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Notes on navigating the website:
Move your mouse over the headings on the top blue line and a drop down menu will appear to show the selections available.
Under "Schedule" you will see the "Food Selection", move the mouse over it and left click to get to the food selection menu page.
Charter
To provide information and news for the Parents, Friends, and Alumni of Andover Crew.
Rowing has been a strong program at Andover since the 1950s. We owe our program to the Coach Brown and the first intrepid souls who dared to master the Merrimack. Every generation since then has done their bit to support and grow the program to the amazing experience available to today's young rowers and coxswains. As parents, friends and alumni we should give thanks for the passion shared. Now it is our turn to plan forward for the students not yet infected with the rowing passion. We must build for their future.
Keep the passion alive for another 55 years!
News May 12th. 2012
We started with an email newsletter and moved onto a website, then came facebook, twitter and LinkedIn. Our friends started with home computers and moved to laptops and now smart phones and tablets. So much information so many geeky toys.
In her other life Coach Darby creates applications for Android and iThingy devices. She has offered to create for free an Andovercrew application that would be a single place on your smart phone or tablet to access all the streams of information about Andovercrew. If you think this would be useful please email us at andovercrew@andovercrew.net. We will have a "demo version" at the boathouse next week.We had a gorgeous day at the boathouse with almost 300 athletes from Exeter, Tabor and Andover. We have posted links to the race results and times in the race schedule table below.
We will post a race report and pictures over the coming 48 hours.On May 19th we will host NMH and possibly some Belmont Hill boats. We will race G1 to G5 and B1 to B7. This will be our last race regular season race for this year and our last race at the current boathouse ever!
Our rowers really appreciate the effort family members make to come and see them race. This is your last chance to see them race. Come on down and join the passion. Everyone is welcome.To see a report and pictures for our races at St. Paul's please jump to St. Paul's
Boathouse name
It is now official, the new boathouse will be named for Bill Brown, the founder of the crew program at Andover. Bill Brown guided Andover Crew from the early days as a fledgling team with equipment donated from supportive university programs to 1979 when he retired leaving the program as one of the best in country. He also brought girls into the program even before the merging with Abbot was complete and years before anyone thought of Title IX. We honored Coach Brown at a reunion dinner in 2006 and celebrated his induction into the Andover Hall of Honor with a lunch near his home in Maine in November 2011 a few days before he passed away. He was still full of the joy of Andover rowing and regaled us with stories of the early days. It is fitting that his name will adorn the boathouse that will carry the Andover Crew passion into the next 55 years. You can still make a donation at Boathouse Donations.
Congratulations to Parker Washburn '08, aka the X-Factor, on being invited to U23 selection camp. Parker currently rows for Harvard heavyweights. While thinking of international athletes, we expect Caroline Lind '02 to be rowing for the USA at the London Olympics.
Jorge Mora
Jorge G. Mora '85 has been nominated for election to the Andover board. Jorge is a loyal supporter of Andover Crew. When I sent out an email to raise money for a boat to go to Henley in 2006 Jorge was the first to respond. I explained our budget, how much we had and how much we needed to raise in a short 3 weeks. Jorge immediately offered to cover any shortfall not met by our fund raising. Jorge was there when we needed him. Please vote for Jorge Mora '85 as alumni member of the board.
Spring Crew
Welcome to spring racing with Andover Crew. The early weeks of spring are a bit of a scramble as coaches struggle to assemble groups of 4 ports, 4 starboards and a coxswain into a racing machines. Fall is for fun, spring is all about speed.
A high school race is 1500 meters of continuous full blown exertion. Boats go fast when they have rhythm. That rhythm is sometimes elusive. You have to have the correct blend of eight balanced rowers. It takes great physical and mental strength to pour out every last drop of energy in search of the win.
Please remember that your rowers may be in different boats from week to week. Please ask them on Friday if they have been selected to race.
The rowers will only nibble on pre-race food before the race so they will be famished by the time they return to our boathouse. Our job as parents is to provide food as soon as they come off the water to replenish the energy lost in the race. Most parents live very far away and cannot come to the races every week although every year we have people who travel half way around the world to support our boats. We need every local parent to support our races. The boats go faster if there is a crowd yelling GO BLUE! So come on down!
It is wonderful if you volunteer to help but much more important is that you are there to support your favorite rower.
For directions to our boathouse please go to Directions to The Andover Companies' parking for the Andover Boathouse
See you by the river!Rowing is a team sport. There is no concept of MVP. It is all about the boat and the greater team. The top G1 and B1 boats are made faster by all the rowers below pushing them to justify their places in the top boats. When any boat captures gold at Interschols they are representing the whole team.
Coaches start out with their best guess at boat groupings. They observe the melding of the crew. They make changes to improve the speed. Eventually they may “seat race” the last couple of places in a boat. This means swapping rowers in and out of the boat to see who can make the difference. Spring racing is serious, there is no room for personal preference. Only boat speed matters.The same philosophy applies to coxswains although it is a little more difficult for the casual observer to see and understand. The first requirement of a coxswain is boat safety. The first racing requirement is to steer well in all circumstances. This is not as simple as it sounds. A 60 ft shallow draught boat is wobbled by unbalanced rowers, pulled off course by currents and blown off course by winds. A long thin boat reacts slowly to steering corrections. A good coxswain looks ahead to sense currents and winds to ensure the best true line to the finish. There is always a race plan but the opposition sometimes has other ideas so a good coxswain has to modify the race plan on the fly. So in one of these serious spring races, the coxswain is steering, calling the rowing rate, watching for changes ahead, telling the boat their position in the race and trying to urge them on with calls that connect with their deep down inner strength. There needs to be a bond of trust between the rowers and the coxswain. All of our Andover coxswains are brilliant. On the water only the coach and crew can tell which coxswain fits best with each boat.
As we work through the spring the top boats are usually stable but the lower boats are changed around from week to week as rowing skills improve. Coxswains in the lower boats are also swapped around to try and share the racing experience. The goal of the season is to create top boats that win medals at Interschols and beyond and lower boats that acquire the racing skills to move up in the coming years.
The kids work very, very hard every day on the Merrimack in rain, hail and even snow. Hours of freezing cold, painful muscles and nasty looking hand blisters. All for a race that last about 6 minutes. That is 6 minutes of extreme effort and pain with glory or failure at the end.
So what can parents do? Provide support and encouragement. Share your amazement at their efforts and if you live within traveling distance you can come to the races to yell “Go Blue!” Everyone is very welcome at all the races. The rowers might not always express it very well but they really do appreciate supporters on the river bank. Of course we guarantee bright sunshine for every race.
Races at home and away are almost full day events. The rowers have to eat very carefully before the races and are always ravenous afterwards. The parents organize a food table for the rowers so that each boat can eat as soon as they have stowed their racing shell after the race. We need a group of volunteers to organize and run the food tables at the races. We will post a menu before each race and look for parents to sign up to bring the food. We have about 7 major races plus Interschols. Four of these are home races. We will need a pair of volunteers each week to be responsible for running the food table. Hopefully we will have enough volunteers to spread this load. If you are willing and able to help organize and run the tables please email Andovercrew@andovercrew.net. We have a number of other volunteer tasks such as finish line judge, tweeting results and taking photographs that will need to be filled.
The racing season is HERE! On Saturday April 7th we will open our season with a race against the local Essex rowing club. The time and race course have still to be agreed. Watch this space and facebook for updates. Now it is parents turn to start the season. Please jump to
to sign up to support the food table and other volunteer race day functions. We can assure you that every race day will be bright sunshine and 70 degrees. After all this is April 1st.
Back to TopBoathouse News
Latest news is that the new utilities hve been installed in the boathouse and the new concree floor has been poured inside the building.
We have added new pictures of the boathouse construction to the boathouse page.
Outside the expansion parking areas has been leveled and the work had stated on concrete foundations for the dock ramps.
Here is the link to the Boathouse page
The reconstruction of the renovated boathouse in Methuen is well under way. Underground plumbing is in and the slabs on grade have been poured. Erection of new structural steel begins next week. Boathouse page
A HUGE thank you to the Andover Crew family of Alumni, past parents and present parents. We started out 2011 with approval for a boathouse project. The goal of raising $6.5 million in the prevailing economic climate seemed daunting. Oscar Tang took the lead in the campaign assisted by the fund raising staff of the school and a group of volunteers. The campaign included mailed information, emails, phone calls and personal visits.
The building season in New England is spring to fall. The building program is projected to take 6 months. We needed to have most of the 6.5 million in hand to start the project. Thanks to the fund raising efforts and the generosity of the Andover Crew family we have raised $5.5 million as of January 20th and the school has agreed to allow the program to go ahead.
We still need to reach the final goal of $6.5 million for completion. Ideally we would like to close on this goal before we start building in March. If you need help or assistance in making a donation please contact Ann Harris at 978-749-4312 and aharris@andover.edu or Sam Darby at 978-975-4152 and andovercrew@andovercrew.net. There are still some naming opportunities.There are three major parts of the project. The building, the site and the docks. The building has operated as a truck dealership. The shell will be stripped down, cleaned and refurbished to house a workshop, boat bays, coach facilities, changing rooms for visiting crews and a large multi-function room that could host an erg practice or training course or an alumni dinner. The site is in sad shape and needs extensive work including re-creation of wetlands, re-grading and tarmac. Last but not least we have to build docks out into the Merrimack to launch our racing boats.
We hope to have all this completed by the fall. If all of our gods smile on us we should be able to throw a party in early October to officially open the boathouse. Mark your calendars now! Email us if you have suggestions for how we might celebrate the over 50 years of rowing tradition at Andover when we dedicate the new boathouse. Also email if you have suggestions on how to decorate the great room in the boathouse. The boathouse will be a utilitarian racing facility but we want to wrap it in the rowing tradition of Andover. The great room seems to be the best place to do this. We might have team pictures, oars from great races or audio of coxswains’ calls. All suggestions welcome!
It has been a long 5 years since the idea of a new boathouse was first broached. When Coach Brown was asked for his advice he said "just start the program and don't worry about when it will finish". We are sad that we lost him before we managed to finish but it will be a fitting home for his active positive spirit that is embodied in Andover Crew.
March 10th: The contractor has started to prepare the river bank for the installation of the new docks. This inlcuded removing some trees for access the docks. We have added a few more pictures:
Clearing access to the Merrimack
Making ready for the new docksMarch 3rd: The dream is real. Work has started on the new site. The site has been fenced. All the surface garbage has been removed. The inside has been cleared to a bare empty sad metal shell. More pictures of this phase are posted on Boathouse Phase 1a
Dozer and digger ready to start
Inside has been gutted to an empty shell
Back to TopAlumni News
We have now posted all the rowing pictures from all the Yearbooks we managed to find. Thanks to Ann Harris for arranging the scanning. We have now posted all the yearbooks to http://www.andovercrew.com/YearBook/indexYearBooks.html. Enjoy!. We are still missing Yearbooks for the following years 1958, 1959, 1984,1985, 1991 and 2004.
We have started digging into the history of Andover Crew again.
Here are some old pictures from Henley:
Henley boat
Two of the boat are here
Andover on the Thames
Andover on the ThamesWe have also started a web page for the rowing entries in the Year Books from 1956 when Coach Brown founded Andover Crew. Below is the first entry from 1956. We have now posted all we have on Year Books Andover Crew
We are still missing Year Books for the following years 1958, 1959, 1984,1985, 1991and 2004. If you have a Yearbook for any of these years and are willing to scan it or send it to us to scan please email us at andovercrew@andovercrew.net.
1956 Year Book
Andover Crew Community
Some of us still use ink and paper while others use Blackberries and iPhones to communicate. You can participate with Andover crew via this web page and the links at the top of this page to our Guest book, our Facebook group, our Twitter feed and our LinkedIn group. You can also sign-up for our email newsletter by contacting us at andovercrew@andovercrew.net. We welcome participation, comments, suggestions and especially stories and pictures of Andover rowers young and old. We are happy to help people reconnect with old boatmates.
Our LinkedIn group is our latest addition. We hope our LinkedIn group will provide the opportunity for the Andover Crew family to provide support for our younger rowers as they move into the world. Our young men and women who have maintained good grades while spending 25 to 30 hours a week on competitive rowing at the countries top colleges have already proved that would be valuable additions to any organization that wants to be successful. Membership is only open to rowers, alumni and parents. Click on the picture to join the LinkedIn group..
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Back to TopSt. Paul's '12 races
The weather smiled on us today. In the past this race date has also been the start of black fly season but I think the mixed weather had confused them and saved us from their attacks.
For pictures from the St.Paul's Day click link below
Our thanks to Shirley Fung P’13 and Xiaohong Yin P’14 for running the food table today. Kathy made the extra effort to drive from New Jersey. We should also mention Richard Kennelly who made a last minute detour off the highway to pick up some additional chickens to feed the large tribe of over 100 hungry mouths we had today.
Today was a day for mixed loyalties. For example, Richard Kennelly P ’13 arrived in St. Paul’s as a student with limited athletic talents according to his good wife. St. Paul’s introduced him to the sport of rowing and he responded with a passion that won an Olympic Silver medal in 1988. Kathryn “Luc” Green, our long time girls’ coach, is now teaching at St. Paul’s and helping their girls’ rowing program to their best season in many years. He husband, Chad, will be joining the staff at St. Paul’s in the fall.
Community Rowing Inc. (CRI) was founded in 1985 to bring the benefits of rowing to the Boston Community. Dick Cashin ’71 is a long time supporter of CRI. CRI is now a powerhouse of rowing in the Boston area. CRI has about 1500 people rowing with them each year in programs including high school, adult, military and special needs. Many local Andover rowers join CRI during the summer. CRI has been a leader in developing programs for military and civilian special needs rowers and also in training programs for coaches. The CRI teams we raced today are from their Boston high school programs.
In recent history the CRI girls’ team has been very strong and the boys’ team has been growing in strength. The St. Paul’s team have made the grand final at Interschols but rarely made the medals. This year the girls’ team has been very strong as exemplified by the victory over Kent and Exeter last week.
We raced G1 to G5 and B1 to B6. In the B1, B3 and B4 races Andover won by a length or more over CRI with St. Paul’s coming in third. In the B2 race our boat was 13 seconds ahead of St. Paul’s but was beaten by CRI. So B2 is still undefeated in the NEIRA league. Our B5 won their race with a commanding margin over CRI followed by B6 who were open water over the St. Paul’s B5.
In the girls’ races CRI gave a powerful performance winning all the races. St. Paul’s took second place in the G1 to G3 races as we would have expected from their performance against Exeter and Kent last week. Our G4 managed to beat St. Paul’s by about 6 seats. The G5 race was a dual competition with CRI coming out on top.
Overall a good day for the boys and a tough day for the girls. We have three weeks of training and two home races until Interschols on May 26th.
St.Paul's pictures 1
St.Paul's pictures 2
St.Paul's pictures 3
St.Paul's pictures 4
St.Paul's pictures 5
B7 Lawrence races
On Friday our B7 divided into 2 fours and went to do race pieces with the Lawrence rowing club. Our boats did very well, coming first and second in every piece.
Back to TopSalisbury '12 races
We had a great day at the lake in Salisbury. A big thank you to all the parents and grandparent who made the trip.
On this Saturday we raced B1 to B7 against Salisbury. Salisbury were down a few rowers due to illness. Overall it was a great day for our boats. As always Salisbury were wonderful hosts. Thank you to the brave parents who made the long journey. It was a fun day for all in a beautiful lakeside setting.
The first race was B3. Our B3 lived up to Coach Hurley's exhortation "Remember, if you are not enjoying yourself what do you do? Row harder!" The results reported on Row2k have been corrected to show Andover B3, Andover B4, Salisbury B3. Our B3 rowed "harder" than everyone else.
Our B2 and B1 fell into a pattern and got the job done with strong winning races.
Our B5 brought home the final Andover victory in style. Andover B6 jumped a seat in the first few meters and effectively rowed the race with their 7 seat unable to move full distance because the stroke seat was stationary and rowing with arms and no legs because he did not have a moving seat. Bravo to B6 for coming in second out of four with only 6+ rowers. True Grit! Our B7 closed the day with a good effort.
First Outing
Sending off B1
Parental Support
Near empty food tableWe have uploaded some pictures from Salisbury.
Salisbury pictures 1
Salisbury pictures 2
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Andover Exeter Invitational at Lake Quinsigamond '12
Some photos have been uploaded.
We raced B1 to B5 and G1 to G4 with Exeter, Simsbury, Brookline, and Shrewsbury for both boys and girls plus St. John's in the boys' races and Boston Latin in the girls' races.The weather was bright and sunny but with a strong head wind. The wind made the floating start more like trying to catch multiple butterflies with one net. Floating starts mean that the starter tries to get the boats to line up for the start. No mean feat with 6 or 7 boats on a calm day but with a strong head wind the chances of all boats staying in line for more than a few seconds are pretty small.
A link to the results has been posted in the race schedule table.
Multi-boat start in the wind
B2 to after a less exciting win this weekWe have uploaded more pictures from from Lake Q.
Lake Quinsigamond pictures 1
Lake Quinsigamond pictures 2
Lake Quinsigamond pictures 3
Lake Quinsigamond pictures 4
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Kent '12 races
Well we had the best race weather of many years for our battle with Kent. The turnout of supporters was wonderful and we had visits from the Athletic Director, Mike Kuta and Associate Head of School, Rebecca Sykes.
Our boys and girls teams are at very different stages of their life cycles. The boys are in a very strong position and our girls are rebuilding their teams. Both the boys and girls went into this weekend with strong respect for the Kent boats that are normally very powerful at the beginning of the season. Andover usually improves more over the spring and by Interschols is the equal or better of Kent.
Traditionally the lower boats race first and the top boats race last. I am not sure if this is to make the afternoon more exciting or it is just the way it has been done for 100 year but this weekend we upset the applecart because some senior boys had to leave early to start their college visiting weekend.
So first out of the blocks was the B1 race for the Dent Oars named for a wonderful gentleman, John Dent who coached at both Andover and Kent. He currently lives and coaches in Cambridge England. Our B1 was the same compliment of rowers as the previous week against Essex but with a little rearrangement of the seating. There are many books and web pages dedicated to the science of rowing and coaching but people will still tell you there comes a time when a good boat just ”clicks”. It comes together, everything finds a balance and feels as one. And so it was with B1 this week.
The Kent boat looked strong and fit. Not that our boat did not look well. The rowing fashion watchers might have noticed that this year instead of wearing the now ubiquitous uni-suit our boys are wearing spandex shorts and rowing shirts. Almost all colleges have gone over to the uni-suit except Washington and CAL who just happen to be almost always in the top three fast boats in the country.
Both boats were strong off the start and raced hard going through the bridge. Andover settled and found a solid rhythm and started to stretch out ahead. As they came towards the last 500 meters you could feel the tension amongst the Kent supporters. Kent did make an attempt to push into the Andover lane but even this did not phase our boys. They held tough through the last 500 meters and came in about a boat length ahead.
After this we reverted to the more tradition race order with the G4 race. This was a first ever race most our G4 girls, many of whom are new to rowing. Our girls rowed well given their experience level but gave up open water to the stronger Kent boat.
We raced our B4 and B5 against the Kent B4. This race displayed the depth of the program with B4 rowing hard to fend off competition from our B5 by about a length and followed by the Kent boat in third place.
Next up were the G3 and B3 boats. A pattern was settling in. The B3 boat scorched up the river winning with margin of almost 20 seconds while our girls put in a respectable performance but could not match the speed of the Kent boat.
In many races the boats try to make a last desperate dash in the last 500 meters. This usually involves moving up in the rowing rate. This is a difficult transition especially early in the season. With about 600 meters to go our G2 caught a “crab” but recovered well to stay In the race. Coach Washburn has been heard to tell his rowers to have a boring race. Well B2 provided us with the most exciting race of the day. They started very strong and pushed out almost a length ahead of Kent. It looked like another Andover victory but the Kent boys came back with a vengeance from the 500 meter mark and as they passed the boathouse you could see that Kent were gaining on Andover with every stroke. By the time they reached the finish line the spectators could not tell who as in front and the finish flag went up and down it seemed as fast as the finish line judge, Pete McKallagat, could move his arm. We had to wait for the coaches launch to come back down to tell us that Andover had held on and won by 3/10ths of second or in boat terms – a deck. You can’t help but feel for the Kent crew and you knew that B2 would be hearing from the coaches about boring races.
The last race of the day was the G1 race. The Kent girls were visibly larger. They rowed with the precision and style of a boat that had gone south for pre-season and had a solid extra 2 or 3 weeks of water time. Our G1 did rowed courageously but did not have the speed to threaten to take the Hart Perry Trophy from Kent this year. We will meet again and next time the race will be closer.
We presented the trophies to winners and dined at the food table including hot homemade Sheppard’s Pie all the way from New York. We had parents from as far away as Florida and the West coast.
The Dent Oars stayed home!.
We have posted pictures of the Kent races
Click here for more pictures Kent 1
Click here for more pictures Kent 2
Click here for more pictures Kent 3
Click here for more pictures Kent 4
Click here for more pictures Kent 5
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Racing April 7th Essex
A big thank you to all the parents who brought food last Saturday and to the photographers who have shared their pictures with me. I will post them in the next 48 hours. It was a great start to the season.
This past Saturday was a day for the unusual. We were racing Essex rowing club as a preseason scrimmage for our boats. It was a bright sunny but cold day. Our boats launched and returned to our boathouse but raced upriver well out of sight of the boathouse.
Normally the water by the boathouse is rough compared with the more sheltered area above the bridge but last weekend the opposite was true. As the day progressed the wind increased and the rowing conditions became worse. The wind combined with the currents to make the coxswain’s job a little bit testy.
Our hosts had decided to use stake boats. Strange name since you cannot put a stake in the river. A stake boat is a boat that is moored to a fixed place for the start of a race. Each boat is required to reverse to the stake boat so that the stern can be held in position until the start. Sounds easy with a boat of rowers experienced at rowing in reverse with no wind and good instructions. Needless to say the river gods had their fun with all the boats on Saturday. The river gods also played with the wind and current to take some boats off course and out of the central current. A couple of boats found themselves at a disadvantage as the river took them off course. After the races we did throw some coxswains in the river. Hopefully this will appease the river god and we will be treated better during the Kent race.
On the girl side we graduated the majority of our G1 and G2 boats so this spring the coaches have a very tough job of rebuilding the top boats. The first race of the day was G1 and G2 against Essex. The river gods had a little bit of fun. On the luck of the draw G1 was on the outside lane where the wind and the current conspired to take them away from the center current. Essex rowed a good race to take victory with G2 second and G1 coming in last.
As the conditions became tougher G3 went against the Essex G2 and lost by open water. We have significant work to do before we face Kent. The Kent girls have been on the water longer than us and will come ready for battle.
The first boys’ race was B6 and B7 against Essex. These boats were entirely novices with only 3 weeks rowing experience. Rowing all eight at the same time should be a challenge for these boats. Essex took a length lead off the start and seemed certain to win. Some people say you can only judge character when you see people in adversity. If that is true then our B6 has character by the bucket load. Essex jumped out in front off the start. It seemed the race was over but B6 dug deep into their souls and went after Essex taking them in the last 500 to win by a second. B7 came in third The Andover boats were selected to be equal in height, weight and strength but B6 found the grit to overcome adversity.
We have started to post pictures from last week
Click here for more pictures Essex 1
Click here for more pictures Essex 2
Click here for more pictures Essex 3
Click here for more pictures Essex 4
Click here for more pictures Essex 5
Enjoy!
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Early Spring Crew
The girls are preparing for racing season under the watchful eye of Coach Bouscaren.
Our coaching staff includes USA rowers and national champions but only Coach Bouscaren has had his rowing exploits documented in a book, “The Amateurs” by David Halberstam and a movie “Rowing Through”. Despite a busy medical practice and coaching at CRI, he takes the time to share his knowledge and experience with the Andover girls rowing team. He understands the physical effort and mental focus required to be a successful rower.
Style and power
Wishing for the waterPre-season
We have uploaded pictures from the B1 & B2 joint exercise with Belmont Hill.
Here is the link
Belmount Race_1
Belmount Race_2
Belmount Race_3
Enjoy!March 31st: Sunshine!! The first day on the water was 70 degrees...but this is New England and Mother Nature was just lulling our rowers into a false sense of physical comfort. As the days have progressed the weather has become colder. As a special April fools treat today it was snowing...yes snowing.
The crew tribe is 122 strong this spring. The girls graduated almost all of G1 and G2 last year so with 53 students they will be rebuilding this year. This is the opportunity for younger girls to step up. The boys are looking strong and deep with 69 students. Competition for boats will be intense. The coaches will have their hands full. The coaches for the spring will be Coach Peter Washburn, Coach Dale Hurley, Coach Michelle Darby '07 for the boys and Coach Sallie Batchelor '99, Coach Joe Bouscaren, Coach Becca Waldo '07 for the girls. Commons will be stretched when the over 10% of their clientele arrive late and very very hungry every weekday! Go Blue!The boys today hosted 2 boats of visitors from Belmont rowing team. It was v-v-v-ery c-c -cold on the Merrimack this morning with light snow flurries. We raced a number of 2 boat 3 minute pieces. The Belmont B1 was faster than our B1 but the Andover B2 was faster than Belmont. We finished with a short racing piece with all 4 boats with Belmont taking 1st. and 4th. and Andover taking 2nd. and 3rd. It was a good competitive preseason work out for both teams. The Belmont coach, Chris Richards, is an '81 Andover crew alum.
March 15th: Spring is here!. The first early bird rowers will be launching onto the Merrimack this week. The splashing, lurching boats of the fall will be the smooth running racing machines of the spring slicing through the Merrimack whitecaps like a hot saber through shaved ice. Time for parents and supporters to break out the hot, cold, wet, dry spring clothes in preparation for long afternoons by the river yelling GO BLUE!! Everyone is needed. We need volunteers for food tables, picture taking, twitter sending and finish line flag people. Help make the spring a fun and successful time for the team. Learn the rowing language at vocabulary
and check out
Pushing the dock in place
Securing the dock
Girls getting ready
Andover Crew is back!We have started to post photographs. We try to capture everyone but with 120 kids this can be a challenge. Here is a start.
Preseason rowing_1
Preseason rowing_2
Preseason rowing_3
Enjoy!
The Mighty Merrimack is free of ice. The river is calling the rowers to free their boats from the frozen snow covered boathouse. The rowers must prepare. In a few short weeks they will be expected to race their hearts out over 1500 meter of water. They must prepare their bodies for this huge effort. This past week the beloved erg machines have been brought out of storage to the Smith building. Three rows of eight torture machines. Rowing is not a genteel sport. There is no physical contact with your opponent but rowing is a very physical sport. Erging is just you and a machine against the world. Just take a seat, attach the foot straps, grab the pull bar and then push with your feet, pull with your arms as hard as you can for 2000 meters. A 7:00 minute 2k takes about 300 watts so the 24 rowers all doing 2ks generate about 7.2 KW of energy.
Click here for more Erg pictures.
Girls at the catch
Guys at the finishThey will push their lungs, heart and muscles to the limit. They will feel the pain in their muscles thanks to the lactic acid. The effort and motion makes them want to throw up. There is a reason erg rooms have large plastic buckets. All this for a few metaphorical inches. The inches that make the difference between winning and losing. When a rower needs that extra strength in the last 500m meters to eek out those extra few inches they will be glad for the effort spent on the erg.
A rower is not a typical teenager. To output 300 watts in a few minute means they have to eat more than your average teenager. The training means extra muscles where some may not have had them before. And then there are the rower’s hands. Most school kids have soft delicate hands that have never known hard labor. A rower’s handshake tends to illicit an involuntary look of surprise on the recipient. People do not expect high school students to have the hands of a manual laborer. Calluses and blisters are a price the rower has to pay for all the work done.
Other Fall information
We have posted some fall pictures at Fall pictures 1 and Fall pictures 2.
Andover Crew is featured in an article in the October edition of Rowing News. Coach Washburn is quoted by author Alessandra Bianchi explaining the fall rowing program. If anyone would like a free copy mailed to them then simply send you name and address to Andovercrew@andovercrew.com.
For the fall Coach Washburn will lead the boys and Coach Hurley the girls. Becca Waldo '07 and Michelle Darby '07 are returning to PA as crew coaches. Becca rowed these past four years for Bates College and Michelle coxed for the University of Washington. It seems only yesterday when these two were racing for Andover.
Alumni boat in the Head of the Charles
This fall the Friends of Andover Crew aka BIG BLUE will be racing in the Head of the Charles Regatta. Chris Maietta '74 and Maggie Klarberg Kennedy '96 applied for Men’s and Women’s racing entries for the Alumni event at the HoCR. In the lottery we were not awarded a place for the women but we do have an entry for the men.
Our BIG BLUE boat of alumni will race on Saturday 22nd at 10.55 am. We will celebrate with lunch at the Andover tent in the Reunion Village afterwards. We will start a page on this website for the Alumni team.
The team so far is Tom Boyle '74, Forty Conklin '79, Dave Lippold '74, John Pawlowski '74, Carl Taeusch '63, Randy Tagg '73, Hunter Washburn '00, Vincent Broderick '71 and Sarah Sherman '04. We are hoping the team will join us for a practice during Parent's day at the boathouse and everyone is invited to the Andover Crew tent at the HoCR to cheer the boat on Saturday morning.
All traditions have to start somewhere and we hope this will be the start of a new tradition of entering both men’s and women’s boats in the alumni event. Click on the picture for the HoCR team page.2011 USRowing Junior National Championship
Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the fastest of them all. Well in rowing there is only one way to know. A race over 1500 m. The B1 boat won Interschols to prove they were the fasted boat in New England. For years other rowers questioned whether or not New England schools were as fast as they claimed. In the very recent years Andover and Kent have put their reputations on the line and entered in the USRowing Junior National Championships. Andover has entered in 2009 and again this year. In 2009 the B1 boat won Silver.
This year B1 again went up against the very best rowing teams from all over the USA. They continued to train every day after Interschols. Early morning rowing in June on a glass-like Merrimack with their boat will be a memory they will cherish for years to come.
Our B1 won their Heat and came second in the Semi Final and again raced in the Final to win the Silver medal. Of all the junior rowing schools and clubs from Florida to Washington State, from California to Maine there is only one single team that can manage to row 1500 m faster than Andover. Not bad for medium sized high school in the suburbs of Boston. Pretty good for the 8 rowers and coxswain who manage to train while also surviving the demanding academic rigor of Andover. Not a bad story for these rowers to tell their grand children 50 years from now when they are the same age as the students who founded Andover Crew.
Click here for some photos of B1 in action and on the podium picture hard rowThis year Phillips academy recognized Tom Pollack, a 1961 rower, who went on to row in the Olympics by inducting him into the Athletic Hall of Honor. 50 years on our B1 boat is continuing and expanding on the tradition started all those years ago. These young rowers honored Tom Pollack by showing that the spirit of the ’61 rowers is alive and growing at Andover.
Our thanks also to all the parents, especially Stewart MacDonald and Margery Kennelly, who organized and financed the trip to Oak Ridge Tennessee. There were flights, hotels, food, transportation and uniforms to be organized in a very short period of time. Coach Washburn assisted by Walker Washburn drove the trailer all the way to Oak Ridge. Our thanks to the school for supporting the team training after school had finished and Bob the bus driver and enthusiastic supporter who made sure they were on time for training and their flight to Tennessee. A great effort by all.
What a way to end our season. Congratulations to our coaches on their incredible success this year.
Jump to
- All you didn't want to know about crew
- Training & Fun
- How parents help the passion
- Spring Schedule, Results and Directions
- Rowing links - Including tips for spring training.
- Henley '06
- Alumni Page - Andover Crew, the last 54 years
- Alumni Corner - Sample pictures
- Rowing Stories '12
- Rowing Stories '11
- Rowing Stories '10
- Rowing Stories '09
- Rowing Stories '08
- Rowing Stories '07
- Rowing Stories '06
- Rowing Stories '05
- Parent Help Sign Up
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If your are a rower, please take the time to show your parents how to access this page.
You can also nagivate using the drop down menu on the top of the screen under the purple line.
There are also nagivation buttons at the end of the page.
The Spirit of Andover Crew
Crew is a little different from other sports. All the students, boys and girls, everyone from varsity first boat to the sixth boat, train together, practice together, race together. Everyone jumps on the same bus for the bone-rattling trip to the boathouse. Everyone helps with the launches. Everyone shares the same cold wet days on the Merrimack. Everyone shares the same pain, the same pleasure. Everyone will have the same joy as the boat starts to sync and the speed increases. There is no individual effort. There is no individual glory. Only one boat, eight rowers, one coxswain, one shell. A racing boat.
Below is a multimedia section including a video of this year's (07) interschols, Michelle's call and video from Henley '06 and a documentary video about Andover crew made by Katherine Adams '06. Recently we have noticed people referring to Andover crew as a world class program. The shallow reason for such an accolade is probably the recent racing performance such as B1 with two silvers and a gold and G1 with three silvers in the last three New England Championships. We think the program is world class because of the spirit of Andover crew down through all 12 boats. We hope the videos below will help you visit again with the spirit of Andover crew.Interschols '07 Video
Click the links below for Interschol video thanks to Jim Moroney.
Click here for Interschol video part 1
Click here for Interschol video part 2
Click here for Interschol video part 3
Abingdon Race Henley '06 - Michelle's Coxswain's Call: You can feel the spirit as you listen to this race from Henley '06. Abingdon, one of the top English schools, used their fantastic start to take an early lead of over a boat length. Lesser crews would have crumbled. Andover clawed back into the race and then pulled off a tremendous sprint to take the victory.
Click the CONE for a video combination of the coxswain's recording and the TV recording of the Abingdon-Andover race. The video will start with a photograph of the team racing at Henley. The TV footage from www.rowtv.co.uk will appear for the last 500 meters.
Andover Crew video: Katherine Adams created this Andover crew video in the Spring of '04. As you watch this movie I think you will appreciate that Andover Crew is something very special. We have split the movie into four parts to make it easier to play and download. Please click on the link and it will play using Media Player. You may also right click on each part to download the four files and then use the 'open' command under 'file' to select all four to play as a group.
Andover Crew Video Part 1
Andover Crew Video Part 2
Andover Crew Video Part 3
Andover Crew Video Part 4
Courtesy of Katherine Adams '06
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General Information
Head Coaches:
Boys' Head Coach: Pete Washburn
Spring Crew:
Girls' Head Coach: Sallie Batchelor
Boys: Coach Peter Washburn, Coach Dale Hurley and Coach Michelle Darby
Girls: Coach Sallie Batchelor, Coach Joe Bouscaren and Coach Becca WaldoGirls' Team Captain '12: Emily Adler
Boys' Team Captain '13: Henry KennellyO Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;Walt Whitman
This Website is run by Parents, Friends and Alums of Andover Crew to inform and involve parents and alums in the Andover Crew program
The FALL crew season is the time for fun. Many new students have never been in a rowing boat. The experienced and novice students are mixed together in a process that starts with lots of splashing and little speed through the water. The teams progress with advice and encouragement from the coaches as well as laughter and hard work from the students. Eventually every boat is powering through the water with every oar moving as though the rowers were part of one being. Students who used to run inside at the first drop of rain will soon be happily braving even snow showers for the opportunity to spend the afternoon on the river. Hard to believe? Come and see!
Your students will soon be speaking a new language. You too can learn a little more or understand their new vocabulary
Rowing requires great skill and co-ordination. Here are some extra challenges that a student can try during the school vacation. What about Sculling ?
The program has about 100 girls and boys. They row mostly 'eights' and a few 'fours'
Everyday they are bused to and from the boathouse on the Merrimack River. There is an incredible camaraderie amongst the crew students. Maybe it is the daily bus journey, maybe the shared battle with the elements, maybe the fact that crew is a true team effort? Maybe it is just the shared experience of a few hours together away from the pressure of schoolwork? It is a pleasure to see this happy relaxed group working hard and having fun together.
Spring term is racing season. The competitive spirit kicks in as they start training for races. Andover competes against schools from all over the North East such as Exeter, Kent, NMH, St Paul's, St. John's, Tabor and others. Andover also competes at the New England Interscholastic Regatta (NEIRA) in May.
Spring is also the time for parents and friends to join in with practical help and support. The Saturday races are almost full day events with Andover fielding from 6 to 10 boats against the competition. Supporters travel to the races and provide our teams with food and drink throughout the day. If you have been to any of the races, you will know the extraordinary amount of nourishment required to support a hard racing team. The support and encouragement of the parents and fellow racers contributes greatly to the team. The races are also fun events for students and parents together. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to come, even if you can only make it to one of the races. If you live far away you can make a contribution that will be used to provide the food for the races and the end of season barbecue.
Apart from the school website, this website is the primary source for information. For more interactive and immediate news we have a Facebook group "Friends of Andover Crew". For real time race results we use a twitter account called "andovecrew". We have also started a Linkedin group called "Andover Crew". Membership of these groups is open to Parents, Friends and Alumni of Andover Crew.
Over the years parents and friends have also supported the program with donations of equipment. In the past few years donations have paid for trips overseas, new ergs, new docks, launches and of course new racing boats. With up to 6 racing boats for each of the boys and girls, the hand-me-down boats are pretty old and battered by the time they reach the lower boats even if they are passed on every couple of years. The process needs new boats every 2 to 3 years. In recent years we have added a number of new boats for the girls. This past spring we added new boats to the boys program thanks to very generous donations from parents of both boys and girls. Over the winter we had 4 new erg machines donated. All this while we have been raising money for a new boathouse.
At the very least, crew will allow your student to have fun, exercise, make new friends and learn a new skill. It may also be the start of a life long passion.
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Training and Fun
Some guidance for the art of erging with skill and style. Read and inwardly digest this guidance and then do the complete opposite and you will have perfection!
Now that the crews are on the water, some people will be catching crabs. If you are going to do something, you might as well excel at it. Here are instructions for catching a really good crab!
For a video of a real-life ejector crab from the MIT website, thanks to Kit H. Click here You will need a mp4 player such as QuickTime or DIV/X.
Catching a crab can be a race stopping event. Check out the youtube video from San Diego at 1 min 24 secs. Click Ejection crab
Diet is very important for all of us. Strenuous sports such as Crew add an extra dimension to diet planning. Eating properly is essential for good health. Some useful advice for rowers and parents bringing food to races can be found in this Training diet guide link. Staying healthy should be the first priority.
Crew first day on the water
Crew after a week with the coaches - see technique instruction
Strokes thru' the ages
I know we have many alumni who go weepy eyed at the sight of an old wooden boat and cannot believe that the feather light modern oars can propel a boat at speed. Michael Callahan of the Universiy of Washington has written an interesting article comparing the stroke used in 1949 with that of today. To see this article Click here
The 1949 boat merged with the 2009 boat.If all this exertion is too much for you and you would rather some very light training , then try simulated crew with this game for your family. interesting board games.
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Parental Support
In the Fall our duty as parents is to make supporting, understanding nods at the comments that crew is "awesome", "tough", "exhilarating" and of course pretend that we understand the new language. We must not comment on the new found appetites, tendency to dress in layers and almost complete immunity to the weather. In Spring the racing season offers a direct opportunity for parents to participate. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend the race meetings and yell "GO BLUE". The students really appreciate the loyal band of supporters to cheer them to victory. The races are exhilarating, exhausting and appetite creating and that is just for the supporters. Over the duration of the race meeting, the parents provide a hospitality table for our athletes to quench their thirst and quell their hunger after a hard race.
We can have up to 120 hungry students to feed. You would be amazed at the amount of food consumed. Our athletes are very serious about what they eat before and after a race. It appears they really listen to all the comments about healthy eating that you thought had fallen on deaf ears.
Check out what rowers should and should not eat and when
In Spring we publish a sample menu for the food table. Everyone can join in by bringing food or making a donation to purchase food.
Click here for the food menu for our race If your child has any special food requirements or preferences please have them inform us before the races and email andovercrew@andovercrew.net
To make every race a fun filled success we need loads of help from parent volunteers. Parents can bring food, organize the food table, take pictures, send twitter results and even write up rce day reports for the website. Every little bit of help makes the boats go faster.
Click here for the sign up sheet.Parent Volunteer Sign UpThe most important thing parents can do is provide encouragement and, if possible, come to support the students at Parents Weekend in the Fall and the races in the Spring. A crew program needs good equipment to be competitive. The Andover crew program has also benefited over the past 50 years from parent and alumni donations. Much of our equipment has been acquired with these donations. Hence the funny names on the boats -- "Pete & Jerry", Cashin. Lone Star and Coach Moss. When crews have won the right to attend the Henley Regatta in London, it has only been possible with the generous donations of parents and alumni to pay for a trip that will be remembered for a lifetime.
If you would like to be on our email list please email us at andovercrew@andovercrew.net.
Top 7 Reasons To Be A Crew Mom/Dad
1. Cooking lunch for the kids on the team is like cooking for a small village.
2. The people from the Child Abuse Prevention Center keep calling about the cuts and bruises on the backs of your child's legs.
3. Standing in the rain and mud on Saturdays in April is much better than relaxing at home.
4. What the hell is a unisuit?
5. Your kids haven't gone to bed this early since they were two years old.
6. You can personally keep Johnson & Johnson in business by buying Band-Aids, gauze, and Neosporin for all their blisters.
7. After all these years they finally eat everything on their plate.
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Back to Jump
Spring Schedule
To live is to row, to row is to race, to race is to test the limits. NEIRA beckons.
A Call to Oars:
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To the full height. On, on, you noblest rowers.
Whose limbs were made in New England show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'Go for myself, my family and Andover Crew!'
(Mostly from Henry V Act 3 Scene 1)
- Apologies to Will Shakespeare.
How many boats depends the other school.
Proposed Andover Spring Racing Schedule 2012 Date Day Team Opponent Site Time 07-Apr-2012 Sat Boys B1-B7 Essex tentative Home Results 07-Apr-2012 Sat Girls G1-G3 Essex tentative Home Results 14-Apr-2012 Sat Boys B1-B5 Kent Home Results 14-Apr-2012 Sat Girls G1-G4 Kent Home Results 21-Apr-2012 Sat Boys B1-B5 St. Johns,Simsbury,Exeter Away Results 21-Apr-2012 Sat Girls G1-G4 Simsbury,Exeter Away Results 28-Apr-2012 Sat Boys B1-B7 Salisbury Away Results 4-May-2012 Fri Boys B7 Lawrence Home Andover 5-May-2012 Sat Boys B1-B6 St. Pauls Away Results 5-May-2012 Sat Girls G1-G5 St. Pauls Away Results 12-May-2012 Sat Boys B1-B7 Tabor-Exeter Home Results 12-May-2012 Sat Girls G1-G5 Tabor-Exeter Home Results 19-May-2012 Sat Boys B1-B7 N.M.H. Home 12.30 PM 19-May-2010 Sat Girls G1-G5 N.M.H Home 12.30 PM 26-May-2010 Sat Boys B1-B3 Interscholastics (NEIRA) Away 9.00 AM 26-May-2010 Sat Girls G1-G3 Interscholastics (NEIRA) Away 9.00 AM For past years' results go to http://www.row2k.com/results/
The time listed are approximate times for the first racing boat to go on the water. The teams and supporters arrive about an hour earlier to setup for the races.
GO BLUE!!
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Directions:
For direction to all of our regular season away racing venues click here
Follow the direction to Andover Companies for the Andover Boathouse
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Alumni Corner
New Alum Stories
Here are some yearbook pictures. Please see if you can guess the year and name any of the people. These are also posted on Facebook. You can email your answers to andovercrew@andovercrew.net or post them in the guest book. See the "guestbook" icon on the top of this page.
1960s?
1970s?
Year?
Year?
Early 1980s?
Year?
For more alumni store click here Alumi Corner
Year Books Andover Crew
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Related links
We believe all of the links are working again. Please leave a message in the guest book if you have any problems with the links or if you have a favorite link that you would like us to add to our list.
- Link to NEIRA 2011
- Erg Competition - Boston
- If you ever wonder why you need a good coxswain
- Rowing fun for those of you who hate stationary erg machines
- Pre-race speech by Canadian coach. Right click to "Save Target as" (Be warned, it includes swear words)
- Rowing songs, thanks to Twickenham Rowing Club
- What do rowers do during Spring Break? Train to be ready for Spring
- Useful page including training and food tips
- Animated rowing technique instruction - Source of gifs
- Rowing board game
- Test your knowledge on a crew quiz
- The School Page - New England Champions '59, '62, '64, '65, '77, '88, 89, '90, '91, '92, '93, '95, '00, '03, '07, '08, '09, '10, '11
- The boats we row - Vespoli V1 racing boat
- Rowing Illustrated - Discussion board
- Row2k - Rowing results and lots more
- Rowing News - The magazine for rowing
- Henley Royal Regatta (Boys)
- Henley Women's Regatta (Girls)
- USA Youth National Championships
- Summer Rowing Camps
- Another list of Summer Rowing Camps
- Community Rowing a wonderful summer competitive rowing program in Boston
- NorthEast Rowing Center - Popular with Andover rowers and college coaches
- Eton College Summer Rowing camp - Across the pond but a world class coed program.
- Colleges - Places to study while you row
- Top Colleges in the world according to the Shanghai Jiao Tong University
- Top Colleges in the world according to the Times of London
- History of rowing site
- Curlew rowing - Home of the creator of the erg cartoon
- Leander rowing club - Club of the pink Hippo, Coach Washburn and Henley winners
- Crew 2004 (Credits : Michelle E '04)
- More Crew 2004 (Credits : Kate I '05)
- Source of the Valentine pandas & penguins
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Andover crew Hats - THE definitive fashion statement this Spring
We have re-ordered Andover Crew hats. Every rower and coach will a free hat before Grandparents' Weekend. Over 130 hats. Additional hats have been purchased for parents, friends and alumni of Andover Crew. These hats are available for a donation of $15 plus postage if required. Wear your hat when you visit the campus to show your support for the crew program. When we reach a 150 donations, we will have covered the cost of the hats for the rowers.
If you would like a hat please email andovercrew@andovercrew.net. We will email you donation instructions. The hats are lightweight with a built in sweat band.:
Andover Crew Hat - front
Andover Hat - back
We also have a small quantity of dark blue and light blue visors for $10.
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