April 2025
Well, this spring season we’re definitely in a pickle. Last fall, we had four senior boys in the team, which made a perfect quad. Now we’re down to just three.
In rowing, three is not a good number. You can’t make a boat with three people.
And you definitely can’t just blend the three seniors into other high school boats. If you put a senior in any boat, it automatically gets bumped up to the senior/varsity category. That means racing against tougher competition—usually U19 teams.
So the only option is to move a junior or sophomore into the senior boat to fill the fourth seat. But that’s a double whammy. First, the younger rower has to be close in size to a senior, otherwise the boat will be unbalanced. And second, if the underclassman is as strong as a senior, then that’s one less key rower for the junior boat.
You might be wondering: Why did the other senior leave? Because most seniors want to ease up in their last semester of high school or focus on their AP classes.
Then you might ask: Why are you still there? Because I’m in it till the end. I didn’t come this far to quit now. I want that last medal, to earn the right to say I did it.
Berk @Nisky 