Race Recap: Stars vs. Stripes

Little known fact: Riverside Boat Club has a sister down south. Potomac Boat Club--which was also founded in 1869--actually has a partnership with us, in so far as each club allows the other access to ergs and facilities when a member of the opposite team is in town. But it’s also safe to say that the stars and stripes have had a nice little rivalry over the past few years, particularly between the men’s sweeps teams. At HOCR50, our men’s club 8 finished .054 seconds behind Potomac’s boat for a 3rd place finish. In 2015, at HOCR51, Potomac finished in second behind Riverside by just over 2 seconds.  

At the end of this summer, a few of our sweeps guys decided to hop in some boats at Master’s Nationals. As we sat around, licking our post-race wounds in the beer tent, we began talking to the Potomac rowers who were drinking for more celebratory reasons. We realized that not only had there been a decent amount of cross-over between the two clubs in the past few years as guys moved between D.C. and Boston for work, but that a lot of us had actually rowed with, or against each other in high school and college. Discussing our “sisterhood” and how tight our competition had been at HOCR in years past, Potomac captain Mike Kummer quickly suggested a scrimmage—they would provide us with housing, equipment, and a guaranteed entry in the Head of the Potomac Regatta and all we had to do was get our team down there. We agreed and a few months later, eight representatives of the Meatwagon were boarding cut-rate shuttle flights and hassling airline hostesses for those little bottles of wine and extra bags of peanuts.

The weekend promised a busy itinerary. Saturday at 10am would be a 4k race, going in the opposite direction of Sunday’s Regatta. Sunday would see the Meatwagon entered first in the club 8 event and then in the open 8 event. Having politely declined Potomac’s offer of housing (what if they tried to smother us with pillows in our sleep, thereby securing HOCR gold?), Riverside Air BnB’d a three story meat-locker right in the heart of D.C., crushed a few hours of sleep, and then made their way to PBC’s boathouse.

New equipment, an untested lineup, extraordinarily choppy conditions, and a borrowed coxswain who may or may not have been instructed to sabotage our piece (“pretty rough out here today, you sure you guys can handle this??”), did not yield the best results for RBC. The piece got off to a rocky start and ended with Potomac’s first boat a few lengths up on RBC who in turn finished a few lengths up on Potomac’s second boat. We had lost our first inaugural dual race to Potomac…and the worst was yet to come: the award ceremony.

As a token of good will, the Meatwagon spent hours crafting a trophy they felt would be fitting for such an historic occasion. Crisp blue and white stripes contrasted beautifully with the red and white star of Potomac’s blade. The oar was just the right size to fit in a carry on, and a prize any team would be honored to take home. Potomac Boat Club is now the proud and rightful owner of that trophy, but they also brought a contribution of their own to the race.

A bronze figure  goes to the loser of the race and it is required that the recipient not only engrave their names, but display it in their boathouse until they redeem themselves by winning the next match up. While men’s sweeps is still deciding what to call this new addition to the team and what to do with him, it goes without saying that he will be a constant reminder to us as we train going forward.

 And RBC took home the loser's trophy, which will be proudly displayed until the 2017 Head of the Kevin Series, when Potomac will make their way to Boston for the 2nd-annual Stars vs. Stripes Regatta and the Meatwagon will have an opportunity to redeem themselves .

Saturday was a long morning and the Riverside men had a lot to think about. Huddling in the locker room, the boys decided on a plan of action in order to peak for Sunday’s regatta: food, nap, football, beer, food, one Botabox of wine, and sleep. Mostly in that order. Reassess in the morning. Turns out, that was just what the doctor ordered. A second row in the lineup, as well as a chance to get used to the new hull and different blades allowed for a much better piece than Saturday’s scrimmage. While timing results may have been an issue due to confusion caused by our borrowed Potomac blades, it looks like Riverside came in 2nd (or 5th ?) in the club event, and 10th overall in the open event. Happy with our improvement from Saturday, we shook hands with the Potomac guys, traded some unis, tapped a keg, had some shower beers, then hit the road.

Overall it was a great event. We went down, got to get a bench mark on speed going into HOCR, caught up with some old friends, made some new ones, and strengthened our relationship with a great group of people. We can’t wait to see Potomac at Head of The Charles this year and we are really excited to have them come up and race an HOK in 2017, giving us a chance to win our oar back!

Call it the 1869 Classic, The Stars and Stripes Dual Race, The PBC v. RBC showdown—whatever it is, it’s a great event and hopefully the beginning of a new and longstanding tradition between the two clubs.

By: Graeme Calloway

Igniting the Competitive Spirit

The best part of rowing is racing. But it can be hard to find that racing mentality on a normal training day, especially if you’re out on the river alone. In that situation it can be easy to fall into a pattern of just rowing hard, which is important, but also a completely different sensation than going nose to nose with another boat. HPG’s U23 lightweight women’s sculler, Emma Betuel, is familiar with and poised to combat these challenges as she gets ready to compete in both the single and the quad in Rotterdam.

Her reflection... RBC and the Charles are great places not only to train, but also to race. There are boats everywhere, in every possible category and every conceivable speed. In terms of my own sculling, I feel like I am able to improve the most when I’m being challenged to compete. There is nothing that drives home the importance of a technical change more than getting walked through by someone who gets their blades in better at the catch. There is also nothing more rewarding than seeing a change rewarded with an increase in speed. The environment of racing on the Charles River is invaluable. It is a unique crucible of competitors that drives us all to pull harder, row better, and bring out the best in one another.

Riverside’s HPG light men’s quad also recall some stellar opportunities this summer lining up “side by each” as they continue to prepare for the non-olympic World Championships in Rotterdam this August. Before heading off to US World’s trials earlier this summer, we lined up opposite the Olympic US lightweight double of Andrew Campbell and Josh Konieczny before they headed off to Rio, finishing 5th. Being the first US lightweight double to make the A final in the Olympics, the guys from up the river were a world-class crew that gave us a real taste of the speed we are looking for. Another fantastic racing partner this summer has been the U.S. under-23 heavyweight men’s quad. This group of Harvard rowers, packing some serious meat, joined us for several days of piecing throughout the summer. The experience of lining up next to this talented crew was instrumental in our development this summer. We used these experiences to find speed in our technique, togetherness, and poise under pressure. We found we could compete most effectively with the stronger boat when we focused in and executed on these things that make us as lightweights fast. As Emma said above, lining up next to any opponent during training is unique in emulating the pressures and ferocity of race-day. A series of pieces against the RBC sweeps team one morning continued to foster this elusive fervor. Even breaking the quad down into singles and chasing each-other up and down the Charles in what most rowers call “battle paddle” ignites the competitive spirit and elevates the training intensity to a new level. As we hopped on the plane and headed off to the Netherlands this week, we were excited that we had these opportunities and look forward to finding more as we continue to make our final training push before the big show!

Traveling can be hectic and very taxing on the body, but fortunately for us, we took a direct flight into Amsterdam Thursday night, and from there took a short train ride to the city of Delft, where we will be training until Wednesday when we meet up with the rest of team USA in Rotterdam. Upon arrival in Delft, we were met by a few of the coaches of the D.S.R. Proteus-Eretes rowing club. They worked with Judith to help set up this training trip for us, helped us find housing, and are letting us train in a nice Empacher 4x! One of the coaches took our luggage to our new residence, while the other coach took us to the bike rental shop. Although it took some time to pay for the rentals, we enjoyed the complimentary espresso and cappuccino to help fight of the jet lag. From there, we rode bike to our new home, settled in, and went down to the boat club to get set in the sleek yellow boat.

Yesterday afternoon we were welcomed by Proteus to watch the exciting Olympic finals before heading out on the water to do some racing of our own. We watched the USA claim two medals, including gold in the US Women’s eight in which 2 HPG alums, Meghan Musnicki and Lauren Schmetterling, became olympic champions! While the US women really walked away with it, a nail biting M1x final, where Mahe Drysdale won by less than a bow-ball, got the adrenaline pumping as we got ready up to race! From there we hit the water, the beautiful “Delftse Schie” to be exact, and went through our race warm-up before throwing down a 1500m, 1000m, and 750m with the Proteus club 8+. The pieces went well, and we are excited to keep piecing the club eights throughout the week we’re here! Here’s to the competitive spirit!

Go Riverside, and go USA!

Riverside History: Women at Riverside, Part III, 2000-Present

Jim Hanley and his generation of leaders brought Riverside Boat Club back from the dead by developing coached programs that would attract year-round rowers looking to increase their level of accomplishment.  While its 2000 women’s summer Lightweight Development Camp attracted women like Heather Moon, Julie Nichols and Sarah (Howlett) White, who would  become full members, several elite lightweight women, including Marika Page, now trained at the club at an elite level year-round.  Riverside won the women’s eight, double and quad events at Canadian Henley that year, while Marney Jaastad would go on to win a silver medal in the lightweight quad in the 2001 World Championship.  Carol Stricki, who had rowed at Riverside in the mid-90s, competed in the double at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.

The following decade brought Riverside women more success.  They captured the women’s club eight title in the Head of the Charles multiple times as well as other events.  Since this was prior to race organizers’ splitting out the collegiate eight event, Riverside women of varying ages, for the most part holding down full time jobs and some mothers of children, were beating club entries from top colleges.  In 2002, Hanna Moore, Layne Salter, Maria Jones and Sarah White won the senior lightweight quad event at the Canadian Henley.  Riverside women comprised nearly one third of the Head of the Charles championship double field that year.  Under HPG coach Adrian Smith, Marika Page and Layne Salter won the event in 2004.  Marika was the U.S. lightweight single sculler at the World Championships in Japan the following year.

By then, however, the club’s growth, the integration of its programs and the control of its costs were generating management challenges, even as turnover on the board brought in new, younger members.  Factionalism compounded the situation, undermining the shared sense of commitment to the club that had been the basis for its revival.  The Lightweight Development Camp program, the energetic open and masters women, the less cohesive open and masters men, and the scullers, among whom were members who had led the club’s revival in the 80s and 90s, competed for status and equipment.  Captains Cheri Ruane and Shanon Ames struggled to obtain rowers’ cooperation.  Year-round members chaffed at what they saw as the entitled, disengaged attitude of camp participants who commandeered club equipment.  Some of the women who had been its highest achievers during the 80s and 90s found the club no longer suited them and left for elsewhere.

After hiring Kevin McDonnell to become Riverside coaching director and undertaking an evaluation of each of its programs, in 2002 the club scaled back its summer camps and introduced  the High Performance Group, a year-round program Kevin devised with the input of former camp members now sitting on the board.  Designed to attract competitive women and men with coaching and intense training focused on the development of small boat skills, with an emphasis on single sculling, the program resolved many of the issues of competition among the club’s programs and transformed its athletes into full members who participated in its affairs.

It also produced results.  Its women were particularly successful.  The program attracting athletes who progressed to the U. S. national team such as Wendy Campanella, Liane (Malcos) Keister, Cindy Bishop, Marika Page, Heather Moon, Hillary Seager, Stef Sydlik, and Hanna Moore.  Many were medalists, including Wendy in the lightweight quad at the 2002 World Championships.  Cindy, who had learned to row at Riverside just four years earlier, won a bronze in the 2003 Pan American Games singles event, then won the 2004 Princess Grace Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta and beat the reigning Olympic and World Champions to win the Head of the Charles singles title.

Liane and Bryna McConarty, who won the double, four and eight at the 2002 Canadian Henley, were selected as The Independent Rowing News’ Club Crew of the Year.  Liane went on to win a gold medal in the straight four in the 2003 and 2004 World Championships, was the sweep alternate in the 2004 Athens and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and made additional world championship appearances from 2005 through 2007.  The experience she brought back to the HPG women has been a major factor in their subsequent U.S. National Team success.

In 2003, Riverside’s twenty-eight women entries returned from the National Championships with eight titles and twenty medals, won the women’s point trophy at club nationals and its women’s club eight won at the Head of the Charles.  The women’s sweep team accepted collegiate summer rowers in 2004, an innovation that introduced potential future members to the club, and won gold medals in the eight in both the 2004 and 2005 Canadian Henley regattas.  Radcliffe undergraduate and future Olympic Gold medalist Esther Lofgren rowed in the 2005 eight.

In 2006, HPG athlete Miranda (Paris) Holder, diagnosed with a heart issue, transitioned to an HPG coaching during the summers and to assisting Northeastern coach Joe Wilhelm during the year.  In 2011 she became head coach at Georgetown.  The lightweight women’s eight completed a Head of the Charles three-peat and Heather Moon dominated the Head of the Charles lightweight single event in 2007 and ‘08.

Meanwhile, the club needed members with organizational and budgeting backgrounds to step forward to take on the challenge of administering a club that had grown in size, operational complexity and cost.   Fortunately, the participation of women like Kate Sullivan, Caro-Gray Bosca, Sarah White and Mary O’Neill had prepared them to become committee chairs and club officers.  After serving as the club’s second female captain, Patricia Belden was elected its second woman president in 2003.  She strengthened the committee system by defining roles for board members as liaisons with committee heads, who in turn received budget allocations and were delegated responsibilities for club operations.   Patricia and Rob White established the expectation that decision making in areas such as boat turn-over would rely on the analysis of real data on costs and benefits and that decisions would be based on open and fair discussion.  Sarah White, in her capacity as secretary in 2003 and vice president in 2004/5, re-established the Membership Committee and charged it with vetting provisional members, which facilitated membership voting at quarterly rather than monthly meetings.  In addition to maturing the club’s governance and management, Patricia and Sarah strove to create an atmosphere that was more inviting to a full range of ages and began to reach out to club alumni.  In 2006, when Rob formed the President’s Committee to develop and oversee the implementation of a cohesive long-term strategic plan for the club, the board selected Patricia and Lynn Osborn together with Chris Daley to be its first members.  In 2008, Helen Fremont became the club’s third woman president.  Drawing on her legal training, Helen helped establish policies in areas such as coaching responsibilities and privileges and trailer driver requirements, as well as overseeing the inception of the club’s Junior Summer Sculling Program.

As the new decade arrived, Nik Kurmakov continued to produce successful women’s sweep boats.  Sculler Tina Vandersteel, one of a group of Riverside working women, mothers, highly competitive athletes and good friends who go back fifteen years that includes Sarah White, Ashley Lanfer, Alex Bailey, Bryna McConarty and Kate Ackerman, won the Head of the Charles masters’ single titles in 2010, 2012 and 2013.  Priscilla Hoffnung has six first place medals, two of them in the sixty plus and three in the seventy plus.  On the international scene, Megan Musnicki and Esther Lofgren rowed in the perennially undefeated women’s eight in 2010, 2011 and at the London Summer Olympics in 2012.  Natalie Dell, after training for three years at Riverside, won a silver medal in the women's quadruple sculls at the 2011 World Rowing Championships and a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics.  Emily Huelskamp was bow in the winning 2013 four and won the pair at the 2015 Pan American games in Toronto.  Hillary Saeger, who had medaled in the light quad in the 2009 World Rowing Championships, did so again in 2011 and 2013.  Lauren Schmetterling, whom national team coach Tom Terhaar sent to Riverside to refine her rowing, joined Meghan in the world champion women’s eight in 2013, ‘14 and ’15.  Altogether, Lauren has won seven international gold medals and was USRowing’s 2015 fans’ choice national team athlete of the year.

Today, half of Riverside’s 400-plus members and six of its eight elected officers—its vice president, treasurer, secretary, two trustees and captain—are women.  Lynn Osborn is chair of its development committee.  A member of Lynn’s team, Severine Imbert de Smirnoff, professionalized fund raising, revived the club’s annual fall gala and established giving as an expectation of membership.  After dedicated efforts in caring for the boathouse and grounds as chairperson of the Building and Grounds committee from 2007 to 2015, Captain Caro-Gray Bosca occupies the critical point of intersection between the club’s fleet and its members.  Judith Vogel, who with Tom Keister is the club’s High Performance Group coach, has just been appointed Riverside’s first fulltime Program Manager.  Under their leadership, the HPG rowers have become some of the club’s most significant volunteer contributors, from coaching juniors to developing its communication facilities, of which this article is a product.  Kate Ackerman, a 1997 and ‘98 U.S, international and a doctor with a sports medicine practice, brings a focus on injury prevention to the group and treats many of them when injury does occur.

With leadership like this, Riverside continues to provide the coaching, facilities and equipment that enable its women and men to meet their rowing goals, whether recreational, competing for the club around the country, or at the sport’s highest levels.  With women providing around half of the club’s top finishes in the 2015 Head of the Charles, Riverside once again won the regatta’s points trophy, while its lightweight women’s quad, made up of Erin Roberts, Hillary Saeger, Mary Foster, & Lauren Ayers, represented the United States in the 2015 World Championships.

Looking back over the history of women at Riverside Boat Club, it is clear that they have provided not only a major share of its success on the water and many of its leaders but much of the dedication and commitment that has brought the club to where it is today.  In a sport whose clubs have tended to be dominated by heavyweight men, their prominence gives the Riverside story a special dimension.

This is the final post of a three-part series. You can previous posts, which discuss the impact of women on Riverside's history from 1970-1985. and 1985-2000.

By: Dick Garver

Significant contributions were made to this article by Igor Belakovskiy, Patricia Belden, Doug Clark, Maura Conron, Helen Fremont, Molly Haskell, Molly Hamrick, Sally (Harvey) Johnston, Tom Keister, Lisa Kunze, Nik Kurmakov, Maria Lane, Kevin McDonnell, Lynn Osborn, Marika Page, and Sarah White.

Dick Garver welcomes feedback. He can be reached at richardgarver[at]gmail[dot]com

RBC To Send 9 Athletes to World Championship Trials

This Monday, July 18th, 9 Riverside High Performance Group (HPG) athletes will be competing at the USRowing U23, Senior and Junior World Championship Trials at Mercer Lake in West Windsor, New Jersey, in an attempt to secure a seat on the National Team and represent the USA at the 2016 World Rowing Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The world championships will be held from August 21-28 and all three age categories (junior, under-23, and senior non-Olympic) will be competing at the same time.

Riverside will be attempting to qualify boats on both the U23 and Senior National Team. On the U23 side, Emma Betuel will be racing in the Women’s Lightweight Single (LW1x) and the Women’s Lightweight Quad (LW4x). Sam Hausmann and Taylor Beach will be racing in the Lightweight Men’s Double (LM2x). On the Senior side, Ashley Amos will be racing in the Lightweight Women’s Quad (LW4x) as part of a composite crew training out of Potomac Boat Club. Joe Hanna will be racing in the Lightweight Men’s Single (LM1x) and Jake Georgeson, Peter Schmidt, Chris Rogers, and Tobin McGee will be racing in the Lightweight Men’s Quad (LM4x).

The Senior World Rowing Championships being held are for the non-Olympic boat classes (LM/W1x, LM/W4x, W4-). Riverside already has a number of alumni qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games, being held in Rio at the beginning of August.

Racing begins Monday at 5pm with the time trial. Results can be found on the USRowing website.

By: Peter Schmidt

2 HPG Alums Named to 2016 USA Olympic Team

Two alums of the High Performance Group, Lauren Schmetterling and Meghan "Moose" Musnicki, just officially punched their tickets to Rio for the 2016 Olympic Games. Currently sitting in 3 and 5 seat, respectively, of the Women's 8+, the two are not unfamiliar with this event: Schmetterling has been in the women's 8 since 2013, and Moose was a member of the Olympic gold medal-winning crew in London in 2012. The duo are currently ranked by World Rowing as two of the top 10 female rowers in the world (Schmetterling #2 and Musnicki #4).

They'll be joining fellow RBC HPG alums Anthony Fahden (LM4-, USA) and Shelley Pearson (W1x, Bermuda), who qualified their respective boats earlier this year.

For full line-ups and more information, visit the USRowing website.

Congratulations and go USA!

Riverside History: Women at Riverside, Part II, 1985-2000

By the mid-1980s, President Jim Hanley and coach/club manager Doug Clark’s transformation of Riverside Boat Club from a moribund men’s sculling club to an ambitious, growing, mixed-gender, multi-discipline rowing organization was well underway.  Its coaching, its commitment to excellent rowing, and its leadership’s support attracted elite women who became some of its most prominent rowers.  Molly (Hoyle) Haskell had come to Boston to compete for a national team boat at United States Rowing’s Boston Rowing Center at Weld Boathouse.  Discouraged at BRC but encouraged by Clark, Hanley, van Dusen and others, in 1985 she joined the club’s summer program and, in her words, “found a home at Riverside”.

1985 proved to be Riverside women’s breakthrough year.  They raced and medaled at local and regional sprint races from New England to Philadelphia, including the Bay State Games, which the club hosted, and its own Riverside Sprints and Cromwell Cup.  Clark, who invited Canadian rower Susan Gwen-Timothy to train at the club, took a large contingent of Riverside women to the Canadian Henley.  Competing in singles, doubles and the quad, each of his scullers placed in the top three in her event.  Among them, Carey Beth (C. B.) Sands, another future United States Rowing Hall of Fame member, won the junior and senior lightweight women’s single, she and Ruth Kennedy won in the junior and senior lightweight double and quad, while Izzie Gordon, Deb Fine, Maria Lane, and Mary Anczarski placed second in the quad.  Their accomplishments began a long run of Riverside sweep and sculling success at the Henley.  With women contributing, in the fall the club defeated Harvard to win the Head of the Charles points trophy, the first club to do so.

With success like this, in 1986 the club voted to go it alone when Northeastern left for its new boathouse.  In preparation, it initiated three comprehensive planning programs, including a Strategic Planning Committee that included Molly Hoyle and Anna Jones.  The committee put proposed three alternative growth scenarios based on alternative philosophies, total membership sizes and proportions of competitive versus recreational rowers.  At that point, Riverside had 157 rowing members, 33 percent of whom were classified as competitive and 67 percent as recreational.  The board endorsed the scenario based on the current ratio of member types.

Clark returned to Canada, where he joined its national women’s rowing team coaching staff, in 1986, but the cadre of women now rowing at Riverside sustained the standard of excellence he had set.  Over the next five years, three of Riverside’s five United States team members were women.  Sands, rowing with New Haven’s Chris Ernst, won the lightweight double sculls event at the 1986 Rowing World Championships in Nottingham, England, the first gold won by United States women scullers.  They finished third in 1987.  The contribution of Riverside’a women enabled the club to finish second in the 1986 Head of the Charles points trophy behind Harvard and win it again in 1987 and 1988.  The club added coaches Jeanne Flanagan, another Hall of Fame member, and Cecily Keifer in 1989.  Sands, now rowing with Kris Karlson, coached by Ginny Gilder and rowing in Lynn and Charley Osborn’s Van Dusen, again won the World Championships lightweight women’s double in Bled, Yugoslavia, while Molly Hoyle raced in the open weight double.  Riverside’s women were third In 1989 Head of the Charles, while its men were first.

Building on the momentum they had established in the 80s, Riverside women prospered on the water and continued to contribute to its leadership into the 90s.  Cindy Ryder won gold in the single and Molly Hoyle and Linda Muri, yet another future Hall of Fame member, won silver in the double at the 1991 Pan Am games in Havana.  1992 was a banner year.  The club added a quad development camp to its summer programs.  Its women placed in every event at the nationals, including winning the quad, as well as winning the senior pair and the senior coxed four won in Canada.  Cindy and Mary Mazzio returned Riverside to the Olympic stage as the U.S. women’s double in Barcelona.  She was the United States women’s single sculler in 1993.  Patricia Belden and J. Belantoni were the United States lightweight double in the 1993 World University Games.   Augmenting the club’s support for its women athletes, in 1992 President Jim Ames hired Simmons Colleges coach Nikolay Kurmakov to train its lightweight women sweep rowers.

Meanwhile, women hoping to make themselves good club-level rowers like Betsy Walkerman and Tanya Treml were joining Riverside and becoming integral members of its family and contributors to its operations.  As Jim Hanley, Jamie Ames, the Osborns and Jim Tapscott worked to put a budget model in place that would accommodate the club’s expanding programs, Betsy, a business woman as well as an avid athlete, not only proved to be a solid masters lightweight but, with Charley Osborn, developed the five year boat replacement plan that continues with modifications today.  Tanya, another woman who joined as a recreational rower, quietly involved herself in club affairs and was rewarded with election to the board.  Supported by Hanley, Ames and Tapscott, Lisa Kunze, on the verge of applying to medical school, was appointed by the board to be Riverside’s first female captain in 1992.  She standardized the captain’s tests and organized boat maintenance to make members more responsible for the equipment they used.  Since the club did not have a rigger, she took on the work as well as boathouse upgrades until Linda Muri was formally hired as its first salaried rigger.  Lisa, who had trained at Boston Rowing Club, won the Head of the Charles masters single event in 1994.

Women’s growing leadership at Riverside culminated in 1996 when the membership elected its first woman president, Maura Conron.  Maura launched a capital campaign to raise $50,000, enabling the club to replace the deteriorated ramps to its dock.  When its connection to the Metropolitan District Commission’s sewer system failed, Patricia Belden took on the project of building a new line.  During Maura’s tenure, Riverside restored its Lightweight Development Camp, which had been its signature men’s program but had fallen off in 1996.  The club’s membership surged to 167, of which sixty percent were men and forty percent women.  In addition, Maura coached Brookline High School to great success, its men’s first varsity and all three of its women’ boats winning in the 1996 Quinsigamond Championships.  One of her BHS rowers, Laura Larsen Strecker, went on to row at Radcliffe, won gold in the eight at the 2008 World Rowing Under 23 Championships and made the senior team in 2009.

In 1997, Riverside women won one open event and medaled in all ten lightweight national championship events.  Kate Ackermann rowed in the U.S. quad at the World Championships in Aiguebelette, France as well as the World Games in 1998.  Since the club did not yet have a year-round elite training program, four or five of its lightweight women, including Marika Page, trained during the winter with Richard Branch at MIT.  The following summer, the club added lightweight women to its camp program, which continued in 1999 under the coaching of Dave O’Neill until he left to become head women’s coach at the University of California.  At the same time, the club continued to increase its membership by expanding its year-round programs.  Nik Kurmakov took charge of women’s club and masters’ sweep rowing in 1997.  Twenty-three rowers, including Caro-Gray Bosca and Kate Sullivan, moved as a body from Community Rowing to form the foundation of the program, which produced multiple Head of the Charles and national championship wins.  Competition to join the women’s sweep team was fierce.  By 1999, it had thirty-two participants and ten on the waiting list.  The club’s total membership rose to 217.  It added another dimension that year when it welcomed Nik’s Simmons College crew to row from the club.

This post is the second of a three-part series. Next month, we'll follow up with women's impact on Riverside's history from 2000-Present. 

By: Dick Garver

Significant contributions were made to this article by Igor Belakovskiy, Patricia Belden, Doug Clark, Maura Conron, Helen Fremont, Molly Haskell, Molly Hamrick, Sally (Harvey) Johnston, Tom Keister, Lisa Kunze, Nik Kurmakov, Maria Lane, Kevin McDonnell, Lynn Osborn, Marika Page, and Sarah White.

Dick Garver welcomes feedback. He can be reached at richardgarver[at]gmail[dot]com

Race Recap: Mayor's Cup

Mayor’s Cup Regatta, sponsored by Narragansett Boat Club, was the debut competition of Riverside’s Mixed Masters Sweep program. Nine women, ten men, and two coxswains made the trip to Providence on May 7. Typical of Mayor’s Cup, the weather was disagreeable: cold and spitting rain. High winds and a strong tide produced big chop and big delays in getting alignment at the start.

Racing started off well. Although some of the women had not raced in decades, and despite having no coaching this spring (Holly didn’t start until the following week), both of the women’s coxed fours won their races. After that, the results were uneven, with most of our sweep boats getting edged out at the finish line.

For many of the rowers, the highlight of the day came with the mixed eights at the end of the regatta. This may be the first time RBC has ever fielded a mixed eight at Mayor’s Cup – certainly the first time in the past ten years. Riverside’s crews came in second in one race, and first in the final race of the day – a very satisfying way to finish things off.

The Mixed Masters team is looking forward to Cromwell Cup, Canadian Henley Masters, and of course Masters Nationals, nearby on Lake Q this year.

RBC Debuts Mixed Masters Sweeps Program

This summer marks the birth of Riverside’s first combined masters sweeps program. Prior to the formation of this new team, there was no formalized masters women’s rowing at RBC outside of our sculling group. While the club has made efforts in the past to establish a separate women’s program, it was hard to get the teams up and running. Finding coaching, juggling equipment, and coordinating everyone’s busy schedules proved to be difficult obstacles to overcome.

Instead, having the men and women training and racing together at the boathouse as one program has turned out to be a lot more manageable than running two separate teams. In fact, it was the men’s team who suggested the merger. Already well managed, joining programs allowed the women to jump right in on established procedures and practice times. It alleviated the stress of sharing equipment between two teams and allowed the growing program to make an excellent case for hiring their own coach. It also doesn’t hurt that the addition of the women to the squad will allow the already competitive masters program to further secure points trophies at their regattas!

The permanent addition of a women’s program has been long overdue. Currently, about fifteen women are affiliated with the team, and everyday about twenty rowers train together putting out two 8’s and a 4. While each program trains in single gender boats, having the joint program allows for people to fill seats when needed. Masters rowers lead busy lives and a deeper bench allows for everything to continue running smoothly. Besides, mixed 8’s always makes for some hot racing!

Everyone has enjoyed working with Holly Metcalf, the new coach hired to head up the masters program as well as our sculling group. She has gotten everyone up to speed very quickly and done an excellent job of coordinating with all of the different teams and groups in the boathouse. As far as the masters group goes, it has made a huge difference for them to have their own dedicated coach and they expect it to pay huge dividends going forward.

In the future, the masters team would like to see Riverside become one of the most dominant masters programs in the country. In their own words, they are on a quest for “world domination.” But that begins with a strong showing at Masters Nationals this summer. The squad is excited to put together some really fast boats and lock down not only a hefty medal haul, but the points trophy for the regatta as well.

The growth of the masters program is very exciting for Riverside. It fosters a membership with more experience, resources, and institutional memory. Keep an eye out for these guys this summer. The new Riverside Masters Program is hunting for some hardware!

By: Graeme Calloway

Riverside History: Women at Riverside, Part I, 1970-1985

When M.I.T. graduate student Ted van Dusen invited the just-graduated Sally Harvey to row as his guest at Riverside Boat Club in 1971 and provided her with a single so she could pursue her interest in the sport, the club was, in her words, moribund.  A neighborhood-based men’s sculling club, its active members had fallen to as few as ten and it survived only by renting two-thirds of its boathouse to Northeastern University, including the entire second floor.  Sally finished third in the Head of the Charles that year and was second in the lightweight single and first in the dash at the 1972 national championships.  She applied to become a Riverside member but didn’t receive the required votes.  Those opposed cited the costs of providing changing facilities for women members.  Instead she was offered “permanent guest” status.  Preferring to be a full-fledged, dues-paying club member, Sally was in the process of joining Cambridge Boat Club, the only rowing organization on the Charles River to admit women at the time, when she took a job in Washington D.C., was readily accepted as a member of Potomac Boat Club, and went on to row in national champion quads in 1973 and ‘74.  

Although it wasn’t apparent at the time, the growing participation of women in rowing as a result of 1972 Title IX Act’s impact on college athletics, together with the advent of international women’s competitions, was about to transform Riverside and women’s place in it.  

Ted van Dusen, a member of the U.S. quad in 1977, was one of the strongest advocates for bringing women into the club.  He proposed a female medical student training for the Head of the Charles that year for provisional membership.  Again, she was permitted to row as a guest but, despite club president Jim Moore’s request for reconsideration, her application was denied and she also migrated to Cambridge Boat Club.  Nevertheless, interest in adding women to the club was building and in 1979 national team aspirant Patty Pinkerton, Kathryn Reith, and 1975 Red Rose Olympic crew member Jacqueline Bachman were granted provisional membership, although without access to the club’s first floor changing facilities.  Representing Riverside, Patty and Kathryn won the Canadian Henley junior quad with cox and junior double events in 1980.  

[caption id="attachment_6169" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Pinkerton & Reith[/caption]

Despite growing support for women’s presence at Riverside, a faction of the club’s long-term members remained opposed.  Their hostility contributed to Jacqueline’s departure and generated bitter conflict over Patty and Kathryn’s impending applications for senior membership.  A discrimination complaint was filed with the Metropolitan District Commission, the club’s landlord.  Amid physical threats from opponents, President Jim Moore, Vice President Jim Hanley, Robert Cutler and Jim Sullivan engineered their election, successfully resolving the crisis.  In 1982, the club raised funds for them to row in the first Henley Royal Regatta to include women’s events.  

Patty and Kathryn were the vanguard of women members at Riverside, some of whom remain active today and each of whom prepared the way for the club’s revitalization in succeeding years.  The support of Hanley, van Dusen, Will Melcher, Jim White, whose daughter Carolyn rowed at the club, and likeminded members drew women like Anna Jones—who would go on to become Community Rowing Inc.’s first director—seeking a place to develop their rowing.  Encouraged by Anna and Ted, in 1982 Lynn and Charley Osborn joined the club after learning that Lynn could row as an occasional guest but not as a regular member at Charley’s club, Union Boat Club.    Because there wasn’t yet a mixed double event in the 1983 Head of the Charles Regatta, they took the place of a men’s double scratch and finished in the top half of the competition.  

One of Hanley, Melcher and their supporters’ most consequential initiatives was the decision, after vigorous debate in 1982, to break Riverside’s tradition that all services were volunteered and hire Doug Clark, who had trained women in Canada and was coaching women at M.I.T,  to be the first paid club coach on the Charles River in the modern era.  Following Hanley’s election as Riverside president in 1983, he and Clark pursued the idea of making Riverside self-sustaining once Northeastern left for its own boathouse by attracting both men and women rowers with a club philosophy of excellence at all levels of achievement.  Maria Lane was one of the arrivals, training and racing with Clark’s competitive group.  Although she remained based at Boston Rowing Club, Anne Marden, United States sculler and future Hall of Fame member, trained with Clark for the 1984 Olympics.  

By the mid-80s, women were rowing in every Riverside sculling and sweep boat, including its first women’s eight.  In no small part due to their expanding enrollment, the club grew rapidly, encouraging the hope that it could become self-sustaining.  Clark, whose professional background was in business management, supplied Hanley and his allies with a template for a revitalized organization, including a strengthened committee structure, and suggested strategies for coping with the stresses that could be anticipated from the changes underway.  He found that the club’s men tended to be “too cool” to engage in Hanley’s program to transform Riverside.  It was its women who “provided the energy, passion and commitment” needed to change its culture and who most enthusiastically embraced his emphasis on technical excellence, on “rowing better than anyone else on the Charles”.  Women like Anna and Maria participated on committees and contributed innovations such as the first Riverside Guide and a newsletter to keep members informed about events and issues.  Clark cites as an example of women’s transformation of the soul of the club the encouragement he received to install Ted Littlefield, the impaired but dedicated Northeastern custodian of the boathouse and grounds, as cox of their eight, to Ted’s enormous gratification.  Bob Cutler, Will Melcher and Maria Lane celebrated Riverside’s growing stature by designing a new club racing medal.  Reflecting the club’s transformed identity, it depicted rowers of both sexes.   

By: Dick Garver

This post is the first of a three-part series. Next month, we'll follow up with women's impact on Riverside's history from 1985-2000.

Significant contributions were made to this article by Igor Belakovskiy, Patricia Belden, Doug Clark, Maura Conron, Helen Fremont, Molly Haskell, Molly Hamrick, Sally (Harvey) Johnston, Tom Keister, Lisa Kunze, Nik Kurmakov, Maria Lane, Kevin McDonnell, Lynn Osborn, Marika Page, and Sarah White.

Dick Garver welcomes feedback. He can be reached at richardgarver[at]gmail[dot]com

Alumni Spotlight: Shelley Pearson

Shelley Pearson’s rowing career has been something of a transatlantic saga. The Bermudan export first started competing in 2005 at The Peddie School in New Jersey. As work ethic and talent began to produce some real speed, Shelley (possessed of dual citizenship) decided to attend selection camp and take a shot at making the junior national team. She got her first taste of elite rowing when she was selected to the squad in 2008 where she also had the pleasure of meeting our very own Molly Hamrick for the first time!

After high school she attended Harvard, but following that initial experience with US Rowing, Shelley knew that she one day wanted to compete for Bermuda. Since her best opportunity to do so would be in the single, she spent each of her summers sculling. Shelley knew that she needed to join a program with like-minded athletes and coaches if she was going to accomplish her goal and so the summer after she graduated from Harvard, she joined Riverside’s High Performance Group. “I'm not sure I can emphasize enough how much confidence Riverside gave me,” says Shelley. “It completely changed my perception of training and erging. I had the biggest drop in scores that I've had in my life and I suddenly began to realize that rowing at the highest level was something I could reasonably consider pursuing.”

But in February of that year, Shelley was faced with a significant and unexpected challenge. After suffering from pain and discomfort in her legs and hips during training, Shelley finally got diagnosed with aneurysmal bone cysts. These cysts are fibrous, tumor-like lesions which develop on the bone, and while they are benign, they can be extremely painful and can cause fractures and other structural damage. Not one to be slowed down, however, Shelley underwent anti-inflammatory injections and raced in The Head of the Charles. Unfortunately, a short time later, it became clear that she needed further and more aggressive treatment, when she fractured her pelvis simply getting up from the couch.

Around this time Shelley had also begun to lay the groundwork for the pursuit of another one of her dreams: to attend Oxford and compete in the Boat Race. Shelley had been studying education and development, and Oxford had a program which offered a joint MBA and social impact masters degree. It was perfect, but she had some hurdles to clear before she got there. Shelley would need a number of surgical procedures (nine over two years). Not to mention recuperating from her pelvis injury, this would pose a serious set back for her training. Uncertain with the outcome, yet determined to try to make the boat at Oxford, Shelley began taking a week off for surgical procedures, then returning to training for as long as possible before repeating the cycle. “My medical situation left me uncertain about whether The Boat Race would be a possibility but I was hopeful. Unfortunately, things went from bad to worse when I had a follow up surgery in August that led to complications and left me on crutches for two months.” Shelley arrived at Oxford on crutches, unable to train, but not yet deterred. “I began training again in December,” says Shelley, “and raced in [and won] The Boat Race in April. Without the base that I had developed at Riverside, I'm certain that wouldn't have been possible.”

That was in 2015, and Shelley had not lost her ambition to represent Bermuda. Fortunately, her island home was on board with the idea. “After The Boat Race, Bermuda completely rallied behind what I was doing,” remembers Shelley. “It completely solidified my decision to try to qualify for Rio. I was lucky enough to receive both a scholarship for the MBA and sponsorship which has further enabled me to pursue my goals.” So Shelley continued to train with the OUBC squad. “They were a great group of girls to train with,” she says “and the training plan perfectly aligned with when I also needed to peak [for trials]. Although I did a LOT of pieces alone on the water.”

But it all paid off. On March 24, Shelley qualified for Rio, making her the first woman to represent Bermuda in rowing on the Olympic stage. And while the qualifying race did prevent her from enjoying a repeat performance with Oxford in 2016, she was still able to get back in time to watch her teammates compete. Shelley, who has perfected the art of working during the commute to and from practice, is still taking classes at Oxford (she just finished finals!) and balancing a full training load. While her journey to Rio has been rather Odyssean to say the least, it makes one thing abundantly clear: whatever life throws at her, whatever the conditions between now and the finish line this summer, Shelley will be able to handle them.

Good luck from Riverside Boat Club, Shelley!

By: Graeme Calloway