Race story

On Sunday, October 9, the Berkeley High School Crew Team started their 2011-2012 season, participating in the “Head of the Port” event in Sacramento. The start time was delayed by a bit of fog, but that didn’t mean it was disappointing. We’ll get to that in a moment!

This race was unique in a couple of ways. For our rowers, normal season races consist of mass starts, where the first boat across the line is the winner. But in a “head” race (often held in the Fall), the boats race against the clock. Boats in each category rowed to the start line and did a rolling start, crossing the line at 10 second intervals. At the end of the 5K course, the time for each boat was recorded.

The other unique thing about this race was that it was not limited to Juniors. In fact, we were able to cheer on boats with BHS parents, coaches, former coaches and collegiate level rowers (including recent BHS grads!) who were out there participating as well. It was a great day for a reunion as well!

So, what about the Berkeley High team, you ask??? After an hour delay waiting for the “cotton candy” fog to dissipate (as one person put it), racing commenced. Limited to varsity rowers, BHS entered 3 races on the day, two boats in the Mens Jr. 8+ race, three boats in the Womens Jr. 8+ race, and one boat in the Mens Jr. 4+ boat.

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Berkeley Crew has a long, proud history as the rare public school competing in crew against the best boats in the west. From time to time, BHS Crew sends a boat to challenge the best in the nation. This weekend, for the second straight year, Berkeley's Lightweight 4+ men's boat (four rowers plus a coxswain) will be doing just that in Oak Ridge, Tennessee at the USRowing Youth National Championships.

The BHS lightweight 4 has been slotted into the third heat on Friday, scheduled to go at 2:56pm EDT. (Heats and times are subject to change.) Heat sheets, links to video streams of the finals, and other information can found on the USRowing web site.

Striking gold in Oak Ridge

BHS and crew go way back – the 1905 BHS Yearbook shows pictures of women rowers. The modern BHS Crew was established as a men's team in 1967 and a women's team in 1976. (The two merged in 2004.) The men were undefeated at the varsity level from Fall 1969 - Spring 1971.

In 1980, the women's crew brought home the first of many medals of this modern era of rowing at BHS. The Varsity 8 came back from the Nationals – held that year, like this, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee – with gold!

Download a full list of BHS Crew medal winners (pdf, 83KB)

The Berkeley High crew season is fairly lengthy when compared to other high school sports. The kids begin training in September as soon as school starts and then compete from mid-winter through late spring. It seems like a long season, but after experiencing a race like the CJs (the Southwest Regional Junior Championships) at Lake Natoma on May 7-8, most would argue that it’s all worth it! Competing with well over 20 teams, CJs is the largest event that the Jackets compete in each year. And it is usually the last race of the season. But not always.

The BHS Crew Team competed against 3 other teams at Lake Merced on Saturday, April 9th, including Pacific Rowing, the Oakland Strokes and the Upper Natoma Rowing Club.  After a tough week of wind-impacted practices, they fought their way through most races, with the Women's Novice 8 and the Women's Varsity 4 boats showing the best on the day.