The grandstand shakes with cheers as the first boats row into view.

Watching a crew race is like hiking to a waterfall; from a distance it’s a quiet roar that you can’t quite see, until suddenly the smoke becomes fire and the boats are a thunder of energy, all oars and muscle, a furious race to the end. Long, slender shells slice through the water, with long, slender boys; eight to a boat and six boats across, in a paragon of graceful endurance. Go Generals!!

Along the banks of the river, a joyful mob of teammates and parents are shouting and waving cowbells, eyes glued to the water and filling the air with cheers. Is that our boat? Which lane are we? Are the oar-locks pink? Yes, there they are!

Five minutes of pure adrenalin later, the race is over and the team reverts back to being human, a group of kids that just accomplished a thing whose outcome, no matter what the score, is nothing less than spectacular. Well done, boys!

When Jake and Eli joined the school’s crew team last year, Mike and I didn’t know we were signing up for crew too. As a club sport with enormous logistics, it relies on parent volunteers to organize fundraising, cook chili, drive the chuckwagon, host pasta dinners, and set up the team’s racing tent with camp chairs and snacks every Saturday through the spring. Fortunately, the kids are there to do the literal heavy lifting, and we all love it! Could not think of a better way to spend our weekends than with this groups of kids and parents, watching crew races and hiking to beautiful rivers around the Chesapeake.

Starting in March, the Washington-Liberty crew team practices on the Potomac every day after school. They row past the Kennedy Center, the Pentagon, through Georgetown, and up to the Three Sisters on long afternoons, sometimes singing and sometimes bleeding, but always coming home happy. I would not have believed they would be so enthusiastic about rowing even with giant, weeping blisters on their hands and feet? This indifference to pain is maybe the only real thing to miss about youth! On Wednesdays, they are on the water by 5:30 in the morning, rowing before school with the sunrise.

And yet, the kids love it. Like, really really love it, despite the cold mornings and the wet practices in the rain, and unloading and de-rigging the boats after long days of racing. They usually don’t get home until 7pm and this is every day, six days a week. But still there’s still an enduring glow about these guys, talking about line-ups and upcoming regattas, even when they don’t win.

And when they win, it’s even better! This year they took bronze at the Stotesbury Cup Regionals, and made an amazing first place finish in their qualifying heat at Nationals. Crew is a bit like baseball where there are statistics about statistics that can say really anything you want them to say, but even Mom could tell this was pretty cool.

The regatta line-up this year: St. Andrews in Delaware; Darrell Winslow and Ted Phoenix on the Occoquan; Charlie Butt on the Potomac; VA State on the Occoquan; Stotesbury Cup on the Schuylkill; and the SRAA National Championship on the Cooper River in Philadelphia. Most days the weather was beautiful, but of course there had to be a little bit of rain! Not just a little, but a torrential downpour that triggered a flood watch. Thanks to the DJ for a whole songlist about rain :).

Life is a long lesson in learning how to navigate where we belong on the stage. Friends, teams, wins, losses, 2Ks, ice baths, kiddie pools, and figuring out who you are when the chips are down. Do you build or do you destroy? Forgive or hold grudges? If the choice is conceit or humility, which one feels better the next day?

This team is what it is because of kids, coaches, parents, friendships, and a whole group of families blessed by a few brave adults who decided to make teaching sportsmanship their life’s work. Hauling mulch, organizing triathalons, dinners at the Silver Diner and Raising Cain’s, a Chocolate Czar, and things that happen at a hotel during the night all make for some great life stories!

Thank you coaches, for changing the world, one little microcosm at a time.