Crew

Rowing rewards hard work and teamwork. There will never be a Nike contract at the end of the road, but what our students gain from the sport is a foundation for success in whatever walk of life they choose to follow.

The rowing stroke is very simple to teach and is something you can master in a day. However, it takes a lifetime to perfect. This takes focus, toughness, strength of will, and dedication to your crewmates. These are the tools that a good rower possesses and something we try to instill in our athletes. Rowing has been described as the ultimate team sport. All rowers move as one, with a single goal in mind. Everyone pulls not only their own weight, but their teammates as well. This unique camaraderie is what makes rowing special and something that bonds teams and boats for years after docking.

Rowing is the newest sport at Suffield. Despite our brief existence we have had success both on the water and in placing students in college programs. These efforts are buoyed by our state-of-the-art facilities, featuring an on-campus indoor rowing tank, indoor rowing machines, and a growing fleet of boats at our boathouse in Holyoke, MA. Suffield is a part of the NEIRA rowing organization, racing with peer boarding and day schools in New England. This is our third season as a part of NEIRA, gaining more success each year. We race 4-person boats, which fits the size of our program well. The racing season is in the spring, however we also have a winter training program, focusing on conditioning and perfecting the rowing stroke on the tanks. In the future we plan on expanding our training, including training trips during spring break to prepare for the racing season.