Local Group of Rowers, Coaches, and Parents Start Twin Cities Youth Rowing for High School Athletes From Any School in the Twin Cities Area

If you look out on Bryant Lake this summer you are likely to see a completely new sight: graceful and sleek rowing shells crewed by high school students.

The athletes are members of Twin Cities Youth Rowing a new competitive rowing program for high school students from all over the Twin Cities.Crew is the sport of rowing a light weight boat (or shell) as fast as possible. The rowing team will be practicing on Bryant Lake from June through mid August for the summer season and continue through mid October for the optional fall season.

Twin Cities Youth Rowing (TCYR) was started by a group of 17 parents, rowers, and coaches. John and Carri Hammett of Chanhassen are two of the founding members. Their children, Peter and Victoria, participated in rowing throughout their high school years as members of a rowing club in Minneapolis. The Hammett kids had to drive from Chanhassen to the Lake Street Bridge over the Mississippi River five days a week from June to October. The Hammetts had a dream of making the sport of rowing more accessible to other high school students from all over the Twin Cities so in late 2007 they helped form Twin Cities Youth Rowing.

The original group of 17 people has all stayed actively involved as Founders but they have also been joined by more supporters and board members as news of the program has grown.The process of getting the TCYR started has been a surprise to the founders. “It almost seems like this kind of program is a giant magnet and the elements needed to get on the water just eight months after we first started talking have been flowing in”, said Carri Hammett.

The first challenge was to find a place to row and Bryant Lake in Eden Prairie seemed to be a perfect fit especially since its location is so convenient to much of the Twin Cities. TCYR approached Three Rivers Park District and their proposal to use Bryant Lake Regional Park as a headquarters for 2008 was quickly approved by the Board of Commissioners.

Since then the group has acquired seven boats (no small feat considering an eight person rowing shell is 60 feet long), hired coaches, and started recruiting rowers. Work has already begun to build the racks and storage facility for the group’s boats and motorized safety launches next to the boat rental building at Bryant Lake Regional Park.TCYR has a core group of twenty experienced high school rowers who will join the program this summer as members of the varsity team or to serve as mentors to less experienced team members.

The varsity rowers are current high school students who have rowed in the past, some of whom are headed to collegiate Div I rowing programs in the fall. The mentors are collegiate rowers who will serve as assistant coaches in exchange for reduced membership fees. Varsity rowers will practice six days a week from 7am to 9am.

TCYR has also been hard at work recruiting students to join the program who have never rowed before. First year rowers are known as novices and the program has room for 40 to 50 novice rowers and coxswains. “The TCYR program is open to students of all sizes and levels of athletic ability. Usually high school rowers start out with little or no experience so no on is at a disadvantage”, says Carri Hammett. “We are also eager to find kids who will join the team as a coxswain, or cox. The cox is in charge of steering the boat and executing drills during practice and strategy during races. If the rowers are the horses then the cox is the jockey”.

Novices will practice five mornings a week from 9:30am to 11:30am. They will also compete in two out of town competitions.

Rowing is one of the original sports in the modern Olympic Games. There are two different kinds of rowing: sweep rowing, where each rower has one oar in both hands and sculling where each rower has two oars, one in each hand. TCYR juniors will be taught sweep rowing because most high school and college competitions focus on this type of rowing. Most people think that rowing requires upper body strength but it actually uses every major muscle group in the body, especially the legs.

For athletes participating in other high school sports, rowing provides a very effective way to cross train. Rowing a 2000 meter race is the equivalent of playing two basketball games back to back.The founders of Twin Cities Youth Rowing are eager to bring this opportunity to as many high school students as possible. The program is open to boys and girls who have completed eighth grade or turn 14 in 2008 and have not yet entered college.

The group will be holding two information sessions for prospective studentsand parents: Sunday, June 1 from 3pm to 4:30pm and Tuesday, June 10 from 7pm to 8:30pm. The sessions start with a tour at the swimming beach at Bryant Lake Regional Park and then move to Woody’s Grille for a presentation. Before joining the team, novices are required to participate in a Learn to Row – Rowing and Safety Training Session on either June 8 or June 15.

The Learn to Row Sessions are held from 9am to noon at Bryant Lake and the cost is $50. For more information about Twin Cities Youth Rowing visit the web site at www.tcyrc.org or call 612-424-4515.