Why Row?
Competitive rowing demands the ultimate level of discipline, focus and teamwork from each individual. An endurance-based sport, rowing does more than improve your body, it enhances your spirit. Rowing is historic and time-honored, and as many rowing enthusiasts will tell you – it is not a game.  In his speech at the annual Yale-Harvard regatta luncheon in June 2008, Tom Weil had this to say about the nature of rowing and why we row:

“Baseball, football, soccer and basketball, and every other team sport is, in its origins and appearance, a game, and rowing is, in its essence, pure work  . . . . if what you enjoy about a sport is the work that it takes to excel in it, and the disciplines and virtues that attach to that sort of activity, and how it is, more than almost any other sport, the ideal training for life, you cannot beat rowing.

"The seeming ease of the oarsman is an illusion compounded by the extraordinary grace and efficiency of motion of a good crew.  In fact, rowing requires the most intense expenditure of effort and endurance in athletics.  And during a race there is no relief.  There are no time outs, or halves, or quarters, or innings.  There are no substitutions.  For better or worse, there is no coaching.  Few athletes from other sports could keep up with the work of an oarsman.

"It makes you wonder why anyone would row.  But when you think about it, it gives you some sense of what you get in an oarsman.  Hard working, courageous, enduring, dedicated, selfless, team player.  You couldn’t do better for a partner in business or in life.  There is a reason that the Chinese are putting many of their marbles in the rowing ring.  These very qualities are what are driving the incredible achievements of that nation today, as they have driven the best of what America has accomplished over its history.  So the next time you see a racing shell on the river, be glad for what that means for the oarsman and his community.  And the next time a resume crosses your desk with “rowing” on it, keep it handy.  It marks an individual who knows the value of hard work, and doesn’t play games.”