October_2011 - Newsletter

***** CTC Gala is coming to town! *****

Please mark your calendars for the 5th annual CTC Gala Celebration Friday, November 11th !

Invitations have hit the post office and tickets are now being sold. This year more CTC rowers will participate in the Gala festivities. We're also moving to a larger room at the University Club. We hope you come out to support the team at this fun event. Tickets for tables, sponsors, and individuals can now be purchased online at our new CTC Store. It only takes a mouse click! Reminders for the event will be hitting your inbox and mailbox with more frequency from this point on.

***** Annual Report is in the mail *****

The first CTC Annual report has now been written and hard copies have been sent to those for whom we have a physical address. We hope you find this report informative and helpful. Our goal is to continue to build a strong organization and this report outlines our progress to date. An electronic version of this report can also be found on-line.

***** Season starts with long distance erg test & physical assessment from Accelerated Rehab *****

CTC's partnership with Accelerated Rehab has offered CTC added insight into the rowers on the team and their initial assessment has proven invaluable. Through a battery of balance, stretching, posture, and erg analysis we have identified youths that need to add focus in this area to better enhance their rowing ability. We have uncovered some imbalances, strengths/weaknesses, and curious findings that will all help the kids in the long run. We look forward to continually assessing the kids through this partnership and bear the fruit of all the focused labor when it really matters - Spring and Summer racing season!

***** CTC Hits the water and wins some medals! *****

Chicago Training Center boats have already competed in three regattas and results are the best they have ever been for the fall! Our first race of the season saw us host a home regatta on the Chicago River with competition from St. Ignatius High School and Crystal Lake Rowing Club. Nineteen boats competed from all squads and this gave the new CTC novices a chance to test themselves in a competitive environment for the first time.

CTC's top boy's quad was the third fastest boat on the water (just behind the Ignatius men's coxed 8 and coxed 4) but it was the girls that stole the show. The CTC girls posted the fastest time for all girl entries by 45 seconds! All rowers raced at least once and some three times! CTC plans to make this an annual event on the River for local crews that want to throw down on the Chicago industrial course!

Following the excitement on the home course we faced two-days of competition a week later at the Quad Cities Challenge and Head of the Rock Regatta (Oct 8th and 9th respectfully). This double race weekend meant that we were away from home for two nights and the kids were jumping with excitement to not only leave Chicago but also race against unknown competition.

The Quad Cities Challenge (Moline, Illinois) had the kids compete on the Mississippi River (a first) and take on challenges from Culver Military Academy, Quad Cities, and other local crews. Our men's quad finished second in a close fought race (15 sec margin) but it was the girls again that stole the show with a 1st place finish among high school teams (they finished second to a University in the Womaen's Open Quad event). Special mention should go to our 4th Girls Quad who had a rather exciting and damaging encounter with a bridge. Needless to say the boat did not come away unscathed but it can be repaired. We will now focus on learning how to steer away from immovable objects!

Following our exciting day in Moline we headed north to Rockford for a regatta of significantly larger size. Given that CTC was down two quads (one was damaged in transport - all fixable) we had to re-shuffle some crews. Thanks to the good nature of the crew members, everything worked out and almost everyone got to race (apologies to Sergio for being the odd one out). Both our top men's and women's quad finished 3rd - but in a time that was highly competitive with the top end of the field. We can honestly say that we are now performing against top crews and because of this the competitive fires have lit up the squad from within.

The post race count from the regatta weekend was 32 total medals, multiple races competed, and two boats damaged. All-in-all, a rather successful, exciting, and chaotic few days. The kids now realize what we as coaches have always preached - rowing is best when you are competing, and even better when you are able to claim a victory!

We will now focus our efforts on our final regatta - the Head of the Eagle in Indianapolis Indiana (Oct 29th). We hope that we are able to go up against teams that have recently piped us to the post (Culver, Quad Cities, and Minnesota Boat Club) and others that we have yet to see. We are more than ready to test ourselves and this regatta will be our final opportunity before we hit Gage Park and settle in to Winter Training.

***** CTC Works with Recovery On Water (ROW) *****

Back on August 31, the CTC girls partnered with Recovery on the Water for their first ever joint practice in an effort to introduce the girls to other inspiring women rowers and this week the girls are looking forward to the follow up practice this Wednesday. Our girls were able to join the ladies in an 8, bond over a shared love of the sport and even shared some cookies and laughs after practice. Since ROW practices out of the CTC's river site, this is the first of what we hope will be a lasting relationship between our girls and the women of ROW. The women of ROW,all cancer survivors, offer the girls another set of strong role-models to look up to and CTC looks forward to additional practices with them this year.