High Expectations for Westfield Crew Team

’s crew team has sent boats to the semi-final stage at nationals five straight years now. The program consistently graduates students who continue their education and/or row at some of the most respected schools in the country such as West Point, Boston College and Bucknell.

This fall, boys’ team Captain Cameron Schultz will head to Cornell, while Darby Nelson, a captain from the girls’ side will further her studies and compete at The Naval Academy. More than 30 percent of the team maintains a GPA of 3.5 or higher. In fact, Bosch added that one season, 85 percent of the team reached that academic mark.

So, with accolades like this, why has every student not joined crew? Well, Coach Brian Bosch said he wishes they would.

“Getting kids to try out is the biggest hurdle, because they see it as such a foreign idea,” said Bosch. “In the fall, we try and host at least one ‘learn to row day’ where everyone is welcome to come out and get in the boat. We mix it up 50/50 with experienced kids and try to get people introduced to it in that manner.”

It takes many people to ensure the Westfield Bulldog crew team has a successful season, including two coaches and a director: Bosch focuses on coaching the girls’ team predominantly, while Tom Moulen coaches the boys and Erik Nienabe takes on the role of the program’s director. Though the boys and the girls compete separately, Bosch said the two cheer always each other on and form a family.

“We can’t really survive without the other half,” he said. “We have to work together to make race day happen—that creates camaraderie.”

The Bulldog boys’ first boat (equivalent to varsity) took second place at states in 2011, while the girls finished a very respectable seventh. Westfield started the 2012 season off right, reaching the finals in its first competition on the water two weekends ago against several other area schools.

Both the boys and girls use eight-man boats and may race against multiple schools at one time. A ninth member of the team, the coxswain, sits at one end of the boat but does not row. Instead he or she will give the rowers instruction, updates of the race, and lead his or her boat to a hopeful first-place finish. The team also competes with second boats (junior varsity) and third boats, and so on. The higher numbered boats are similar to freshman level, Bosch said.

The success of 2011 is a lot to live up to for this season’s crew team. But while difficult, Bosch said the goal each season is for both the girls and boys to “advance from that petite final and make the final and break into that top-six”— which he believes to be plausible.

“I think it does put al little pressure,” Bosch said. “Nobody wants to do worse than the year before. It’s very competitive but I think the boys—they want to be a contender for first place in the states. They are going to have there hands full but it’s not unrealistic.”

The seventh-year coach added that the girls are capable of reaching the team goal as well. The season is young and he said the rowers have plenty of time to mature in 2012 and strengthen themselves before the postseason.

Though a physically demanding and equally fun sport, crew is also rather expensive. Team members must pay for their equipment and therefore must participate in fundraising events throughout the season. And this is where Bosch and Craig Trumbull, president of the Westfield Crew Boosters Club, agree that the team would fail without the parents’ involvement each year.

“We definitely cannot do what we do without the parents,” he said. “They do manage all the fundraising and organize all the carpools and get the kids to all the places far away from our school.”

Those same parents also organize “pasta nights” for the team on evenings before the big race days, during the season. Social events such as these, along with fundraising and competition are the times that create the family atmosphere that Bosh and Trumbull enjoy most about the sport.

Bosch said he and the other coaches have put together a program where both “middle school and high school students who have not rowed before and completed the seventh grade” can learn about crew.

The Westfield coach also credits the crew team booster club for the time and effort it puts in each year. But Trumbull said he prefers to pass that credit on to Principal Tim Thomas and DSA Terri Towle. He added that everyone from Dave Dolinger to the board which consists of Shirley von Rinteln, Christopher Nelson, Beth Ostlund, Frank Culbertson and Jim Higinbotham.

Rowers tend to increase both their technique and performances with each year of experience, Bosch said, which is one reason he hopes for the following to happen for Westfield’s crew team.

“My hope is that all the incoming freshmen at all schools, not just Westfield, will go out their freshman year and give it a shot,” Bosch said. “Most of our athletes do a fall or winter sport. It’s something that’s new, different and exciting… and it’s fun.”