The Skyline crew team is one of – if not the most – successful teams at Skyline, last year winning the men’s and women’s sculling at Midwests, winning multiple State championships.
Their success continued this season. At states, the women’s team took first and the men’s took second, with the team winning in sculling overall for the third year in a row.
They did incredibly well at Midwest’s May 13th-14th, sending six boats to Nationals.
This can be intimidating to newer rowers looking to join. Maybe they think they are not experienced enough. However, multiple Skyline rowers and the coach himself argue otherwise.
“Generally we have anywhere from 16 to 32 new student athletes each year across the novice women’s and men’s teams,” says Kit Bennet, head coach. “No experience required in rowing. We love for everyone to give it a go and see how it goes over the course of that year or semester.”
Crew requires little experience to jump right into. “It wasn’t too difficult to get as good as everyone else,” says Arthur Zheng (‘25), a second year rower at Skyline, “by the end of fall season freshman year I was pretty good.” Newer rowers can catch up if they stick with it for a little while.
Even those who are athletic and coordinated may be worried they might be turned away from the crew because of the large price of the sport. Crew costs more to join than most other Skyline sports, because of the cost of tournaments, and the price of all the expensive equipment “It’s a lot but it makes sense; the school doesn’t give [much] funding towards it,” says Rowan Kowalewski (‘25).
However, generous financial aid is available for all rowers. “If a kid is coming from a difficult financial background, there is assistance 100%. We truly believe in that… We give out about $10,000 a year in financial aid,” says Bennet.
Next crew season, maybe give it a try.
