Many CHS students invest hours every single day on the water, training for a popular year-round sport: rowing. However, CHS does not have its own crew, so most participate in their respective high school teams. Each team has its own characteristics. The question is, how do they differ?
Caroline Mathern, Josophine Adams and Kate Hohnke are members of the Pioneer Rowing Team. They have grown from novices who barely knew each other into rowers who depend on each other every day.
Mathern started rowing with the WRC (Washtenaw Rowing Club). For Mathern, the experience wasn’t full-on intense, but the community was still enjoyable.
“I made friends super quickly, and I haven’t really done that on other sports teams,” Mathern said. “I went into Pioneer with a lot of my close friends and their friends, and the nature of the sport ended up letting us get really close to each other.”
Hohnke agrees with Mathern, arguing that a big part of rowing is the community. In the fall, she didn’t have many friends on the team; however, that quickly changed.
“I hadn’t really built [community] yet, but I was really looking forward to it,” Honke said. “Now that I have built it, I’m really looking forward to spring.”
Pioneer’s spring season started in early March and will continue to the end of the school year. For PRC (Pioneer Rowing Club), the spring season is much more competitive than the fall season. The rowers have expressed that their victories in the fall season, specifically at Michigan State University’s boathouse, have been a major source of motivation for the spring.
“We definitely know what we’ve done,” Adams says. “We can improve, but also that we’re strong enough to achieve these things.”
For all of these people, rowing is a unique sport that demands a lot not only physically but mentally. They feel the PRC is a prime example of a healthy rowing environment.
Mathern remarks that she has no second thoughts about committing to rowing.
“It’s absolutely worth it — all of it is worth it,” Mahtern says. “We have such a nice community, and it’s something that has become a huge integral part of my life, and I would not change that for a thing.”
The crew at Huron High School is another local option for CHS students. Junior Sophie Banta is on the team and also practices every single day. She finds the community astonishingly welcoming and caring, as the upperclassmen care for the underclassmen. Although the Huron crew practices later in the evening, Banta finds their crew to be an exciting, fun-filled space.
To build community, Huron Crew organizes team-bonding events, much like other schools. The team has a varsity sister program in which new members are paired with old members to support them. When Banta was new to the team, she felt supported and welcomed for this reason: the program helped her get acclimated to the team environment.
Support is not the only aspect of being on the team; rowing is still an intense sport, and Banta says her coaches have been trying to “step it up” recently.
“It’s a good balance of being in an intense team without it turning too toxic, where the coaches are pushing you past your limit,” Banta said.
The team travels internationally, just like the other AAPS high schools. Canada was their international travel destination last year. Next year, the team aims to add more trophies to its collection.
On the other hand, Skyline High School’s crew has proven to be a little more intense than any other in the district. They put an emphasis on not skipping practice, and people who join are usually entirely committed to the sport and the team. Practices are three hours long every weekday.
CHS senior Sylvie Bleckman joined the SHS crew as a freshman. She is now committed to Michigan State University for the sport. She mentions that the environment of the team is a mix between warm, welcoming and fun, as well as demanding and conditioning. She wants future crew prospects to keep in mind that joining the team means being disciplined and going for the gold. If that’s not the environment they want to be in, it may not be the right sport.
“It’s full of hard workers and people who go for the things that they’re driving for,” Bleckman said.
Bleckman has a strong passion for crew and feels her role, a coxswain, suits her personality well. She’s a brighter, more extroverted person, and she feels that rowing allows for her to show that every day.
“I love crew because it gives me an outlet to really be myself in the truest, truest way,” Bleckman said. “I’ve always been a louder, more intense person, and my role on the team is really freeing for myself in that way.”
Blackman feels that participating in rowing at SHS has given her a stronger work ethic. She is able to be around the people that she loves while consistently being pushed to be better. She is thankful for the wonderful friendships she’s made from the sport and her team.
The current head coach of rowing at SHS, Kit Bennett, is originally from Britain and has coached the U.S. national team, which means harder workouts for SHS rowers. This is his 18th year coaching at Skyline. The team consistently ranks among the top in the district, with eight national championships and state regatta wins every year.
“Hard work, compassion and legacy” is the slogan of the SHS crew—core values that are well emphasized. Showing up to practices is also extremely important for the team, as well as respecting teammates and coaches.
“You have to show up consistently for practice every single day; you have to be respectful to your teammates and your coaches,“ Bleckman said. “There’s a big culture around showing up, doing your best every single day.”
All high school crew teams throughout AAPS put a big emphasis on teamwork and collaboration—that’s what crew is about for many committed CHS athletes. If students are looking for a sport that requires this, along with dedication and hard work, rowing may be the sport for them. AAPS offers many different opportunities to get involved.
