CHERRY HILL >> For the second straight year the Saratoga Rowing Association sends the most entries to the Scholastic Rowing Association of America national championship regatta this weekend and with that much early season success comes with expectations for more precious medals to make it back to the Spa City.
Last year the SRA sent 14 boats to the SRAAs and saw 12 boats advance into the championship finals earning seven medals at Mercer Lake in New Jersey. The Saratoga Rowing girls program earned four gold medals last year and with six entries this year, the pressure to perform remains strong.
“There is a lot of pressure and ultimately expectation rules everything,” SRA girls varsity coach Eric Catalano said. “The biggest example, years ago we finished fourth in the Head of the Charles and it medals through five crews. The first time we finished fourth and I have pictures of it and the girls were jumping around and smiling, tears, hugs all around.
“The next year we finish fourth again and it was tears, but for a completely different reason,” Catalano said. “The only thing that changed was the expectation of where they were going to be.”
This year pressure includes the girls freshman and varsity eight along with the girls freshman quad defending last year’s national titles. The boys freshman quad also took home gold last year.
For most of the girls entries this will be their first week rowing away from the comforts of rowing on Fish Creek.
“It’s an incredible privilege to host regattas here, but it’s a tremendous amount of work,” Catalano who is also the executive director of the SRA said. “As thrilled as I am to host the three straight regatta weekends, it is very draining and the thought of getting on the road, even traveling in the car for four hours is very appealing thing to me just to sit down and be able to, I feel like it’s the best working vacation I could have.”
For the athletes the road is also a time to focus on one thing – rowing.
“(At home) they do get to sleep in their own beds and not worry about hotels and where they are going to get food, but they are also the ones who have to do the stake boating at the regatta, so laying out on a stake boat in the sun or rain for four hours, they are also the ones who come back after the regatta when everyone is leaving and going home, picking up trash over at the state boat launch,” Catalano said. “There are disadvantages to our crews when they race at home, that when we travel they will get that extra little bit of relaxation that I think will be a positive.”
The SRA boys program is sending seven entries to Cherry Hill and after winning three medals last year, including a gold in the boys freshman quad, they are looking to have a breakout weekend.
“We started talking about this (SRAAs) when we were in dry land season, what the winning times were last year and we’ve been doing pieces on the water trying to hit those splits 500s, 1000s trying to hit those winning times,” SRA boys varsity coach Brad Maxwell said. “We are focused on it most of the season. We were really successful at the New York State regatta this year as well and trying to step it up.”
The national regatta also allows the SRA boys program to put its best foot forward in the small boat category.
“When we as coaches put our coaches in the position to do well, they do well,” SRA boys freshman coach Christopher Chase said. “We choose to put our best kids in boats where their talents lie, for us it’s in sculling in the area.”
Niskayuna is the second-largest program with entries from New York State with nine entries, including five sculling entries, boats with 1-, 2- or four-rowers.
“With all of our kids in seventh- and eighth-grade in this area, why are we rowing eights?” Chase said. “Why are we going out of our way to go into the meat grinder (eights)? It’s not sustainable, we don’t have the numbers.”
With only three seniors on the boys varsity squad for the SRA and depth behind in the underclassmen, this could be a weekend where the boys make their mark.
“We think as coaches that this is a new standard, especially with only three seniors, almost everyone is rowing up in a higher category on our team,” Chase said. “We lose three, but have a strong modified behind them.
“I think this is a great year, but I also think this is a beginning,” Chase said. “I think we have depth in the guy’s program, we have the expectations, now we have a standard, but I think we are in a sustainable part right now.”
Follow Stan Hudy on Twitter @StanHudy for updates throughout the weekend.
