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4/26/07Rowing
St. Mary's rowers play host to new regatta
By MIKE ROSENBAUM of The West Bloomfield Eccentric
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ORCHARD LAKE--Participants and spectators at the first crew regatta held at Orchard Lake St. Mary's in 22 years were treated to a warm, sunshiny spring day Saturday, as St. Mary's and Cleveland St. Ignatius competed in the inaugural Canfield Cup event.
St. Ignatius won seven of the 12 races to win the regatta.
First-year St. Mary's coach John Ray said the result "shows some areas where we need to improve in the next few weeks. Fortunately, in the novice events, dramatic improvement is still possible."
St. Mary's won the 150-pound 4-man event, the Double Sculls, the Heavy 4, the Heavy 8 (by just seven seconds) and the Second Heavy 8.
St. Ignatius won the Novice 4, the Novice 150-pound 4, the Quad with coxswain, the Freshman 8, the Second 150-pound 8, the 150-pound 8 (with just a five-second margin of victory) and the Novice 8.
The competitors rowed on the north side of Orchard Lake. The course was approximately 1500 meters long.
Ray gave credit to St. Ignatius, a traditionally strong rowing school, but added that the Eaglets "have got to get better...Rowing is something that takes a lot of work to get better. You improve slowly."
Ray, a St. Mary's assistant the previous eight years, learned to row in Florida and has gradually migrated to the midwest during his coaching career, including stops at the University of the South in Tennessee, the Western Reserve Rowing Association in Cleveland and the Groton School in Massachusetts, before arriving St. Mary's.
Although the competitive season has just begun, Ray's job really started last fall, when he introduced new students -- most of whom had no exposure to the sport -- to rowing.
"It's the kind of sport where, if you like it, you figure out real quick that you like it," Ray said.
A good rower, Ray added, needs "determination. That is the one deciding factor more than anything else. Some people learn it quicker than others, but if you've got real determination you will probably, eventually, get to where you find an event that you can succeed at.
"You need somebody who works very well with a team effort, that's willing to let the glory go toward the boat and toward the program. It's not a star sport. But the people that can thrive in that environment find it really, really rewarding."
St. Mary's has the area's lone crew squad and, judging by the strong turnout at Saturday's regatta, has plenty of support from the school's community.
"This team has a real proud tradition of putting some of the finest athletes in the school onto the water," Ray said. "We get a lot of great support from our athletic director, George Porritt, who knows what rowing can do for his football players and his basketball players who have rowed. He knows that they're going to come in and they're going to be in good shape. And we have rowers that also wrestle. I think the one really signal part of our success here is how well we have integrated into the overall athletic endeavors of the school."
The Eaglets will race for the Michigan State Championship at the Hebda Regatta in Wyandotte Saturday, and will meet St. Ignatius again at the Midwest Regatta in Cincinnati on May 13.
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