Another congratulations to our new Head Coach Doug Welling! Read more at http://athletics.bowdoin.edu/general/2017-18/releases/20180521mq63my
News
22 Years at the Helm
“Birney To Step Down As Rowing Coach Following 2017-2018 Season”
http://athletics.bowdoin.edu/general/2017-18/releases/20171106f79cvn
HOCR and beyond
The team put up an impressive showing this past week at the 53rd Head of the Charles Regatta. We had our biggest group of entries ever with 5 crews– 3 earned guaranteed entries for next year by finishing in the top half of their events, and we brought home one medal for a fabulous fourth place finish in the Women’s Collegiate Four! Between the men and women that makes 7 medals in the last 7 years. Lots of alums were there to cheer us on and some even got on the water, including Cal Brooks ’15 and Harris Fisher ’16 as the bow pair in Riverside’s gold medal win in the Club Four. Thank you to everyone (families, alums, friends, adorable dogs) who were there to support us!
Looking forward, this weekend is Parent’s Weekend on campus. We are pleased to invite families out to the boathouse on Sunday morning at 10AM to get a tour of our beautiful spot on the New Meadows and… ROW! Parents will get a lesson about the boats and get to take some strokes– this is something you don’t want to miss!
Tomorrow morning, Saturday the 28th, the team is heading to Colby College for the annual CBB race with Colby and Bates. Racing begins at 9:30am. This is a quick regatta but it’s always fun to race with our fellow NESCAC teams.
Next week is the last week of the fall season. Thursday morning the team will hit the ergs for a baseline 2k test, Saturday is the infamous Coxswain’s Cup, followed by the end of season banquet on Sunday evening. It’s been a great (and thankfully warm and flat-watered) season!
Camp Bob 2016
Day 3 Greetings from South Carolina! Thanks to a series of late flights and some car trouble, it took us a little while to get everyone here, but we all made it! It’s been brilliantly sunny and about 80 degrees every day so far, except for a quick 30 minute blast of a thunderstorm on Sunday afternoon. The heat has definitely been a shock to the system, even after our warm Maine winter, but most of us are trying to soak in as much vitamin D as we can while we’re here.
The food at camp is significantly better this year, which has been an exciting plot twist for us. That being said, we definitely appreciated the delicious catered barbecue that was put together by the lovely Nancy Riley tonight! Pulled pork, barbecue chicken, rice and beans, baked mac and cheese, cobbler, and sweet tea… one can’t complain!
Practice has been going well, too. We’ve had lots of side switches for the rowers and lots of time in different boats for coxswains. We may be a little rusty, but it’s so good to be back at it again. Looking forward to a fast spring.
Will keep you posted re: alligator sightings.
Day 8 The first races of the season were completed on Thursday and Friday of last week. The first varsity women, first novice women, and first novice men all won their pieces, and we had some close finishes across the board in the other events.
A group of novice men spotted some serious alligators the other day at practice. No one was eaten. See Doug’s Instagram @sustainableathlete for pix.
Yesterday was our annual trip into Charleston. Camp Bob’s limp potatoes, fried chicken, and iceberg lettuce were replaced by she-crab soup, fried green tomatoes, and many, many pigs worth of barbecue.
We had to part ways with Hide, one of our newest rowers, at the Charleston airport, but also got to welcome back two of our seniors, Martin and Julia. They’ll be thrown into the mix for our last week here. Approximately 200 other schools just showed up at Camp Bob this morning, too, so we’ll see how that goes!
Not to jinx anything, but we’ve been incredibly lucky with weather so far. The thunderstorms we anticipated in Charleston yesterday turned out to be a couple of grey clouds at worst, and today, the coldest day yet, is still around 50 degrees.
Day 11 Thank you so much to all of the amazing people out there who have sent us care packages! Crazy how fast this second week is going by.
Still 75 degrees and sunny most of the time, except for some chilly mornings. We hear you got some snow up in Maine…
More races lined up for tomorrow. Let’s go black!
Day 13 The final day has come!
The whole fleet made it out onto the water this morning for the famous Potato Creek Scramble, an epic 500 m mixed line-up dash. Coxswain Elena “Baby G” Gleed won the gunwale race by a landslide.
By now, all of our boats are packed up and ready for the trip home. Coachie, Edie, Doug, and two little carpools of roadtrippers have already departed. Drive safe, kids! The rest of us will hop on a bus to the Charleston airport at 3 am tomorrow.
The last few days of fall
As of last Sunday’s banquet, our fall season has officially come to a close. We remembered our victories, celebrated our coxswains, and reflected upon how far we’ve come since September.
The coaches have referred to this season as a “rising tide” – not as in the local brewing company, but rather the way in which our young team has hustled to fill the shoes of the seniors who graduated in May. Their legacy lives on in our new boats (The 2015 and the MMXV) and in countless running jokes and traditions, but our current team is already showing some serious promise. We showed resilience at the Textile. Our men swept the Snake. Our women medalled at HOCR, and we guaranteed three entries for next fall. Not too shabby.
The spring season will be a whole new ball game, but we’re ready for it. The erg room is already bustling with eager winter trainers; the apple cider vinegar is flying off the shelves; the Hydration Club is scheduling meetings up the wazoo; and before we know it, we’ll be on a bus to South Carolina!
As always, a hearty thanks to everyone who makes this program as impressive and fun as it is – our tremendously talented coaches and captains, our families and friends, and everyone’s dogs. Thank you!
If you’re worried you’re going to miss us during the long, grueling, Maine winter, don’t fret. Social media is a wonderful thing – stay connected in the months to come!
It seems fitting to finish off this post with a quote shared with us by a member of the class of 2015.
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” – Abe Gubegna