The Haverford School Crew Newsletter - Vol 4

BLADEWORK The Haverford School Crew Newsletter Vol. 4

2019 Varsity Quad & Junior Four - both Silver at SRAA’s

In this Issue: Fall 2019 Team Information Martinelli Family Chair of Rowing Jonathan Stephanik Assistant Coach - Matt Scheuritzel ‘08 Assistant Coach - John Suter Assistant Coach - John Monaghan

2019 Team Recap Sweep vs. Sculling Where did all the plaques go?

Program Sustainability Boat Christening

FHSR President - Garth Hoyt ‘89

Want to write an article for the next crew newsletter?

Reach out to Coach Stephanik with your idea.

Racing in 2019 - Spring and Fall recap In the spring of 2019 the team had more of a focus on sculling, with the top boat being the Varsity quad. The team had a very successful flicks season. We averaged 10-12 entries during the weekly races and had 12 boats compete at City Championships. Out of those 12 entries, 10 boats made the finals, 7 boats medaled, and two boats won their event - Freshman 2x and Freshman 4x. The Varsity quad won bronze.

At the Stotesbury Cup Regatta we brought 7 boats to compete. 6 boats made it out of time trials into semis and 4 boats qualified through to finals. The Ltwt Four got 4th, Junior Four placed 3rd, and the Freshman Quad and Varsity Quad placed 2nd.

The fall brought on new challenges and several pair of big shoes to fill. A lot of practices allowed athletes to row small boats and improve on technique and get in some needed miles. The group is young with 34 of the 47 athletes being sophomores and first year rowers.

The coaching staff understands that they have their work cut out trying to get the younger athletes in varsity shape by the spring championship regattas.

The first regatta of the fall was Navy Day and the youth of the sqaud was evident. The Fords had 10 entries in 4 different events finishing with 3 top 10 finishes.

The Head of the Charles was extremely competitive and the Fords brought up a Four, Double, and Single to compete against some of the top clubs and teams from across the country. All three boats finished in the middle of the pack of each event.

All four boats that made the finals at Stotes went on to compete at Nationals in Ohio. Both the Junior Four and Varsity quad again medaled getting silver. Two of the athletes in the Varsity quad (Jeff Pendergast and Thomas The Head of the Schuylkill wrapped up our last full-squad Russell) have won or medaled all 4 years at the 3 big regatta of the fall. The squad had 7 top 10 finishes and 3 boats regattas. This is an accomplishment that has not been brought home medals. done in a long time here at Haverford.

Over the fall the team saw great improvement and are anxious to get indoors and start building strength and work on the ergomerters to prepare for spring.

2019 FALL ROSTER ---- Seniors ---Griffin Spahr Joshua Case Owen Vanderzwan Thomas Laporta Jonny Sonnenfeld ---- Juniors ---Bryson Bernhardt Carter McCann Seneker Zelov Beau Christopher Brian Williams Morgan Shatzman

Magnus Weissenberger Henri Wache Will Schaefer ---- Sophomores ---Wells Benson William Morris Jake Brewington Jack Payne Haroon Naz Chase Herz Pranav Dixit Tyler Brown Wyatt Johnson

Elijah Lee Brendan Sullivan Conrad Reller John Zhang Stephen Walker Grady Herbert ---- Freshman ---Andrew Case Aidan Birdell Alex Hermann Cole Pressman Cameron Douglas Connor Pinsk

Connor Rall Douglas Leatherwood Ebaad Khan George Vollmer Harrison McCullough Lucio Acchione Luke Weinstein Matt Straub Nicholas Birdsall Thomas Pendergast Zachary Elder Zach Shah Evan Wang

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

Two Oars or One?

The Haverford program is one of few scholastic teams in the country that teach both methods of rowing. It has been that way since its inception close to 80 years ago. With a long tradition of winning in both methods, Coach Stephanik gets the question all the time from parents and other coaches and rowers, ‘why not focus on one, would you have more success?’

The answer and methodology is clear. Learning both methods makes for a more well-rounded rower. It provides versatility and boat feel that has given Haverford rowers a diffferent level of mental toughness that you can’t get at other programs. Athletes have the opportunity to row in singles and small boats all fall and then compete for either the top quad or four in the spring. Being a well-rounded rower also helps out their transition if given the opportunity to row in college.

For the doubters, sticking to tradition has not hurt Haverford’s success. Over the last 7 years the team has won 40 medals at PSRA City Championships, 18 medals at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta, and 14 at SRAA’s.

Program Sustainability The Haverford crew program has had its scares over the past 80 years.

When stating ‘scares’ there have been a number of times when the program was not recognized by the school or was almost eliminated.

Plaques?

Back in the late 50’s crew was not even considered a varsity sport. In order to earn a varsity letter you had to win a national championship.

The distant and unrelatable off-campus sport had little respect and barely enough rowers to get two boats on the water day-to-day.

With leadership changes and new Head of Schools’ opinions the program had its ups and downs. In the late 80’s crew was going to be cut from Haverford because, “the school was out of money,” as explained to rowers and families by then Head of School Bo Dixon.

Other sports like basketball, football, soccer, and baseball were not in jeopardy. This forced the hand of families and alumni to form the Friends of Haverford School Rowing, a 501c3. The FHSR was the primary funder of the program up through 2015.

Program sustainability was questioned again in the early 2000’s when leadership questioned off-campus sports. The FHSR and alumni stepped up again with construction of the Conshohocken Rowing Center, Haverford Crew’s permanent home since 2014.

Operating is now controlled by the school with oversight by the FHSR. In 2019 the current school campaign, Character at Our Core, went public providing another opportunity to cement crew as a program that will never go away. Within the current campaign, Coach Stephanik helped launch the Haverford School Crew Endowment for Rowing Operations. Once fully endowed, the fund will cover all aspects of the program.

The FHSR still oversees the program but assists financially with equipment, special events or trips, and CRC operating.

For more information on how to give to FHSR or the Crew Endowment, reach out to Coach Stephanik at 484-417-2765 or jstephanik@haverford.org

The Haverford School Crew is still looking for many of the plaques from City Championships, Stotesbury Cup Regatta, and SRAA Nationals. Many of them went missing during the the Athletic Facility renovations in the 90’s, but some of the plaques were kept by athletes. We would like them to be on display at the new boathouse.

More than 50% of the plaques are missing.

If you have a plaque from your rowing days or have rowing memorabilia that you would like to donate to the boathouse reach out to Coach Stephanik at jstephanik@haverford.org.

Class of 2019 Boat Christening

The 2019 Senior Class honored Dr. Ehrhart for his 18 years of teaching and supporting Haverford studentathletes. Pictured with Dr. Ehrhart (middle) are (left to right) Jeffrey Pendergast '19, Aidan Leavy '19, Nelson Liu '19, and Thomas Russell '19.

2020 SPRING RACE SCHEDULE MARCH 3 HAVERFORD CREW FUND RAISER

MARCH 15 1ST MANNY FLICK MARCH 22 MARCH 29

APRIL 5

4TH MANNY FLICK

APRIL 19

5TH MANNY FLICK

MAY 2-3

PSRA CHAMPIONSHIPS

MAY 15-16

STOTESBURY CUP

MAY 22-23

SRAA NATIONALS

2ND MANNY FLICK 3RD MANNY FLICK

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