Bladework - The Haverford Crew Newsletter, Vol. 6

BLADEWORK The Haverford School Crew Newsletter Vol. 6

Junior Double PSRA City & Stotesbury Champions

In this Issue: Fall 2021 Team Information Martinelli Family Chair of Rowing Jonathan Stephanik Assistant Coach - Matt Scheuritzel ‘08 Assistant Coach - John Suter Assistant Coach - Jessica Zettlemoyer Assistant Coach - Eamon Glavin ‘14

What a year makes Fall and Winter Rowing Racing Spring 2021 Summer 2021 We need your help

FHSR President - Garth Hoyt ‘89

Want to write an article for the next crew newsletter?

Reach out to Coach Stephanik with your idea.

WHAT A YEAR MAKES

Zoom team meetings, virtual workouts, and graduations with only 4 or 5 people in the room. The last 16 months have been tough on both the school and program. In 2020, we said goodbye to our senior class through emails, social media posts, and brief interactions on door steps and front yards. Oh there was a lot of mask wearing. Lots of masks.

The spring brought hope and enthusiasm when it was announced in the second week of March that there was going to be a spring racing season. A bit different than past regatta years but at least racing would return to the Schuylkill. The Fords took advantage of the opportunity and the goal was to improve and find more speed with each race.

Summer 2020 brought only rowing in singles, no team boats, a hurricane that flooded and damaged the boathouse, and a lot of uncertianty for the upcoming school year and rowing season. Many athletes took advantage of training outdoors at CRC. After a Covid Screening each day athletes would jump into singles to get 4-8 miles of rowing and then clean everything up for the next group to roll in. The programming consisted of 6 weeks of rowing with 4 sessions per day for coaches to make sure they were getting as many athletes on the water as possible.

Restrictions started to lesson and warm weather brought more opportunities to race. A number of the Haverford athletes took advantage of racing with the CRC. Many of the guys were racing in both sweep and sculling events. They had a very successful summer season with many of them bringing home medals from several of the summer regattas.

In the fall it was much of the same. The team added 4 more singles to its fleet to accomodate more rowing. No racing, but the Haverford guys split into 2 groups (Maroon and Gold) and rotated getting on the water every other day in singles. The fall extended into November to stay on the water as long as possible. Lots of miles and great experience in small boats.

Now we are back preparing for this fall and things are starting to tighten up again. Preseason has been great outdoors and we are on the river in both singles and team boats. Unfortunately, indoor activities are restricted again and masks are back - NO MORE MASKS! Another Hurricane looms and fingers crossed the boathouse and docks can withstand its fury.

Whatever good or bad is put infront of us we will battle and work through them in anticipation of that next race and opportunity to drape some hardware around our necks.

2021 SPRING ROSTER ---- Seniors ---Bryson Bernhardt Henri Wache Seneker Zelov Beau Christopher Brian Williams ---- Juniors---Wells Benson William Morris Jake Brewington Jack Payne Chase Herz Pranav Dixit Wyatt Johnson

Conrad Reller John Zhang Stephen Walker Grady Herbert Max Rosenberger ---- Sophomores---Andrew Case Alex Hermann Cole Pressman Cameron Douglas Connor Pinsk Connor Rall Douglas Leatherwood George Vollmer

Harrison McCullough Matt Straub Nicholas Birdsall Zachary Elder Evan Wang Megh Tank Love McCune Jacob Sellari Robert Murray Jack Squillaro Alphonso Evans Roch Paraye Jack Suter Orion Wister

---- Freshman ---Matt Jones-Blisard Anders Bartholdson Justin Fan Anthony Valentino Dawson Baker Quintin Bowers James Mackey Jackson Harrington Ben Hoyt Lowen Etherington Render Ford William Seward Nicholas Hayne Matty Jones William Walker Ryan Brewington

Follow the team on Instagram (haverfordcrew) and Twitter (@Fords_Crew)

Fall and Winter Rowing

The fall 2020 did allow the team to be on the water again, but we were limited to singles only. Sharing resources bewteen the school and club, Conshohocken Rowing Center, the team had access to over 20 shells.

We split the upper classman into two groups (Maroon and Gold) of 20 and rotated practices on the river and land. By the end of the fall, everyone was able to row a single.

The winter was very different than years past. Due to space limitations and capacity guidelines the team was not able to train together on campus. All workouts were emailed out weekly and tracked through shared docs. Some of the athletes really took advantage of the workouts but as a whole prepapration for an uncertain spring season was lacking and not where the Fords normally were moving into racing.

The team hopes that things can go back to normal for the 2021-22 academic year and be on the regular training schedule.

Spring 2021

Golf Outing

The crew program had a good turn out in numbers for the 2021 season with many of the athletes being beginners due to missing the previous spring racing season. With almost 60 athletes on the team, more than 50% were considered freshman or Novice.

The team competed in 5 regattas, averaging a dozen entries in each. At the championship regattas, highlights include three medals from PSRA City Championships (2 gold, 1 bronze) and two medals at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta (1 gold, 1 silver). Jack Payne ’22 and Chase Herz ‘22 won both the City Championships and Stotesbury Regatta in the Junior Double. Beau Christopher ‘21 and Bryson Bernhardt ‘21 won City’s and placed 2nd at Stotesbury’s in the Varsity Lightweight Double. The Junior quad also won bronze at CIty’s. Unfortunately, the SRAA National Championships were cancelled due to weather.

With a pretty young squad and more than a dozen seniors in the 2022 class, the team is lining up for a very successful spring season.

2021 Spring Team Picture

This year there will be two Alumni Parent golf outings through the school.

The first one being in the fall - The Doc Thomas Memorial Golf Classic on Monday, Sept. 27, 2021at Rolling Green Golf Club.

Proceeds from the event go towards the John L. “Doc” Thomas ‘23 Memorial Scholarship and the Haverford School Athletic Fund.

In past years some money from the fund have helped support the Crew program with special events - 2017 Henley Trip.

If you are interested in playing in the outing reach out to Coach Stephanik or Andrew Bailey ‘02 abailey@haverford.org

WE NEED YOUR HELP

Over the last 16-18 months everyone has endured a lot. We were able to get back to the river and even see some racing in the spring. The team needs your help in assisting with some important equipment needs.

Last summer hurricane Isaias flooded the boathouse damaging our dock and launches. We were able to get everything fixed and repaired, but the coaches launches have finally met their limit after years of repairs. Two of the launches now need to be replaced, the boats themselves were purchased back in 2003.

The next thing we need to replace is the boat trailer. The trailer is over 20 years old and has travelled all over the United States. It is starting to rust through and several of the racks are starting to bend. A new trailer is needed and will help move our fleet for the next 20+ years.

Please support the FHSR and help continue the progress and development of Haverford Crew. Email Coach Stephanik at jstephanik@haverford.org or make an online doantion on Regatta Central (regattacentral.com) search ‘Friends of Haverford School Rowing’. All donations are tax deductible. GO FORDS!

Pictures of the Haverford coaches launches from Hurricane Isaias summer 2020.

2021 FALL SCHEDULE OCT 9 NAVY DAY REGATTA (PHILADELPHIA) OCT 22-24 HEAD OF THE CHARLES (BOSTON, MA)

NOV 6

ALUMNI WEEKEND

NOV 7 HIDDEN RIVER CHASE (PHILADELPHIA)

OCT 30-31 HEAD OF THE SCHUYLKILL (PHILADELPHIA) Follow the team on Instagram (haverfordcrew) and Twitter (@Fords_Crew)