Ever since they started in 2009, the Skyline Rowing Team has won 10 national titles and has been a backbone of Skyline sports. The rowing team is full of hard workers dedicated to winning and building excellence in everyone. 

The dynamics of the team are very important to keep the team members self-sufficient. Many people on the crew team are very connected.  The team works hard to maintain a culture of uplifting each other.

“Being in charge of a high school team, intrasquad dynamics vary a lot,” says Head Coach Kit Bennett. “You always try to meet athletes where they are at, but you’re also trying to set a standard and expectation for team culture.”

Within the team, there are two main teams with different coaches: the Varsity/Junior Varsity (V/JV) and the Novice team. After warm-ups at the start of every practice, which consist of running as a group and stretching, the team splits into these groups to begin their full, rigorous, and disciplined day of exercising and rowing on the water.

“I ran the program at Pioneer last year, so I think I did a lot of…trying to make it like Skyline’s program just because I know that they have a lot of success and I wanted to have success with my kids,” says Assistant Coach of the Skyline Novice Team Rowan Higgins. “But Skyline is a lot…stricter and a lot harder, but I think it pays off more in terms of Rowing.”

Across the team, there are six team captains, three boys and three girls, who are in charge of answering questions and maintaining team culture and community. The captains strive to be leaders who are there to help members who may have small problems. 

Also, on the team, there are seven “families,” groups of teammates for multiple team bonding activities. Some of these activities consist of the team garbage pickup, where the crew team picks up trash around the Huron River.

“I enjoy the community. Some of my best friends are on the team, which is the best,” says captain Stella Gustius (‘27). “ As a team captain, making sure you’re interacting with everyone, and making sure everyone is getting what they need has been mildly challenging so far.”

Everyone tries to create reachable goals and tries their hardest to maintain them such as getting a sub 2:00 minute split as a novice. On top of that, the coaches try their hardest to create these goals.

“I think we set very high standards for the crew team,” says Bennett. “So even if we have harder conversations, we hope the athletes feel like they can be heard. We want to push them to meet their potential, which can be hard to do. While we aren’t perfect, I think we always try to get there in a supportive and positive way.”

Note: Reid Lobdell is a member of the Skyline crew team.