Group Floats Plan for Prep Rowing
Seeks youths interested in forming club
Morgantown Dominion Post
23 July 2010
By Eric Hanlon
Mononhahela Rowing Association high school team info: e-mail
info@monrowing.org, visit the MRA website at http://www.monrowing.org or call
John Duarte, 304-282-6523.
A new high school sport could be bobbing up in the area soon. The
Monongahela Rowing Association is trying to establish high school club
teams.
“We’ve had a a few kids that are interested, some with prior rowing
experience on competitive teams,” said John Duarte, president of the
Mon Rowing Association. “So we’re trying to spread the message and see
what kind of response we get.”
The plan is to have at least part of a team assembled by the first week
of September. But because it’s a new project, how quickly the program
gets off the ground depends on the number of athletes willing to
participate.
“Right now, the most important thing is to spread the word that it’s
available in Morgantown and that kids of high school age can get
involved if they want to,” Duarte said.
Duarte needs at least five athletes to have a team for a four-person
boat (or nine for an eight-person boat). He said it’s important to have
one additional floater in case of sickness or injury, just as it’s
important for a football team to have a backup quarterback.
Morgantown High athletic director Dan Erenrich said he’d be happy to
help Duarte reach that number.
“Mr. Duarte met with me before and we said we were very much interested
in helping him as much as we could,” Erenrich said.
Four students — two boys and two girls — have expressed interest but
have yet to commit. One is from Morgantown, one is from University and
two are home-schooled.
Duarte expects the first part of the program will only involve
training. Competitions would begin next spring.
“This will be a year of building up,” he said. “We’re going to start as
a club sport under the Mon Rowing Association and, hopefully, become an
active program.”
Like hockey, lacrosse and rugby before it, rowing in the state of West
Virginia is a club sport that has yet to catch on statewide. The only
state school with a team is Parkersburg.
“If it’s a club sport for the community, we’d gladly support it,”
Erenrich said. “We do that for rugby and hockey. Anything they want us
to publicize, we put out there.”
Erenrich said he believes rowing fills a sports gap.
“I like to support those kinds of things because it’s important to
kids,” he said. “Not everyone fits into the sports we have here.”
Because it’s a club sport, though, Duarte plans on sharing equipment
with the WVU men’s team and facilities and a boat house with the WVU
women’s team.
This is not the first attempt to bring the sport to the Morgantown area.
“Mon Rowing has been here since 1975 and there was a high school team
in 1989, but it didn’t really go anywhere,” Duarte said. “For years
we’ve been trying to get it going again.”
Other than Parkersburg, the Mon Rowing team would most likely travel to
face teams in Marietta, Ohio, and in Pittsburgh.
Duarte said a $20 to $50 fee will be asked from those interested in
competing the first year.