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Skimming the surface
By PAULETTE LASH RITCHIE
It's the perfect place, said Dave Brown, one of the coaches of the newly formed crew team at Lecanto High School. That's where he could be found during spring break with LHS students also willing to come to the north westernmost extremity of the county early one school vacation morning. Brown, who teaches sculpture and pottery at the LHS Lecanto School of Art, and algebra teacher, Dan Carella, the other coach, are both rowing enthusiasts, an interest leftover from their college days. "It's something both Dan and I did," Brown said. "It's something that we've both just really loved." Starting a local team is something Brown said he has wanted to do for 14 years. He and Carella talked about it for a couple of years and senior Candi Fore heard them. The 18-year-old was very interested and kept pushing the teachers, Brown said, until they worked out a way to make it happen. They had their first meeting at the end of November, began practicing in February and, right now, the program has a four-person shell (the long, narrow boats used in rowing) and an eight-person shell. The coaches have three boats that can follow the rowers.
It's a good start, but not ideal. Two of the coaches' boats are johnboats and one is "too big" Brown said. The biggest problem with the coaches' boats, though, is lack of motors. They only have one and its performance is very questionable. Sometimes it starts and sometimes it doesn't. In the meantime, the students the coaches are supposed to be coaching, are long gone. The shells are adequate for a beginning group, but Brown would someday like to have newer, lighter ones. The eight-person shell came from a Gainesville area crew club and cost the LHS rowers $2,500. The four-person one, which is about 20 years old, was from Brown's alma mater, Marietta College in Ohio. It cost $1,750. New shells run about $25,000 and $15,000. Brown hopes to write some recreational grants to help them purchase newer equipment. But, at least the crew team has started and Brown credits the students, their parents and the business community for helping fund what they have. The most immediate need is a reliable motor for the coaches' boats.
One asset the group has is an eager group of students, excited enough to want to practice over spring break. Candi said she was never good at any sports that required throwing balls in hoops or anything. She's better at biking and non-ball sports. She became familiar with rowing from looking into colleges and what they offer. She is interested in crewing in college, she said, either at Boston University or the University of Florida. She wanted to try it out in high school and when she found out her teacher, Carella, had been a rower, she said she pestered him and Brown to put together a program. "It's a big sport in New England colleges," she said. It's a good recreational sport and "keeping in shape has something to do with it," she said.
"It's actually, I think, one of the faster growing collegiate sports and growing in high school," Brown said. "One thing about this sport is, it's absolutely beautiful to watch." About 25 Lecanto High School students have signed up and Candi is one of the captains. The other is Matt Wetzel. Katie Brooks, a 16-year-old sophomore, is a coxain, the person who sits in the stern of the shell and steers. "It's important that that person be fairly small and light," Brown said. Katie is. "She's learning it as we go," Brown said. But Katie has done research on the position on the Internet and studied a Gainesville team's coxain when that team invited the Lecanto group to row with them recently.
As beginners, Brown said, his team members are learning to set the ore handles and keep them even at all hands to maintain a level boat. "At this stage, we see big advances all the time." At the team's first competition, they earned a bronze medal for placing third.
Besides the high school team, Brown said he was interested in forming an adult rowing club. He can be reached at 746-3782. Brown and Carella will return calls left at 746-2334.
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