It all begins at the beginning...

Manny Flick One is in the books and God bless scholastic rowing. It's amazing to see the sophisticated timing and starting systems of Olympic rowing, to hear about boats with weighted ends to reduce pitch, have Asian children swimming under boats to pull weeds off of fins, and view a roaming camera that gets incredible scanning angles of boats from all directions. But there is something to be said for floating starts, boats in a melee all over the race course and the organized pandemonium that is scholastic rowing.

Buoyed or not, Empacher or 15 year old Kaschper, all high school rowing is mitigated by the same basic pillars: try not to crab off the start, if you point the toe to the left the boat will go to the left or (right hand forward and boat goes to the right) and for gods sake don't hit anything. Although coaches around the country are pulling their hair out and taking their blood pressure meds to get boats in some semblance of racing shape before their regional championship my advice to all coaches is to step back, squeeze your stress balls a little harder, and do your best to enjoy the process. If you're an elite or collegiate athlete and have already squeezed all the sand out of your stress balls worrying about boatings for your next race or invitations to train with the National Team, I suggest you head down to your closest High School Race and remember why the sport is so much fun.