys-Row-Boston and G-Row come down to New Bedford for the very first time a rowing race has been held on the upper Acushnet River in over 100 years. Results are on our webpage but I can tell you first hand that it was great day for racing.

Several of our kids had never been in a double before and yet Dylan Maciel and Brad Dupras won the event! Madison was a varsity single sculler for G-Row that went with the novice boys doubles and she looked great!

The novice fours went to G-Row and they did a great job pulling together. The novice boys 8+ was the fastest time of the day and the girls novice 8's were amazing to watch. What an exciting race! They didn't go very straight and nearly collided but both coxswains (Camilla & Jenna) did a great job. Both boats had rowers catch crabs so the boats traded off who was in the lead several times. Myself and the G-Row coach (Alice) were in the launch following the races and this was by far the most exciting one to watch!

The adults had to wait for most of the morning and into the afternoon before they could hop in a boat and this was the very first sprint race for most of them. In fact, we had a few people in the boat that had only been rowing a couple weeks. They did awesome!

I have to thank all of our amazing volunteers because none of this could happen without them. NBCR has some of the greatest members I could possibly ask for, and the support we've gotten from The Mayor's Office, NB Harbor Development Commission, and the NB Economic Development Council have been incredible. THANK YOU ALL!!!!

Link to Membership deal for US Rowing

http://www.usrowing.org/pressbox/press-releases/11-04-13/USRowing_Announces_Rowing_Outreach_Membership.aspx