'09 Season Highlights

This year started off on some uncertain footing. We had a new coach, Marc Mandel (can't blame us we had no idea what he would be like, but we are so glad he came, thanks Marc) which always is a shaky transition period. But from the beginning it was obvious that he wanted the program to succeed. He was there before and after we arrived, organising, labeling, fixing, making, readjusting, installing, anything that would make the various jobs easier and the boats faster.

After winter training ended the real test stated. How fast could we go? We went out and rowed and practiced and erged from time to time and got faster and faster. After weeks of training we finally got a first boat: Coxswain: Johannes Schmidt, eight: Alex Casey, seven: Jack Devlin, six: Richard Johnston, five: Greg Beckwith, four: Peter Prominski, three: Jake Brennen, two: Denis Leahy, and one: Joe Hanlon.

Our first race went without a hitch and the rest of the season went by just fine. (to see the entire season see our crew website) But, our big worries were the huge end of the year races, Stotesbury and Nationals. This was the real test to see exactly how fast we were.

Though we came in one short of first we were all ecstatic. The program had never gotten this far. Now all we could think about was what we could do at Nationals.

Winning Nationals was the best thing in my life. That made up for all the hours of rowing and erging and the pain and the throwing up and the sleepiness. That was beyond words. But an even better bonus was that I realized that the wins were not just for us but for all the alumni and the whole team but that in the boat are the physical bodies of nine people but the spirits and hopes of so many more. This video really shows the depth of these feats.

Then the whispers started. I heard from a team member that the alumni wanted us to go to the Henley Royal Regatta and that there would be fundraising to send us all the way. I first dismissed them as just a little too much optimism. But, after one practice Marc came up to us and asked us to talk with him privately. He then asked us if we wanted to go to Henley. Of course the answer was: YES! From then on everything started to move at lightning speed. And now the Gonzaga Mens First Eight is going to the Henley Royal Regatta.