In response to interest from students last year, juniors Alisa Dan and Julianna Hsing have created a crew team. Although they are not officially a CHS team, they are ambitious in their hopes of a great season with school spirit to back it up.

The team is made up of more than 60 students who completed a Learn to Row program last fall at Thompson Boat Center in Georgetown. The team is currently holding three winter conditioning sessions per week at the Jewish Community Center in Rockville.

“The fall Learn to Row program is designed to expose our novice rowers to the basic techniques of rowing,” Hsing’s mother and crew parent sponsor Ann Hsing said.

Although the team has yet to compete in a regatta, the crew term for a game or match, it has grown greatly in both size and skill, and will start competing in the spring.

According to the parent sponsor Hsing, Wootton, Blair, B-CC, Whitman and Walter Johnson all have crew club teams and CHS’ community crew team may compete against them in the spring. The team is seeking a boat house for its spring program.

Crew has existed for many years, and is actually one of the oldest Olympic sports. It demands physical strength, cardiovascular endurance and strong core balance.

“I’m very sore, [the workouts] really work the thighs and core,” senior Josh Rosefelt said.
The team will row five eight-person boats led by a coxswain, who is responsible for steering the boat as well as for leading the rowers.

“Overall the boats seem to have good chemistry, [but] you’re only as good as your worst rower,” junior Paul Oh said.