GDS’ varsity and novice crew teams will see a shift in management this spring season. The GDS varsity crew team will disband and integrate into the private Thompson Boat Center (TBC) racing team, while the novice team will be coached by TBC but continue to compete as representatives of GDS.
According to head coach and TBC chief executive officer Matt Russell, TBC has been providing coaching support and access to their facilities to the GDS crew team for the past two years. TBC “deepened” its relationship with GDS this year, however, because the school’s former crew coach, Alan Burch, left at the end of last season and there are currently not enough varsity crew athletes at GDS to form a competitive team.
TBC Racing is a competitive rowing club for athletes of all ages. According to Russell, about 40 boys and 60 girls will be competing with GDS varsity athletes for TBC Racing this spring season in high school races. He added that TBC helps administer the crew programs at other schools, such as Bishop O’Connell and George Washington University, but GDS’ arrangement is unique due to the program’s full absorption of the school’s team.
The varsity GDS team will see a significant change in administration. Varsity rowers will compete in both local and national races in age-specific boats alongside non-GDS athletes for TBC Racing, rather than GDS. Their practices will also be switched to the afternoon.
GDS varsity athletes will likely not row together as a result of the change, as they will be split up into age-specific divisions set by the United States Rowing Association, the national governing body for the sport of rowing. Each division will likely consist of multiple boats, as well. The regattas that athletes from GDS will compete in will include under-15, under-16, under-17 and under-19 events.
Novice athletes, however, will compete together as a GDS team in local races. “While we are able to give a home to GDS competitive varsity members as we are rebuilding the team, we are also providing GDS novices a place to row as GDS,” Russell said. “They will come together as just GDS students; they will practice in the morning; those practices will be the same, and they will compete as GDS in the local races.”
Sophomore Izzy Choudhary, who plans on rowing this year, and sophomore Ethan McKenzie, who rowed for GDS last year, both told the Bit that many members of the crew team already row for TBC in the off–season.
“I know a lot of people [at GDS] that row for them now or were considering it,” Choudhary said.
Varsity rowers joining TBC will pay $1,500 to the club—more than double the cost of rowing for the school in past years. Novice rowers, meanwhile, will pay $650 to GDS. Crew is the only GDS sport that requires payment in order to participate. In prior years, the cost to row for GDS was $600. Athletic Director Mike Brooks announced the change in an all-school email on Nov. 25.
Brooks could not be reached for comment before publication of this article.
“It’s interesting how GDS was able to offer it for less money than TBC,” junior Cole Kaplan, who was a member of the GDS varsity crew team last year, said. “I’d expect GDS to cover some of the cost because it would make sense to have a price similar to what it was in the past. It really shows how TBC is a separate crew team.”
Russell plans on forming a TBC–affiliated GDS varsity crew team in future years with coaching and facilities provided by TBC once there are enough rowers for a complete team.
“I would prefer it to stay the same with the old coach and the morning practices,” junior Julian Turim, who was a GDS varsity rower last year, said. “I’m not a fan.”
Russell described the transition as, “a win-win situation for everybody. It’s a really bold way for Mike [Brooks] to take a look at keeping this team competitive for the varsity athletes who need it, as we rebuild that GDS-specific competitive experience through the GDS novice team.”
However, four of the six crew athletes interviewed by the Bit said that they think the switch is not ideal because it will have a negative impact on team culture for the upcoming season.
“They said in [Brooks’] email that they are going to do crew dinners, but that’s stupid,” Kaplan said. “They’re trying to say we’re still a team, but we’re not even going to be on the same boats at TBC. We don’t have a team anymore.”