Team
The principle focus of the Raleigh Charter High School crew team is to offer interested RCHS students the opportunity to explore the sport of rowing and to provide the support necessary for more experienced rowers to train and compete at each student athlete’s highest ability. Crew is a varsity sport providing training and competition opportunities for both men and women. During the first year of participation, athletes are considered novice rowers, and after a year of rowing experience, they become varsity rowers. There are anywhere from 30 to 65 rowers on the team in any given season.
Captains
Each season, a group of experienced rowers are named team captains. They provide leadership for the team in both the practice and competitive environments. The team captains for the Fall 2008 season are:
- Captain:
- Captain:
- Captain:
- Captain:
- Captain:
Coaches
The coaching staff for Raleigh Charter Crew consists of experienced rowers and rowing coaches. The coaches for the Spring 2008 season are:
- Head Coach: Christine Shaffer
Coach Shaffer graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1996. She comes to Raleigh Charter with collegiate coaching experience as well as international rowing experience. She was a volunteer assistant coach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill just following graduation. She then moved to California to pursue rowing at the elite level. She trained at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA and was the 2000 National Champion in the women's open singles and doubles. In 2001, Shaffer made the United States National Team and competed at the World Rowing Championships in Lucerne, Switzerland. She also coached rowing at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ.
Lake Wheeler
The team trains on Lake Wheeler, located at 6404 Lake Wheeler road, just south of Raleigh, NC. Our equipment consists of 3 four person shells, 4 eight person shells, 1 double/pair shell, 13+ rowing machines (ergs), 2 coach’s launches, many oars, a long haul boat trailer, and an oar house where our equipment is stored. Lake Wheeler provides a low profile dock from which we launch and retrieve our boats. We share the lake with other crew teams and clubs including the North Carolina State Rowing Club, Wake Rowing and the Raleigh Rowing Center.
Practice
Unlike other high school sports, there is both a fall and a spring crew season. The fall season begins in mid-August and continues through the final regatta in mid-November. The spring season starts in mid-February and continues through mid-May. We regularly practice on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Weekday practices are typically from 3:30 pm until 5:30 pm. The starting time for Saturday practices can vary, but is usually between 8 and 9 am, and practices typically last for 2 hours. Our training consists of both land and water practices. We have several rowing machines (ergs) that we use as an element of our land practices. In addition we run and perform other calisthenics and exercises that are designed to develop rowing power, technique and endurance. Each athlete is expected to attend every practice. Absences other than illness need to be approved by the coaching staff in advance.
Competition
We compete against other teams in the high school age group. The regattas which we attend typically include many university teams and individual competitors as well. At each regatta, the competition is broken down into classes that can consist of novice, varsity, lightweight, heavyweight, men’s, women’s or mixed categories. The fall season is called the head race season, and the spring season is called the sprint season. In the fall, the races are approximately 5 kilometers long, each boat starting the race at a given interval with the boat having the fastest time being the winner. In the spring, the boats race head-to-head on a shorter 1 or 2 kilometer course with heats and finals if the number of boats for a given class exceeds the capacity of the course.