Sprints League Championship & More

Hi upper school rowing parents,

What a wonderful weekend! First, we recognized 21 great seniors and then we won the FSRA North Regional Championship! What a beautiful senior recognition ceremony! Laura Leigh Haynes made the most beautiful flower arrangements for the seniors and Blenda Berrier's balloon arrangements really made the event. Blenda's company, Balloon and Event Construction Company, has been providing balloons for every ESJ sports senior recognition for years. It was special for her to actually make them for her son Alec's senior recognition ceremony. I don't know about you, but I had my tears under control until it was Chandler's turn to be recognized by his dad, Coach Washburn. What an event. For those of you who missed it. We only lost Cities by 2 points. The trophy ceremony at the end of the day was great. We took the Men's Varsity 1, Women's Varsity 1, Women's Four, and North FL Regional Championship. ESJ looked really good.

This weekend we race in the Sprint League Championship at the Tampa Bypass Canal in Tampa, FL. It looks like its 3.5 hrs from the school, if you take I-75. Google maps say I-4 is 15 minutes faster, but you go through Orlando. All of the addresses can be found on our rowing website and at the end of the email.

The rowers will leave at 12pm Friday from ESJ. Their teachers will be notified. Please have your kids check their schedules; so they can reschedule tests and quizzes accordingly. Rowers need a bag lunch for the bus. Once they reach Tampa, they will stop by the course and rig the boats. Afterwards, they will head to the hotel and have a wonderful pasta dinner around 5:45-6pm. Races start at 9am with the Varsity 3's boat and then end the regatta with Varsity 1 final races.

Sprint League Championship is different then other regattas. Minus two heats, every race is an 8 person boat. They start the regatta with the 3rd varsity eight and end with the 1st varsity eight. There are no singles or doubles. There are multiple heats for each race. So every rower rows at least twice. For example, there are currently four 1MV8 heats. The winners from each heat race again in two different heats at 1:30. The non-winners race again in a C final around 4pm. The non-winners from the second set of races are in the B-final and the winners from the second races race in the the A-final at 4:30. So, it is possible for your child to race up to 3 times. Understand? If not, you will once you see the race schedule.

Nine middle schooler boys are driving up on Saturday to race around 11:20. They are a great boat and should do well.

The rowers will have Carrabbas for dinner and fish tacos and sandwich wraps for lunch. There will be plenty of drinks. Currently, it looks like a high of 76 with no chance of rain.

Ties:

We still have a few left. If a parent, grandparent, or rower wants one, please let me know. I will be at the PA meeting tomorrow and can drop off at the school in the morning.

Maroon shirts from bakers:

Like you, I'm irritated that we never received them. There was some kind of delay with Under Armour and the maroon color. The last I heard the men's shirt's will be in later next week and the girl's shirts will be in a several weeks. I will talk with them tomorrow about our options.

Pictures:

Have some really cool photos that you would like to share? We would love to have them for the end of the year movie. An email will be sent to you shortly with a dropbox link. Please only send your best pictures that you have looked at yourself. Please don't "dump" hundreds of pictures in the dropbox. We have a couple thousand to look through that we took. Please take the time to only give us your best. We need your highest resolution (actual size). Candids or group photos are the best. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Signup:

Signup Genius will go out tomorrow.

Sprint League Championship

Tampa Bypass Canal

7115 N US Highway 301, Tampa, FL 33610-9612

Hampton Inn & Suites Tampa North

8210 Hidden River Parkway, Tampa, FL 33637

Go Eagles!

Kim Sievert

Rowing Parent Coordinator

(904)631-6335