Dear Parents & Athletes,
The summer rowing season will begin tomorrow from 1pm-3pm at the boathouse. We will have a short parents meeting to discuss the summer program and answer any questions you may have next Tuesday night, June 30th, from 6:00pm-6:45pm. We recommend that all parents who have not been through a summer session attend if you can.
I have a couple details to clarify before the meeting,
1) Attendance: We have bunch of athletes with various conflicts throughout the summer. Please fill out the online absentee form for any days you will not be able to attend practice. While we understand that our families have a lot going on throughout the summer, we ask that any athletes seriously wishing to compete at the Canadian Henley Regatta in August do their best to attend all workouts throughout the month of July.
2) Regatta Schedule: The regatta schedule will be the same as last year. I will go into more depth at the meeting as to who will race at what regatta, but in general we will try to get all athletes a race at the Independence Day Regatta and the Philadelphia Youth Regatta.
Independence Day Regatta: Friday, July 3rd-Saturday, July 4th – Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Youth Regatta: Saturday, July 25th – Philadelphia, PA
Canadian Henley Regatta: Monday, August 3rd – Sunday, August 9th – St. Catherines, Ontario Canada
3) Independence Day Regatta (IDR): The IDR is a race we do for fun to kick off the summer season. Because this race takes place so close to the start of the season it is difficult to put boats together and get all athletes a race. We hope to have preliminary lineups for this race posted by the start of practice on Tuesday June 30th.
If you can not attend this race for any reason please indicate so on the practice absentee form. Athletes should also notify the coaching staff directly.
4) Canadian Henley: The trip to Canada will be limited to selected athletes only. In the past we have travelled with about 20 girls and 20 boys. We limit the number of athletes for this race because it is logistically difficult to handle more athletes on an international trip, and because the competition at this regatta is very high. If we feel we can field competitive boats with more that 20 athletes we will do so, but I would imagine that no more than 27 athletes would ever travel from either team.
Final selections for this regatta will take place no later than July 24th. If any athlete has questions about their chances of making this trip they should speak with Justin or myself.
5) Communication: From this point on we will continue to communicate via the Mercer program blog on our website. We will not be communicating through email, so any race information or updates will be posted there. Please check the blog regularly as we approach the races.
If you have any other questions please feel free to email me or you can ask in person on Tuesday. The summer season is where we lay the foundation for our success in the spring, so we couldn’t be more excited to get started tomorrow.
Thanks and Go Mercer!
Ted