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Row New York Queens traveled to Delaware on Saturday, September 28th. We visited University of Delaware and met the head coach for their rowing team, Kevin Gruber. Then, we went to visit and row with our friends at Newport Rowing Club. We rowed on the Christina River and split off into groups to go with our host families for the night. That night, we either had dinner with other host families, had a bonfire or went to a high school football game!

My name is Kassandra Naverez and I am a senior at Forest Hills High School. This weekend at the University of Delaware we sat down with the women’s coach and spoke about rowing in college for a division 1 school. We spoke about committing to a 5:30 or 4:30 a.m. practice. We spoke about the resources given to student athletes including nutritionists, physical therapists and priority registration. We spoke about balancing schoolwork with rowing. The University of Delaware is an enormous, athletic, rigorous state school. Found in Newark, Delaware, it has 17,000 undergraduates. One of them may soon be a Row New York alumni on a rowing scholarship!

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A beautiful day on the Christina River

My name is Sabrina Farrell and I am a junior at Maspeth High School. Last weekend rowing on the Christina River in Delaware was a great experience overall. After our informational college trip to the University of Delaware, the team got back into our vans and headed to Newport Rowing Club’s boathouse. Once we got there, we were immediately greeted by warm smiles and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. After we ate, we were able to talk to the varsity of Newport Rowing Club and get to know each other. At that point I became really good friends with one of the girls named Maggie C. who hosted me and one of my teammates, C-Rod, at her house for the night. Once everyone was well acquainted, we separated into random lineups. Each rower was instructed to take one of their shoes and throw it in the middle of the room. From there, the coxswains each picked up a random shoe one at a time until each coxswain was left with eight shoes.

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“We were able to get a full 5k in”- Sabrina Farrell, commenting on the length of the Christina River in comparison to Flushing Meadows Corona Park

Soon after we all walked to our boats and set out for the dock. While in the boat, some of the Newport Rowing girls told us about the Christina River and said that they didn’t have to spin so often because the river went down for miles. That practice we were able to get a full 5k in and back and we only spun just to get back to the dock. The next morning we had practice once more. This time the coaches made set lineups. The full practice included various pieces at different rates. Afterwards, we were all rewarded with a delicious pancake breakfast with fresh fruit and juice included. When it was time to go, everyone exchanged numbers, Instagrams, and of course some photos. Even though I didn’t want to leave so soon I just thought of the good times we had this weekend both on and off the water.

My name is Emma Parsons and I am a junior at Brooklyn Technical High School. Row New York has continuously given me very unique relationships. Rowing has been my introduction to some of my closest friends and most genuine role models, and it keeps introducing me to more people. On our recent trip to Delaware, I was afforded a new set of unique relationships, these probably the strangest. Rowing with the Newport Rowing Club was not just a learning experience, but also a bonding opportunity with girls who, when it comes down to it, are our rivals.  We were hosted by these girls and their families, whom we have raced against before. My own host took us to another host’s house, where even more girls from RNY and Newport Rowing Club were staying, so we could have dinner with them. There was a ridiculous amount of food – we are rowers – and a good couple of hours of hanging out with the girls from Newport Rowing Club. They were very curious about – and sometimes baffled by – our lives in New York, but aside from regional differences, I realized we are much the same. This led to more organic conversation, but it also gave me several new friends, all from the strange world of rowing. Our trip to Delaware was a chance to row hard and form new friendships, and I quite think I succeeded at both.

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Row New York girls scrimmaging with the Newport Rowing Club

My name is Nicole Doyle and I am a junior at the Young Women’s Leadership School of Astoria. My host family included Mr. Michael and Mrs. Michelle Spink, Claudia (the rower of the house), and Claudia’s little brothers Cameron and Casey. I really enjoyed our trip to Delaware and the highlight of the weekend was going to my first football game. Since we live in New York, high school football games are not too popular so I haven’t had the experience of going to one. We paid $5 for our ticket into the Baynard Stadium and then we entered what I felt was a real high school experience. We were cheering for the Salesium football team. They won with a score of 46 and the other team with 3! I loved the energy of everyone cheering for the team, the cheerleaders looked so pretty, and the marching band did a great job on their performance. I cannot wait for Newport Rowing Club to visit us in New York. However, I’m not sure if I can take them somewhere as exciting and different for them as that football game was for me.

Emma Parsons, Kassandra Naverez, Nicole Doyle and Sabrina Farrell want to thank Kevin Gruber for meeting with us and Newport Rowing Club and the rowers’ families for hosting us this past weekend on behalf of all of Row New York.

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