HURON ROWING

Rowing is a full-body sport that trains all the major muscle groups and increases overall fitness, endurance, strength and flexibility. The sport encourages teamwork, sportsmanship, mental toughness and time-management. High school athletes learn to work together, be accountable, set goals and have fun. 

In order to participate with Huron crew, your child must live in the Huron district and attend an Ann Arbor Public High School or Consortium, namely Huron High School, Community High School or Washtenaw International High School (WIHI). Students attending WTMC or Greenhills can participate in HRA club activities during the fall, but need to compete separately during scholastic races. 

Yes. Each athlete is required to pass a swim test performed by a certified lifeguard that confirms that your son or daughter can swim. While rowing is a safe sport and falling in the water is  extremely rare, it is still a possibility and the coaches need to know that all of their athletes can swim and know what to do in case of emergency. Rowers can wear life-jackets, but they interfere with the mechanics of the stroke are are not used if possible. All coaches carry life-jackets and rescue equipment on the water during practices and are trained in CPR/AED and first aid. 

Yes. There are excused and unexcused absences like any sport, but rowing shells (boats) require a certain number of people in order to carry them and take them out to practice. If someone doesn't show up, his or her teammates won't be able to practice. In addition, athletes that attend practice regularly are in better shape, have better technique and suffer fewer injuries. Therefore we place a huge emphasis on attendance in this sport. 

Equipment, coaching, regatta entry fees, buses, hotels and equipment maintenance. We do everything we can to make rowing as affordable as possible, however, the equipment for rowing is very specialized and expensive. Carbon fiber boats - 60 feet long with 12 foot carbon oars transport our athletes down the river. We participate in local races, but we also give our athletes the opportunity to travel and race against regional and national-level competition. For those races we rent buses and stay in hotels. There are surcharges for certain races. We do offer fundraisers and scholarships to make rowing more accessible if it is out of reach for your family.

In sweep rowing, each rower only has one oar and the oars alternate sides down the boat. This is typical of large team boats, eight-person shells (8's), four-person shells (4's) and some smaller boats such as a two-person boats (pair). Most larger team boats have a coxswain (a small person who coordinates the boat and steers). Sweep boats make up the majority of the boats we row at Huron. The other type of rowing is called sculling. In sculling, each athlete has two oars. These are typically smaller boats such as one-person boats (singles), two-person boats (doubles), and sometimes 4-person boats (quads). These boats typically have no coxswain and steer by themselves.