Crew is arguably one of the toughest sports that our school offers, and with the season changing from winter to spring, WS rowers will finally be able to cease their intense winter workouts and begin rowing on the water.

“The workouts themselves are very good; if everyone showed up, we would be very successful,” said junior Will Hayes, the Varsity Captain

During the winter months, Spartan rowers do a variety of things to get physically ready for the high demands of the spring season. Winter workouts consist of frequent indoor training sessions on erg machines, or stationary rowers, which takes up the majority of their time, but the team also goes running and lifts in the weight room during their preparatory season. The winter is a time for rowers to get in peak physical condition so that, come spring time, they will be able to learn and master the technique of rowing in a real boat, as opposed to erg machines. Workouts begin in mid-November and end in late-February when the squad is able to take the boats out on the water, after close to four months of intensive indoor training

“Crew is very mentally and physically taxing,” said Hayes, “we do a lot of distance, endurance training and short interval training.”

This year’s team is going to have to start the season of strong and end even stronger if they hope duplicate the success that they had last year. The team from last year qualified three boats (the Women’s Varsity four, Men’s Varsity Eight, and Women’s Junior eight) for the Scholastic Rowing Association of America’s National Championships Regatta in Cooper River, New Jersey. Qualifying for a national competition is not an easy task, so these winter workouts immensely help the team preform at a high level during the season.

“If we have people with a competitive mindset,” said Hayes, “then we should hopefully improve to a level where we can compete for nationals.”