Boys meet with Deerfield Academy

Good evening parents.

I just wanted to give you an update on how things went today. The boys were ALL early for the bus. That is a great way to start the day.

In the morning, the 1st boats rowed pieces together, the 2nd and freshman boat rowed pieces against the Deerfield 2nd boat and our 4 went against their 4. The order of the morning was to do 3 minute pieces, but after the first two, we switched to a different part of the lake because of the wind and did 2 minute pieces. I can only report on the 1st boats, but we did 8 of these mini-races and we were very competitive, winning 3 of the 8. At the end of the morning, both boats were "gased".

After a lunch provided by Deerfield and lot of fluids from all of you, we went back out to race again. This time the pieces were going to be shorter, but ended up being 90 seconds. We did 7 of these and again they they were very competitive and even closer. We did not win the first 6, but on the last one, Spencer said "winner takes all" and we had a great race and won by 2 to 3 seats.

Win or lose, the bottom line was that it was a great day for everyone. The boys were great. They rose to the occasion and rowed very well against a very good program. Deerfield is a national championship medalist team and one of the top programs in New England. Although they are bigger than us, they are just kids like us. It was great at the end of the day to see them talking and laughing together. Spencer and I felt that was one of the best parts of the whole thing.

Today, everyone learned something. I wish that you could have all seen your sons as you would have been very proud of them. However, I am glad that you were not there, because you would have seen nothing of them rowing.

Now on to the second half of the season. Cities, Sprint League and States. All big races. We will plan these last weeks carefully and work on peaking at just the right time.

See you this weekend.

Pete