Upcoming Events

Winter Social

Friday, 24 February at Carranor Polo Club

Coxswain Clinic

Saturday, 7 January at The Activity Building of The Andersons

Coaching Clinic

Saturday, 11 February &
Sunday, 12 February at

SouthPoint Room of Owens Corning World Headquarters

Wish List

Loan, Donate, or Sponsor a 1-ton pick-up truck to pull the shell trailers to out-of-town regattas.

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Security cameras for the boathouse

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Classifieds

"But on the whole I agree, and I'm increasingly dismayed that we live in a world where politeness is met with suspicion, and where erudition, education (or even proper grammar) is scoffed at and denounced as elitism. Where we once lionized incredible feats of intellect or anatomy we now seem to reserve fame for more dubious distinctions."
Kris Lucius (SJJ '95), 2 June 2011, in response to an essay about Civility by Fr. Lou Guntzelman
 

Coxswain and Coaching Clinics - Toledo - January and February 2012 - Be there!

Coxswain clinic:  

How many times has a group of rowers been unable to go for a paddle (or a workout) for lack of a coxswain? Any rower with a small enough derriere to fit in the coxswain seat of a rowing shell can be a much more valuable member of the club and his or her team if he or she can take a turn at being the coxswain for a workout or a competition. Toledo Rowing Club has designed a syllabus to provide aspiring coxswains with the basic knowledge and skill sets to become that much more valuable a member of the club for which that member rows.

Saturday, 7 January 2012

Toledo Rowing Club will conduct a clinic for aspiring and experienced coxswains from 0838 (8:38 am) until 1148 (11:48 am) at The Activity Building of The Andersons residential complex located at 1833 S. Holland-Sylvania Road just south of St. John's Jesuit High School. The building is at the southern end of the property. Go in the driveway, bear right, parking is south of the building itself.

There is no charge for this training session. Read that "FREE"! The session will combine lecture, demonstration, exchange of ideas, and Q&A with the objective of giving each participant a thorough grounding in the lingo, the mechanics, the hazards, and the exercises and drills a coxswain should have in his/her store of knowledge. The instructors will be Nick Ritter, Neil McElroy, Joey Tita, Alex Thornton, "Simon" Harris, Shane Hegde. All of them? For real?? (Well, at least some, the rest in spirit!)

Requirements: Must be an enthusiastic member of the rowing community with a desire to learn how to add another skill set to your kit and to implement those skills when called upon to do so. If you have a story about a coxswain's good deed or something you think he or she might have done differently, bring it along. It will provide fodder for discussion for sure.

Register by reserving a seat with Mrs. Dana at eavesivy@aol.com no later than 3 January 2012 - so that we know how many to expect.

Coaching clinics: The United States Rowing Association has provided Toledo Rowing Club with a certified, qualified, authorized, and (if the truth be known) very capable, knowledgeable instructor, Chris Swartz, head coach of Upper Arlington High School to lead both a Level I and a Level II Coaching Clinic on the second weekend of February.

Saturday, 11 February 2012 and Sunday, 12 February 2012

The venue is the SouthPoint Room of Owens Corning's World headquarters, located at the foot of Washington Street across the Swan Creek Bridge from Summit Street. For your GPS receiver, the address is One Owens Corning Parkway. Enter the main door, turn right, and proceed to the very end of the building on the first floor. The Level I course will be conducted on Saturday, from 9 to 5; Level II on Sunday, 12 February from 8 to 5.

Requirements: Must be a member of United States Rowing Association. (Go to www.usrowing.org, click on "Join/Renew" in the upper left hand corner of any page. Then click on "Become a USRowing Member".) For anyone with no coaching experience or one season's worth, Level I is for you. Anyone who has been coaching for two seasons or more can be "grandfathered" into the Level II course.

Register at www.regattacentral.com . Please notify Coach McElroy, learntorow@toledorowing.org  at the same time as you register for the particular coaching clinic; i.e. Level I on Saturday, 11 February or Level II on Sunday 12 February.

A New Feature:  

Profiles of TRC's more senior members

In the July 2011 issue of the TRC Newsletter - see the archives at www.toledorowing.org - the lead article was about Philip Leboutillier, Jr., the man for whom the boathouse is named. It occurred to your editor that there might be some interest in learning a little bit more about some of the original members of the Toledo Rowing Club.  

Some were the rowers who would magically appear most days on the Maumee River at noon, rowing in singles. Where they came from, where the boats were stored, where they went back to, were all mysteries at least to your editor who would see them from the 21st floor of the Fiberglas Tower (now being rehabbed to apartments, retail and commercial facilities).

Anyhow, John Clement, Sr. is currently 96 years old. We got together one afternoon to swap some stories. John was born in Toledo.  "When I was a year old, my folks moved to Eagle Point Colony in Rossford. What a great place. I spent all my summers on the river. If my dad, my twin brother, and I weren't building a boat we were buying one. Did a lot of sailing when I was younger. There was always a Sunday morning sail boat race on the river across from the Maumee River Yacht Club. Tried to build a couple of rowing shells; they were not the most sleek to be sure."

John went to Rossford High School for two years and then to Cranbrook School in Michigan for his junior and senior years of high school. From there he went to Cornell, graduating in 1938 with an engineering degree. He was a member of the Army ROTC at Cornell and received his commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Artillery upon graduation. He went on active duty in May of 1941, six months before Pearl Harbor.

He was stationed in Michigan for the duration of his military service - 6 years worth. Initially he was assigned to Field Artillery insuring that there were enough 105 mm shells. At first there was what was thought to be an adequate inventory, but the Battle of the Bulge required the Army to go through the 105 mm inventory so quickly that DoD (Department of Defense) realized that it needed more shells and fast. John was transferred to Ordnance and assigned as Integrating Officer. His primary chore was to disburse the production orders among the 18 artillery shell manufacturing locations so that each factory got what it could handle. "My job was to integrate, which meant I also had to make sure that all the locations were meeting design specifications so that the shells would fit into the guns."  

He met his first wife in Toledo and married her in 1940. "She stayed in Toledo with her folks while I was stationed in Michigan. I had to be stingy with my gas rationing card so that I could have enough gasoline to drive to Toledo when I could get some liberty. She passed away in 1972. Her best friend lived in Asheville, NC, lost her husband, and moved back to Toledo. We started going out together and ended up getting married. She passed away a couple of years ago. John, Jr. bought the house that I had lived in for 35 years. I still retain a life estate in the property and continue to live here with John, Jr and his wife Chris." (Ed. And a beautiful home it is!)

"I didn't start to row in shells until well after my Army active duty." John said that he bought his first production rowing shell at a boat show at the Toledo Convention Center. Later he bought an Alden Ocean Shell from Jerry Brown, Sr., one of the founders and first President of Toledo Rowing Club and a distributor for Martin Marine's Alden Ocean Shells in Northwest Ohio. John and his son, John, Jr., and nephew, Tom, were three of the gents who rowed at noon on the Maumee. "Oh, no. My son and nephew were not dragged kicking and screaming to the boat storage facility; they were hooked in almost as soon as I joined TRC."



Which boat did you like best? "The Maas. I loved that boat. It was a more steady boat, though I did flip it in the last regatta I was in. The water was really choppy and I got caught. There was no way that I could get back into my boat. Fortunately the safety launches were nearby and pulled me out of the water quickly."

John served as President of the rowing club for two years and with his son, John Jr. as Regatta chairmen for one year. "And we had to cancel that regatta because we got blown out." Those were his words. And those of us, who have been to regattas where Mother Nature lets it be known that she is in charge, know of what he speaks. Share with me an anecdote from the annals. His eyes lighted up and he recalled the parties on Phil's boat, "Fe".   "What a great boat and what fun those parties were!"  What was your most exciting/gratifying moment as a rower? "At the Head of the Charles Regatta, rounding the curve just after the Eliot Street Bridge, and seeing the finish line. Knowing that I had finished at the Head of the Charles."



What advice do you have for someone learning to row? "Go for rows in the early morning, catch the sunrise, the usually calm water, and the birds and animals that are often visible. You have to have a passion for rowing to really enjoy it."

John was reading a book on his IPad when I arrived to chat with him. "I really like the IPad. I can download books and change the font size so that they are easy to read. I like to read history - most recently a book about Ambassador William Dodd, who was the US ambassador to Germany from 1933 to 1937 under President Roosevelt." We wrapped up our visit with John returning to his IPad and his read. What a gentleman!

You know you are a rower when...

You sit down in class and look for the tie-in shoes.

Winter Social

The annual Winter Social is scheduled for Friday, 24 February 2012. It will be held at Carranor Hunt and Polo Club, Second Street, corner of East Boundary, Perrysburg.  Invitations can be found HERE

Between the telling of tall tales of hard workouts, and harrowing escapes from the ravages of the Mighty Maumee River, there will be recognition of the winners of the prestigious Busted Butt Award, Water-Logged Award, and the "Full Speed Ahead" Award. Come join the fun, the food, and the stories. Offer congratulations to those who went the extra mile by working to make TRC a better place from which to row, the extra mile (or more) in a single shell, and the extra several miles to continue the traditions of the man responsible for the existence of Toledo Rowing Club.

There will be some tall tales for sure.  A review of the 2011 rowing year, plans for 2012 rowing year, and information about the coming of the Great Lakes Marine Museum to the Marina District. As well as some of Carranor's great food and adult beverages. Graduating seniors from all the high school clubs will be recognized for their steadfastness and spirit as representatives of Toledo, their schools, and their clubs.

USRowing recognizes scholar athletes

The USRowing Scholastic Honor Roll recognizes high school seniors who have excelled in both academics and rowing. Applicants must be USRowing members, have rowed or coxed at least one year, and successfully competed at or above the league or regional level. Hollis Dana of St. Ursula Academy was recognized as a USRA Scholar Athlete. Jacob Dollman of St. John's Jesuit High School received honorable mention recognition.

2011-2012 USRowing Scholastic Honor Roll Recipient

Hollis Dana, St. Ursula Academy

2011-2012 USRowing Honorable Mention Scholastic Honor Roll Recipient

Jacob Dollman, St. John's Jesuit High School

Another anecdote from the annals  

Dear Mr. McElroy: 

We just want to thank you putting us in contact with the Toledo Rowing club. My daughter and son were able to try rowing twice before the weather became a factor. My son decided to try rowing also and loved it! Both are going to row this spring on the TMRC. Our daughter ended up signing to row at Iowa next year. Thanks again for all your help! 

Lawson's   

Lesson learned? Try it. You'll like it!!

Who should get credit and kudos in your organization?

It is easy to tell which clubs are submitting articles, photos, outlines for articles, or just ideas for articles by noting which clubs "get some ink" in the newsletter.  Don't get left out!  Why not let the editor know how many of your rowers are National Honor Society members; who among your rowers has already been accepted for college and for which college(s) or where each of them is applying; which rowers were letter winners for their efforts during the fall season? Submit ideas, requests, photos, and/or comments to newsletter@toledorowing.org

Receiving two or more copies of each issue?

If you are getting two or more copies of each issue, it is because we have more than one e-mail address for you. Please advise the editor at newsletter@toledorowing.org which e-mail address you would like us to use. We will delete the other(s). Appreciate your help.

Please consider a donation to the Toledo Rowing Foundation.;

Your contribution provides college scholarships as well as support for youth and adult rowers. The foundation is a 501 (c) 3 organization, so all gifts are tax deductible.

Please forward donations to:  

Toledo Rowing Foundation

Attn: Virginia Keller

PO Box 8072

Toledo, OH 43605-8072