Baltimore Rowing Club

The Baltimore Rowing Club is a rowing club located in Baltimore, Maryland.

The current version of the club was founded in 1979 and promotes competitive and non-competitive sculling, sweep rowing, and coxswaining. The club competes across many levels of experience, including masters, open, novice, and juniors.

The club makes its home in Middle Branch Park along the Patapsco River in the south Baltimore neighborhood of Cherry Hill, and shares its boathouse with a number of local school crews, including Johns Hopkins University, Loyola College, and UMBC.

Baltimore RC hosts three events each year.
* Great Baltimore Burn, an indoor regatta of 2000m erg sprints
* Charm City Sprints, a series of 1000m sprints on the Patapsco River
* Head of the Fort, a fall head race centered around Fort McHenry and held on or near Defenders Day

History of the Baltimore Rowing Club Juniors Program

Rowing in Baltimore has enjoyed tremendous growth since 1979, when a group of former college oarsmen and other enthusiasts of the sport decided to revive what once had been a extremely popular pastime on the Patapsco River. Today three colleges, one major club and a handful of high school crews train here for regional, national and, occasionally, international races.But despite the relatively short existence of today's rowing scene, the sport has a long and storied history here. For roughly 80 years before World War II took away the rowers and waterfront industrialization took the boathouses, Baltimore crews were majorpowers on the East Coast circuit and won numerous national championships and a few international titles as well.

The Baltimore Rowing Club Juniors Program was formed in the fall of 2002 by the then head coach, Jim McCalister. The group was established to serve as a training forum for juniors whose high schools limit fall rowing and primarily concentrate on spring rowing. As interest on the juniors level grew, the Baltimore Rowing Club today finds itself as its own established program which no longer houses athletes whose schools have existing programs.

In the fall of 2006, under the direction of Alyson Covino, the BRCJ was restructured to develop a competitive team. The team now recognizes three distinct seasons each including races and college visits. Pat Turner, a local developer also donated seed money to provide scholarship for 10 students from Baltimore City to participate in the sport. In the spring of 2007, Honeywell International, along with Pat Turner announced a $100,000 dollar commitment over three years. This allows BRCJ to expand the city rowing program to 25 kids, provide transportation and equipment purchases among other things to enhance and build the team.

References

Baltimore, Maryland

External links

* [http://www.baltimorerowing.org Baltimore Rowing Club]