Members of Vero Beach Rowing are propelling their sport forward with the same strong, steady strokes as the crew teams they support. Last Monday, Chris and Mary Ryan hosted a cocktail party at their lovely Moorings home to provide an update on the $2.2 million capital campaign to fund construction of a Community Rowing Center.
Chris Ryan, a founder of the highly successful Three Rivers Rowing Association in Pittsburgh, and Shotsi Lajoie, a longtime force behind VBR, are co-chairing the campaign.
“We’re trying to get the critical mass of people who are interested or touched by this culture; people who rowed in school or are parents of children who row,” said Lajoie.
It’s individuals such as Terry Byrnes, whose son Andrew Byrnes, rowed Men’s 8 for Canada, taking home gold in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and silver in the 2012 London games.
“It was an amazing experience as a parent,” she said. “They work so hard for so many years and make it look so easy but you know it isn’t. I’m very proud of these kids here in Vero.”
Olympic Gold medalist Joe Amlong, a member of the U.S. Men’s 8 rowing team at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, is also now firmly entrenched in the VBR mission.
“Phase one, which was creating a visitors area and putting in docks, is complete,” said Ryan of their new MacWilliam Park site. “We are moving boats in there. We’ve been rowing out of there the last few weeks and it’s changed our rowing program completely.”
Boats had been stored and launched near the Water Treatment Plant at the western end of the Alma Lee Loy Bridge, where teams were stymied by rough waters and windy conditions. With the new sheltered location, rowers can get out on the water with much greater frequency.
The new Community Rowing Center will enable them to offer a variety of programs, including to veterans, the disabled, support groups and disadvantaged youth.
“This is not a program to create elite athletes, although I am sure we will have a few elite athletes come out of this program,” he said. “Our real goal is a community boathouse where we can design programs for the community.”
Ryan said rowing is the No. 1 scholarship program for women in the United States by a huge percentage, citing a 3 percent women’s lacrosse scholarship potential vs. a whopping 48 percent for women’s rowing.
“It’s far and away the biggest scholarship percentage of any sport whatsoever for girls. It makes it much more likely to get a college scholarship for minority girls,” said Ryan. “It’s very rewarding for the organization and the people who benefit from it.”
Gary Marra, VBR director of rowing, spoke about the remarkable achievements of the youth rowing program, which has increased from 13 rowers in 2014 to 77 today.
“We’ve had competitively a lot of success with the high school group, with back-to-back scholastic state championships,” said Marra.
Additionally, their first senior girl received an athletic scholarship to FIT last year, and this year their only senior girl has already signed with Simmons College in Boston. Recruiters are now visiting, including Princeton’s coach Bill Manning.
“These coaches are coming specifically to see our kids, to recruit them to their universities. This is a huge opportunity,” said Marra. “The young man who Coach Manning is coming to see would not generally be looking at a school like Princeton. But because of rowing, he’s finding himself in a position where it’s definitely within his reach; to the point where someone’s traveling all the way here to see him.”
For more information visit verobeachrowing.org.
