2020 Crew Booster Board

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Rowing for O.D.B.C. Select and Fall Rowing has been put on hold due to COVID-19. Please check for updates here and on our Facebook and Instagram pages.

Learn to Scull classes are being offered at Sandy Run. 

The classes are for high school students with at least one full year of sweep rowing experience.  Interested students can go to the link below for registration instructions.

https://www.sandyrunscullers.org/classes.html

Please note that the classes begin this coming Saturday, September 19.

Save the date! TC Rowing will have a Chipotle fundraiser Sept. 29! 

For details, click here.

In the days after George Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, T.C. Williams rising junior Shelby Bavin felt frustrated.

She wanted to show her support for the Black Lives Matter movement in a tangible way, but social media felt insufficient. 

Instead, she began thinking about a mural on Alexandria’s streets - one that would send the message of unity that she wanted to convey.

Bavin, 16, asked a few business owners if they’d let her use their building as a canvas. Then, the coxswain for the T.C. Williams rowing team thought of Jaime Rubini. 

Rubini, who owns Rubini’s Jewelers on the corner of Wythe and Washington streets, is a coach for the T.C. rowing team, and the jewelry store, which sells rowing-themed jewelry, is located blocks from the boathouse.

Rubini and his daughter, Joanna, also a former rower, agreed to the plan. 

Bavin and her friend Caroline Mitchell, 17, a rising senior and fellow aspiring artist, got to work. 

They worked through several design iterations, with Mitchell working them out on her IPad and collaborating with Bavin on a plan. 

Finally, Mitchell, who visited the Sistine Chapel in Italy last summer, landed on an idea with echoes of the famed chapel’s ceiling - a black hand and a white hand, reaching toward one another, fingers pointed just as they are in Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam,” with a spark electrifying what could happen if they united.  

Purple flowers, painted on to look like they are climbing up the wall, show, “there’s room to grow in our society,” said Bavin. 

The result - a vast mural on the side of the jeweler’s building, showing a black hand and a white hand reaching toward one another, fingers pointed - now greets anyone heading into Alexandria going south on the GW Parkway from Washington.

“They just did a beautiful job,” said Joanna Rubini, who worked closely with the girls to approve the design. She wanted the hands to touch. The girls resisted - they wanted to show progress still needed to be made - and finally, they found a compromise. Now, a spark hovers over both fingers, showing the potential of what unity could bring. 

It took eight days for the project to be completed, days when the girls climbed scaffolding. To raise money for it, the girls designed and sold “Black Lives Matters” T-shirts that they had designed, with the proceeds going to scaffolding and supplies. 

Bavin, whose job as a coxswain involves motivating her rowers, “kept me on task,” said Mitchell. Bavin, meanwhile, knew she’d have to rely on Mitchell’s enthusiasm and skill in order to make the project a reality. 

“I just feel like it gives a message to all the cars - because there’s so much traffic coming down this road - that we all need to come together and be unified,” Bavin said.

The two said others have taken note of their work; they are working with other local businesses who say they are interested in hiring them for future murals. 

Jaime Rubini said he was impressed by the initiative both girls showed in making the project come to fruition. “They were go getters,” he said.

“The bottom line was that the artistry and the concept and then, the way they created and developed and did the project is tremendous,” he said, saying customers have noticed.

“They will come in and they love it, and they want to know who did it,” he said.

It is time to celebrate our T.C. Crew senior class of 2020! This last Saturday their teammates, coaches, and parents did a drive-by to honor our seniors and deliver the coveted T.C. Williams Crew blanket. We will miss this class of young men and women! We wish you all the best!
                                                           Go T.C.! Row T.C.!
The seniors are Madeleine Allen, Alaina Browand, Ava Elkins, Lydia Greenwood, Sara Rider, Madeline Toaso, Felicity Brock, CJ Chidlow, Emmett Cocke, Townson Cocke, and
Jonathan Hernandez. (Sorry, we didn’t have pictures of all the seniors listed.)

Great update from our Boy's Varsity Crew Team this week:

Even with recent setbacks, the grind doesn't stop! As they move into what would have been Spring Regatta Season, our student-athletes have adapted to a "virtual regatta" to keep the spirit of physical fitness and competition alive.

Over the course of the past school year, rowers from T.C. Williams and Washington & Liberty have been putting in a tremendous amount of work towards getting faster on the water. Rowers at all levels at both schools have consistently demonstrated that they're hard-working and persistent

The Boys Teams from T.C. Williams and W&L have always had a complex, intense rivalry. The boys have often worked together during the Fall season as a part of the Old Dominion Boat Club (ODBC) Select Team, which is coached by Derek Parsons (W&L's Head Coach). However, during the Spring, it’s a completely different atmosphere. Representing their own high schools against each other, the boys are extremely competitive and give all they can at the annual scrimmage between the two teams.

As you all know, due to recent events, the water season has been suspended until further notice. So, demonstrating their classic grit, the boys have continued workouts -- on ergs and reporting virtually -- from their own homes, and even plan to conduct a scrimmage! The boys will do a series of challenging 3-minute, 2-minute, and 1-minute pieces. The boys will go as hard as possible and will be recorded for time. Once the results are in, times between T.C. and W&L will be compared. Please be on the lookout for the scores to see who will come out on top this year!

Thank you to our Boy's Coach, Pete Stramese and our Coxswains (as scorekeepers and writers), Shelby Bavin and Felicity Brock.

Row TC, Go TC! Remember the Titans!"