2008 Fall Update from Coach Schmel

Alumni, Friends & Parents:

Hello again! I hope this finds all of you well and enjoying the fall weather. As the subject line states, here is a brief update regarding UMW Rowing.

Recruiting

The fall season began with some vigorous recruiting. Through efforts utilizing flyers, email, and an on-campus recruiting table, the coaching staff and current rowers were able to attract 7 true novice men and 20 true novice women to the team. Combine that with the 12 recruits (5 men, 7 women)) and 22 returning rowers (6 men, 16 women) and our roster now stands at 61 strong! With the increased depth comes better competition, and erg records continue to fall - check out the attachment and see for yourself.

Practice & Racing

The first day of practice was on Monday, September 8, and our first head race was this past weekend, when we competed at the Navy Day Regatta in Philadelphia, PA. The weather was absolutely gorgeous: sunny with temperatures in the 70s and a very slight tail wind. Our Novice Women's 8 began their rowing careers that day with a very solid 12th place (out of 20) showing. Racing against many Div. I recruited rowers (including Navy, Penn, Georgetown, Delaware, Lehigh, Drexel, St. Joes, & Villanova), our novice women stood tall and are very excited to have that first race completed.

UMW's Varsity Men's 8 took to the water next, racing in the Collegiate 8 event. Once again the competition was very good, but the men's 8 proved that they were up to the task, finishing in a strong 8th place, defeating the first varsity 8s from Georgetown, Army, Lehigh, and Lafayette. They are very encouraged by the results, and will continue to work hard as the season progresses.

The varsity women finished the day's racing with 2 entries in the Dad Vail 8 event. The "A" & "B" boats soundly defeated (by at least 45") the only other Div. III school in the event - Franklin & Marshall - and finished in 7th and 8th respectively. More interesting was how close they finished to each other - 4.5 seconds. A great demonstration of depth, but also the need for the coaching staff to reevaluate who is sitting where. Stay tuned - there should be some interesting battles for seats!

Official results can be found at: Here

Gear

If you are interested in purchasing any UMW Rowing gear, let me know. We have t-shirts ($12), bumper stickers ($3), and hats ($25) available.

On-the-web

Don't forget that the team's booster association - Friends of Mary Washington Rowing - is online at SupportRowing.org . If you are interested in helping that organization in any capacity, please contact Jenn Knowles 07.

The team's official website can be found: Here

That's it for now!

Best Regards,

Phil

 

2008 Spring Update from Coach Schmel

Alumni & Friends,

I hope this finds each of you enjoying the new year. Here is a quick update.

Spring Semester: 2008
We are almost 3 weeks into the spring semester in Fredericksburg, and things are going quite well. We had a recruiting meeting during the first week of class, and 10 new rowers will be joining us this spring. It looks like we will have about 30 women and 15 men. As such, it looks like we'll be fielding the following boats come spring racing season: W1V8, W2V8, W1N8, W2N4, MV8, MN4. We continue to recruit on campus for new rowers; it would be great to have a W2N8 and a M1N8!

Despite not beginning organized practice until Monday, February 11, I am seeing a lot of rowers in Goolrick training already. This usually portends good speed when we get on the water, which won't be until we head down to Gainesville, GA for our Spring Break trip (2/29 - 3/8).

Winter Equipment Storage!
In case you haven't heard the news, the UMW Real Estate Foundation recently purchased the shopping center across Route 1. There are several vacant buildings there and upon request the UMW administration granted us temporary storage space for our equipment. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time our boats have been under a roof since achieving varsity status in 1998. Our boats our currently stored under what used to be Frank's Nursery, and the coaching staff will be spending some time over there getting the boats ready for the spring season. This is a big help to us and we remain very appreciative of the administration for this opportunity!

Row for Humanity
The team has also begun its second fundraiser of the year, the 4th annual Row for Humanity! This fundraiser affiliates the team with Habitat for Humanity, and we donate a percentage of the funds that we raise directly to Habitat. The actual event will be held on Wednesday, February 20. Each team member will do a 1 hour full pressure piece in front of Lee Hall. In the first 3 years we have raised almost $18,000 for Habitat and the team!

Spring 2008 Racing Schedule
Sunday, March 30: Occoquan Sprints (Lorton, VA - Sandy Run Regional Park) Saturday, April 5: Johns Hopkins Invitational (Baltimore, MD) Sat.-Sun., April 12-13: Knecht Cup (Camden, NJ) Saturday, April 19: Home Scrimmage vs. St. Mary's College Saturday, April 26: Mid-Atlantic Division III Regional Championships (Gifford Pinchot State Park - York, PA) Sunday, May 4: Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Crew Championships (Lorton, VA - Sandy Run Regional Park) Sat.-Sun., May 10-11: ECAC National Invitational Regatta (Worcester, MA) Fri.-Sat., May 30-31: NCAA Div. III Women's Rowing Championships (must qualify - Sacramento, CA) Thu.-Sat., June 5-7: IRA Men's National Championship Regatta (must qualify - Camden, NJ) We hope that you have the opportunity to come out and support the team!

Best, Phil