Boys' crew gets silver at Nationals

Vanessa Koo '07

After winning the New England Crew Championships at the end of May, the boys of the first boat were faced with three possible courses of action in following the success of their season.

One option was simply to be content with their well-earned New England victory. Another was to attend the Henley Royal Regatta in England, which Rail Walsh '06 called "crew's Daytona 500." However, this path proved too problematic: senior James Canning '05 would be too old to compete and a replacement would be needed quickly.

The venture was estimated to take up over a month of the summer-too costly a time interval for prospective seniors.

In the end, the boys decided to compete at the US Rowing Nationals Regatta, which took place in Cincinnati in June. Following the end-of-year exams and SAT testing (with the exception of the team's seniors), the boys headed to Zachary Gazzaniga's '05 house in Hanover, New Hampshire, where they were graciously cared for by the Gazzaniga family as they trained and prepared for the event.

"We didn't know what to expect going into Nationals," said Scott Nightingale '06. "We could've been by far the best team or by far the worst team."

Coach Booth Kyle added, "It was hard to know what to expect because the crews that get invited are all good-the top two teams from eight regional qualifying regattas are invited to compete."

To add another degree of uncertainty, the race course is 2000 meters long-500 meters more than the boys were used to rowing in the New England high school circuit.

However, the boys' reservations about performing well were quickly put to rest as they won the qualifying heats and the semi-finals.

In the final championship round, the boys lost to the opposing team, the Oakland Strokes, by a mere three feet-just three-tenths of a second.

While they were disappointed at first, Coach Kyle reminded the team that what they had accomplished this season was truly remarkable, especially since the winning team is an elite club crew that trains year-round. "It's amazing that we've come this far. It was really fun to see the boys go to the next level. For example, when we won New England's we beat Choate by about four seconds in the final race. At Nationals, we beat Choate by eleven seconds."

So what's in store for next season? "We want to go back to Nationals and win," said Mr. Kyle. "There's a good core of guys returning-Scott, Rail, and Devin [Wilmot '06]-and they're hungry to go back there and do it. If anything, the narrow loss has inspired us to be even better."

As published in the September 14, 2005 issue of the Deerfield Scroll, the monthly newspaper of Deerfield Academy.