College, high school teams to participate Sept. 27 in Catena Rumson Boat Race
By John Burton
RUMSON – College rowers will again take to the Navesink River competing for the Governor’s and Mayor’s cups later this month.
Athletes, both men and women, from Rutgers University, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (Army), Villanova University from Villanova, Pa., and Drexel University of Philadelphia will participate Saturday, Sept. 27, in varsity eight-oared shell rowing events, pushing off the shore of the borough’s Victory Park, East River Road and Lafayette Street.
For Rutgers rowers this is a favorite event, the fifth annual, said head coach Steve Wagner.
“It’s a wonderful venue” for the teams to row on the Navesink in early fall, Wagner said. “The people there, they do a wonderful job.”
The Ray Catena Auto Group Rumson Boat Race will have Rumson and Fair Haven families house and host coaches and athletes overnight prior to the races.
“They really enjoy it,” Wagner said of his rowers. “The whole weekend is nice.”
During Friday evening, Sept. 26, Rumson Country Club, 163 Rumson Road, will host a reception in River House, its new riverfront area. The reception will celebrate the 150th-year anniversary of the state university’s crew program, which began in 1864 when Rutgers oarsmen took to the Raritan River in New Brunswick.
“If conditions permit” on Sept. 27, Westfield High School, Rumson-Fair Haven Regional (RFH) and St. Joseph’s High School from Metuchen – the three teams that make up the Central New Jersey Rowing Association – will compete, according to Dan Edwards, who coaches crew at RFH.
The races will be 2,500 meters with teams on site at about 7:30 a.m., convening at the Rumson-Fair Haven’s rowing center, situated between Victory Park and First Street. The races will begin at approximately 8 a.m., Edwards said.
Boats and teams will race along the river’s south side, heading west toward Red Bank. They will then turn around and move along the Middletown side, with the finish line set about 300 meters from the Oceanic Bridge, Bingham Avenue, and proceed to Victory Park, Edwards said.
Spectators can watch the boats launch and return at Victory Park.
“It’s a tough course to see the races,” Edwards acknowledged, without a lot of public areas, though a lot of spectators in years past have lined the Oceanic Bridge.
Plans are in the works to have the races video recorded and shown on a monitor that will be set up in the park and at rumsonboatrace.org, he said.
The Rumson Boat Race was reinstituted five years ago after a more than 50-year hiatus from the last time collegiate shells raced on the local waters, Edwards said.
By getting the tradition going again, “we’re trying to enhance the culture of rowing” in the area, he said.
Rowing has a long tradition on many of the nation’s most prestigious campuses and, increasingly, at high schools, he said.
“Long before there was a football game or a basketball game fame, there was a crew race,” Edwards said.
At Rutgers, which is known as the birthplace of college football, the first crew races predated the first football game by five years, according to Wagner.
“The fact of the matter is, you’re dealing with not only the oldest college sport in America, you’re dealing with the fastest growing sport in America,” Edwards said. “It’s exploding.”
Edwards worked to institute crew at RFH, establishing the program in 2007. Last spring, there were about 100 students, both boys and girls, involved in rowing, he said.
In the Two-River area, the Ranney School in Tinton Fall, and Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft have crew programs, Edwards said.
About 60 high schools throughout New Jersey have established teams, according to Wagner.
The growing popularity of the sport is no surprise to Wagner.
“You can always keep getting better” by working harder and being dedicated, Wagner said. “You can always get more fit and more strong.
“It’s the ultimate team sport,” he said. “You’re really sacrificing yourself for the benefit of the team, not individual glory.
“It’s a great lesson to learn,” Wagner said.
