Finishing Off a Great Fall Season

Post #117

Today's race in San Mateo marked the end of the fall 2012 season for Oakland Youth Rowing. The boys raced in quads, doubles, and singles. The course was the curviest I've ever seen and had three bridges, but they handled it like pros. All of the kids came off the water with big smiles on their faces and stories of crazy, hard fought races.

The highlight of the day for me was when I was approached by a coach of another team asking if we had kids who would do a last minute race in a double. Their team was going to be uncontested in the event and they wanted a competitor. The hitch? It was starting in less than an hour and it was a mixed double (meaning one boy and one girl). The Oakland athletes were all exhausted from racing once already, but I approached two of them about doing it anyway. Before I even finished my sentence, they were jumping up and down and screaming "YES! YES WE'LL DO IT!" As we speed-rigged one of the doubles to get it ready to go, they couldn't stop talking about how amazed they were that the opportunity had come up. How great is that attitude?

In our post-race team meeting, I thought back on the last few months and all of our experiences as a team. When I first came to OYR in September, the boys team was about half the size it is now. By the end of the season, we've drawn so many more people to the sport of rowing and made tons of progress with fitness, technique, and race experience as a team. I am so impressed with how far we've come in only a couple months.

Congrats to the entire OYR family for a fantastic fall season. Can't wait to get the winter started.