NAC at the Head of the American Regatta

The Head of the American Regatta (HOTA) is the “start” of the season for junior rowers regionally. It’s the first regatta where the entirety of NAC Junior Rowing is able to truly size up against this year’s competition, without the repercussions or pressure of a more serious regatta such as regionals in spring. It is a decent litmus test to see how team performance, culture, and dynamics between and within the different groups are going.

At 4:30 AM last Friday, the Newport Aquatic Center was filled with anxious energy. Rowers were teeming with excitement, while coaches apprehensively triple-checked logistics and attendance. Having derigged all their boats the night before, 150 Junior Rowers stood in droves, keen to be assigned a bus and to embark on their first real regatta.

Nine hours later, the buses arrived at Lake Natoma. This is the venue that had held college nationals just a few months earlier. For novice coxswains, this was their first time rowing on water that wasn’t Newport Harbor. For veteran rowers, they hadn’t been there since youth regionals last spring. Something Woman’s assistant varsity coach, Madison Byrd, noted was how the varsity teams stepped up to help guide the novices through rigging and warmup. This culture and attitude on land, especially on the woman’s side would directly translate to HOTA’s results.

Come dinner time, we were lucky to have parents support the team by finding catering. The kids munched on El Polo Loco, played cards, and polished off some ice cream before going to their rooms to rest up for early morning racing.

By 7am Saturday, the athletes were ready to compete, having checked out of the hotels and made their way to the course in stages. The racing strategy throughout the program was the same: get as many kids to get in as many races as possible. This was crucial not only for the kids to pocket as much race experience as possible from their trip, but to ensure that they maximized the amount of fun!

The Varsity Girls swept the Girls Youth Double event, getting 1st, 2nd, 3rd. They also placed 5th in the Girls Youth Pair. They finished 2nd in the Girls U17 Eight, Girls Youth B+ Eight, and Youth B+ Categories. The Girls U17 8+ got 7th, Girls U17 8+ (B) got 14th. The remaining Girls Youth B boats 8+ claimed 9th, 10th, 13th, 16th.

The Varsity Boys got 3rd, 6th, and 15th in their pair event. They also placed 2nd and 3rd in the Boys Youth 8+ A and B categories. Other Boys 8+ B category boats finished 6th, 13th, and 22nd respectively.

The Novice programs, having Girls Novice 8+ placed 6th and 10th. Boys Novice got 6th, 7th, and 9th.

When asked about the Novice Boy’s results, Head Boys Novice Coach Marcel Stiffey, who led the U17 boys to nationals last year, remarked that “all in all, this is exactly where we want to be”. His assessment could be broadened to the entirety of the program. We have every ingredient needed to have a solid season across every team, while also understanding that we aren’t the strongest or overwhelmingly dominant team across all regional junior rowing currently. We know what we need to do to get there and everyone program wide is motivated to keep at it.