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October 21, 2007 - Alex Jones, a junior at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School waits at the Cambridge Boat Club to race in the 43rd Head of The Charles Regatta on Sunday morning. Photography by Whitney J. Fox.* * *
October 20, 2007 - From left, Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) rowing team members, junior Lina Huo, senior Paula Nistal, and senior Bailey Potter display their cut and calloused hands caused by their sport. During the Pasta Party held Saturday at Boston’s 43rd Head of The Charles Regatta (HOCR) weekend, Potter says, “They’re recovering. You should have gotten them two weeks ago – blood spatters, raw skin, yeah it was pretty bad.” Huo, who wears latex gloves in the shower if her cuts are severe, says, “Everyone wants to be here because they work hard. It is such a demanding sport, you really have to like it to do it.” Nistal says, “My freshman year, I think fifteen of my friends, we all joined, and by the end of the second season only two of us came back and that’s it.” Nistal and Potter, both captains of the girl’s varsity CRLS crew, on Sunday morning in a four-person boat. Because CRLS rows out the Cambridge Boat Club, the main organizers of the HOCR, the crew volunters to organize the Pasta Party and sell race programs, amongst other tasks, which guarantees them one boat entry into the world’s largest rowing regatta. Photography by Whitney J. Fox.* * *
October 21, 2007 - Prior to the 10:26 a.m. race start on Sunday for their crew during the 43rd Head of The Charles Regatta in Boston (HOCR), the girl’s varsity Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) prepares their four-person boat with bow number H21 at the Cambridge Boat Club (CBC), which is their home club they row out of. The CBC organizes the HOCR, the world’s largest rowing regatta, which race officials say more than 8,000 rowers raced. “We row out of the Cambridge Boat Club and so the CBC is involved in organizing, it’s run from the Cambridge Boat Club,” says coach Dale Wickenheiser. “It’s our race as well, I mean, it’s a home race for us, and so as a home club, the home team, we help do it, we help in any way that we can with, you know, putting it on. To me it was simple that we got involved. Yeah, it was natural.” The crew helps with a variety of taks throughout the week to prepare for the race, including organizing the Pasta Party, selling programs, and setting up sound equipment. Photography by Whitney J. Fox.* * *
October 21, 2007 - Girl’s varsity rowing coach of seven years at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS), Dale Wickenheiser, of Somerville, accepts mints from coxswain Olivia Rutter, a junior, as crew members Paula Nistal (left), a senior, Lily Bouvier-Devine (top of head), a junior, and Bailey Potter, a senior, look on before the start of their race on Sunday morning at the 43rd Head of The Charles Regatta. Wickenheiser says the school has a nickname, “Can’t Do High,” but getting parents involved creates a successful, collaborative rowing program that gets them past the nickname. “Everything has been ‘we can’t, we can’t, we can’t, we can’t,’ and we’ve been hammering it into these guys that ‘yes you can, yes you can, yes you can,’ and the parents are starting to catch on with that and that has been a big part - is getting the parents and trying to get them to change their attitude,” Wickenheiser says. He says having family support is particularly important with rowing. “Rowing takes up so much time from the family. We practice every weekday. We practice on the weekend. Then we race on the weekends. We travel so the kids have to go, the parents have to go. It takes food and money and time and it’s a huge family thing, and it’s the type of thing that when we tell the kids ‘it’s your family that’s doing this.’ Everybody’s involved and this is part of it. I think they see their kids doing something that they’re having fun, and they want to be a part of that. They want to let their kids know that they’re supporting, and it’s an easy thing to do.” Photograph by Whitney J. Fox.* * *
October 21, 2007 - Before their race start at the 43rd Head of The Charles (HOCR) on Sunday morning, Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) sophomore and coxswain Olivia Rutter helps stretch senior and captain Paula Nistal at their home club and race headquarters, the Cambridge Boat Club (CBC), which organizes the HOCR, the world’s largest rowing regatta. Nistal says, “I think it’s fun. This is a fun time. It’s really nice, especially senior year. This is going to be the last year I row in the Charles.” CRLS, which is a public high school that requires all students to be residents of Cambridge and has had a varsity rowing program for the past seven years, is coached by Dale Wickenheiser of Somerville. He says the program teaches valuable lessons for life. “When we go to practice we try to make it very positive and say the sort of things, ‘You are responsible for this. You have to be here at practice on time, take care of the equipment’ as a coaching staff. And we’ve really gotten the parents involved as well. The kids have to be responsible for things, and I think like anybody, if you give them responsibility and define the terms of it, then people will step up and they’re happy to feel productive, feel successful. You have to define success in a way that people can understand and that is actually tangible. Success is not about winning or losing. It’s about really trying hard and doing a lot of other things well - we take care of the equipment well, we know how to run drills well. I think when you start putting those little pieces together, then winning - it kind of happens as a result, because everybody does their job and they’re self motivated to row well, to train hard, because the end result they’ve seen the product.” Photograph by Whitney J. Fox.* * *
October 21, 2007 - Parents of rowers at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS), Lisa DiLima (left) and Sarah Jones (right) take photographs of the girl’s crew after their race in Boston’s 43rd Head of The Charles Regatta on Sunday, the world’s largest rowing regatta. DeLima says of the race, “It’s a fun event. It’s a fantastic event and great for our school.” Parents are extremely involved with the CRLS program. “My function is not of your mother exactly at this point. My function is to represent all the rowers and make them happy about what they’re doing, so they can share it with grandma,” Jones tells her daughter Alex, who raced, of taking photographs. Jones says, “I’m doing it for the team.” Jones says, “I think crew in general is just such a graceful, civil, and gorgeous sport. I mean, past the fact of how really intense and beautiful a workout these kids get and how they’re just, really, adding to their overall health in such a gorgeous manner, it’s just beautiful to watch. This isn’t hockey. This isn’t baseball. People don’t bring guns, going ‘my boat was better than your kid’s boat’ you know? We’re all civil with each other. We’re more than civil – friendly – and we’re just here to cheer on our kids.” Photograph by Whitney J. Fox.* * *
October 21, 2007 - After their race of a four-person boat at the 43rd Head of The Charles Regatta (HOCR), placing 33rd out of 53 teams in their division, crew members of the girl’s varsity rowing team at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS), (from left) senior Alex Jones plays with sophomore and coxswain Olivia Rutter, as senior Paula Nistal, coach Dale Wickenheiser, and junior Lily Bouvier-Devine are entertained. “There are people at the high school who don’t even know we have a team,” Wickenheiser says. Learning how to be successful, he says, is what drives the CRLS rowing program, and the HOCR helps facilitate that. “Why do we do it? Because it’s important for the kids to see this and be a part of this because the rowing world is so huge and this is such an amazing event that we come in and do it because, one, it is fun and if we weren’t a part of this, they would never come down to watch. They wouldn’t come down and check all this stuff out on their own, no, cause they wouldn’t do it. It’d be that ‘whatever that thing is down on the river’ that’s going on. It’s important that we at least race in it as best we can. Eventually it becomes important to them personally, like ‘we would like to do well,’ and it is a big deal, because they start to recognize the value of it.” Photograph by Whitney J. Fox.* * *
October 21, 2007 - The Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) girl’s varsity crew after their race in the women’s youth four division at Boston’s 43rd Head of The Charles Regatta on Sunday. From left, junior Alex Jones, junior Lily Bouvier-Devine,senior and captain Paula Nistal, and senior and captain Bailey Potter, hide their coxswain, sophomore Olivia Rutter, who sits in the stern of the boat to navigate the crew during the race on the Charles River. The crew placed 33rd out of 53 teams in their division. Photograph by Whitney J. Fox.* * *
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