Westerville Crew

High School Rowing Team

What is Crew?
Crew is the sport of rowing. Rowing has a long history in the U.S. Harvard and Yale had their first rowing race in 1852, predating their first football game by nearly 25 years. In the early 1900s, a rowing regatta in Philadelphia could attract more than 250,000 spectators.

Westerville Crew is a club team with members from Westerville, New Albany, Worthington, Big Walnut, Olentangy, Columbus, Johnstown, Dublin, Gahanna, and other school systems.

Where are workouts?

Workouts are on Hoover Reservoir. Hoover is an 8 mile, tranquil lake in Westerville. With its 9.9 horsepower limit, there are no water skiers, jet skis, or fast bass boats.

When is the crew season?

Crew has two seasons each year, a spring sprint season and a fall long-distance season. Crews spring season consists of exciting side-by-side sprint racing on a six-lane buoyed course with the season culminating in a Midwest Championship Regatta. The top three finishers from the Midwest Championships qualify for the National Championship regatta.

When are workouts?

Westerville Crew has workouts throughout the year, starting about the middle of August to the last week of October. Workouts last for 2 hours each weeknight, from 5:15 to 7:15 p.m. and on Saturday mornings from 8:00 -10:30. Spring & Fall seasons follow the same workout schedule.

What is the winter schedule?

The rowing shells are packed away after the last fall race and indoor rowing starts for the winter. Indoor rowing is done on rowing machines called ergometers (ergs for short). Indoor rowing continues until the winter ice melts on Hoover .

What makes the ideal rower?

The ideal rower is tall and lean. While most non-rowers believe rowing takes lots of upper body strength, actually most speed in rowing originates from leg strength.

The typical high school rower matures significantly over 4 years and so physique in 9th grade does not represent physique as a senior.

Advantages of Crew?
Rowers typically start in the 8th or 9th grade, so everyone in high school is new to the sport. Nobody has the advantage of years of private lessons and summer camps.

The rowing stroke is quite easy to learnoften learned in the first rowing session. Still it takes years to perfect. Rowing is for the patient athletelike the swimmer and cross country runner who understand it takes years to develop.

Is there much travel?

Westerville Crew attends 8-10 regattas per year and all but two are in the state of Ohio. Spring regattas are during the months of April and May and fall regattas are during October.

An important goal of Westerville Crew is to keep costs as low as possible. Travel costs for the team would sky-rocket with significant out-of-state travel. By staying closer to home, costs are lower.

How competitive is Westerville Crew?

Westerville Crew is a competitive rowing club, qualifying boats to the Youth U.S. National Championships each year since 2005, including 7 crews placing in the top 10 nationally. Last spring, our mens 4 won 3rd place in the country!

Westerville Crews goal of creating nationally competitive boats is one of its founding principles. Another is to be inclusive by having no cuts and no tryouts. Every athlete rows in every regatta; there are no bench-warmers. The rowers reach competitiveness through persistence and hard work.

Are there college scholarships in Crew?

Between 2006 and 2012, over 20 Westerville Crew graduating seniors received athletic scholarships to such schools as Stanford, Cal Berkeley, Clemson, University of Minnesota, University of Oklahoma, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Marietta College, and many other schools. All Big Ten universities offer 20 full-time rowing scholarships. Other colleges, for example Cornell, have supported our rowers. For example, Jessica Leidecker, rowed for Westerville Crew while in high school, received a full scholarship to Clemson University (where she joined the varsity squad as a freshman) and is now a member of the United States National Team. She stroked the USA U-23 National Team to a silver medal at the World Championships. (Jessie is second from the left)

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Who are the varsity coaches?

Matt and Trish Chase are two founders of Westerville Crew. Matt coaches the varsity men and Trish coaches the varsity women. Both have extensive rowing experience, winning medals at USRA national championship regattas and competing at such famed venues as the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, the Charles River in Boston, the Potomac River in Washington DC, the Olympic Rowing Stadium in Long Beach California, and the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta at St. Catherines.

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The Costs?
Westerville Crew attempts to keep expenses low. The cost of crew is generally less than the cost of a travel soccer team.

There are no fund-raising activities such as selling candy bars or Christmas wreaths. Instead, primary fund raising is accomplished by hosting two large regattas each yearThe Hoover Invitational in the spring and the Columbus Fall Classic each fall. The Hoover Invitational is now in the USRA mega-regatta category, having more than 1750 competitors from 8 states in 2010.

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Community Action
Westerville Crew is involved in the northeast Columbus community. In 2006, it initiated Westerville Crews Breast Cancer Survivors team. Since its founding with more than 20 breast cancer survivors taking the first Learn-to-Row class, these women have practiced and competed each fall alongside Westerville Crew high school rowers in scores of regattas.

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How does my son or daughter start?

Westerville Crew offers two summer Learn to Row programs, one in June and another in August. Go to www.WestervilleCrew.org to learn more. Also, at the beginning of each competitive season, there is an opportunity to join Westerville Crew.

Questions? Call Matt or Trish Chase, two founders of Westerville Crew (and its varsity coaches) on their cell phones at 614-565-9199 (for Matt) or 614-565-9198 (for Trish).

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Westerville Crew is a 501c3 organization founded to promote competitive rowing in the Columbus area for those in 8th through 12th grade.