Club Profile/ Sep 3

Getting to Know the Quinte Rowing Club

To honour the history, dedication and current initiatives of each rowing community, Row Ontario will be producing a series of profiles on member clubs across Ontario. Today we get to know more about the Quinte Rowing Club!

Quinte Rowing Club
Established: 1986
Location: Belleville, Ont.
https://rowquinte.ca/

Located on the Bay of Quinte in Belleville, Ont., the Quinte Rowing Club was founded in 1986 by Frank Zielski, a member of the 1960 Rome Olympic team. Born in Welland, Zielski placed ninth for Canada in the men’s coxless four in Rome and won the US National Championships the following year with his Olympic crew mates. After relocating to Belleville for work, Zielski and a group of rowing enthusiasts came together to create the first rowing club in the Belleville area.

Zielski had a few contacts with the City of Belleville and found a little used warehouse down by the water where the club could store their boats. He and Frank Pinder, another founding member, bought the club’s first boat from the Ottawa Rowing Club and put an ad in the local newspaper inviting anyone who was interested in learning how to row to come try it out. With that, the club welcomed its first group of members.

The Bay of Quinte is open water, so the club needs to pay attention to the weather each day, particularly the direction and speed of the wind, to determine if the water is suitable for rowing. For the most part the conditions are good, but they do make a point of teaching their rowers how to row in open waters and rough conditions, which can be a very useful skillset. Some of the first rowers to learn these skills at the club were high school aged, as shortly after they welcomed their first group of rowers, they began a high school program at the club.

Zielski’s son Jason was a student at Belleville Collegiate Institute (BCI) and after receiving permission from the school’s principal to start a rowing program at the school, BCI became the first high school to participate at the Quinte Rowing Club. Soon after, Nicholson Catholic College started a high school program as well. At its highest point, there were seven high schools in the Belleville area that had rowing programs. The high school program at the club went on for a long time, however due to a few policy changes and a change in the busing schedule that affected the student’s ability to row in the morning and be in class by 8am, numbers dwindled, and the club eventually decided to close the program.

In addition to Zielski and Pinder, there were several other founding members who were key contributors to the club in its early years. James Eastwood was the club’s second President and was followed by Arnold Vandermeer who became the third President. Maxine Walker was a coach of the high school program for many years and Carol Greiner is a long-time board member and occasional President whose interest in rowing was sparked by her daughter’s participation in the high school program.

“I didn’t answer the first ad in the paper, but but both of my girls were involved in high school rowing program,” said Greiner, who has been involved with the club since its first year in operation. “I went to the first regatta in St. Catharines and thought wow I want to do that. There was an adult group at the club being coached by James Eastwood which I joined. And I’m still involved today.”

Zielski remained involved with the club for many years as well and continued making key contributions. In 2001, Zielski and another club member Bill Usborne submitted a request for a Trillium Grant to the Ontario government. The request was accepted which allowed the club to put a big addition onto their boat house. The addition was a huge benefit for the club as it allowed for more space, an indoor exercise area, and a regional indoor rowing tank for year-round training. Both the club and the City of Belleville put in money for the construction of the addition and agreed to a 20-year lease on the building. After construction was completed, a dedication ceremony for the new addition was held with four-time Olympic medalist Kathleen Heddle in attendance to take part in the festivities. In more recent years, the club has also had several key coaches who contributed greatly at the club, including Pinder, Walker, Eastwood, Bill Rivers, Richard Cove, and Wayne De Haitre

Around the same time the club began construction on their new addition, they also established a satellite group of rowers in Wellington, Ont. Some women who lived in Wellington and were part of a figure skating group in the winter were looking for an activity to do in the summer. They approached Greiner about starting a rowing group in Wellington and began rowing in 2001. They rent a quad and a double from the club every year and are now in their 20th year rowing on West Lake.

While the club now runs primarily recreational programming in addition to some masters programs, they have developed several elite level rowers who have gone on to success at the highest levels of the sport. The most famous and successful member of the club is coxswain Brian Price. A two-time Olympic medalist, Price got his start at the Quinte Rowing Club in 1995 while he was in high school. He would go on to a long national team career which featured three appearances at the Olympic Games and eight World Rowing Championship medals. Greiner’s daughter Erika also reached the national team level, competing at the Junior World Rowing Championships in Banyoles, Spain in 1991. The club has also developed rowers who have gone on to scholarships at big US schools, as Leah Ketcheson rowed at the University of Michigan before becoming a coach there, and Dave Stevens, who also won an Indoor World Rowing Championship gold medal, received a scholarship, and rowed crew at Harvard. Former member Craig Pond has also carved out an impressive coaching resume at the University of British Columbia, where he has been head coach of the women’s rowing team for over 20 years and won the Canadian University Coach of the Year award six times.

In addition to running rowing programs, the club has also hosted several events since they were founded in 1986. They periodically hosted the Eastern Ontario High School Regatta, which was attended by crews from Ottawa, Brockville, Kingston, and Peterborough. A number of their members also became members of Ontario Adventure Rowing (OAR), and thanks to that connection they have hosted two touring events. In a nod to Prince Edward County’s many wineries, they ran a small tour called the Row and Whine Tour. It was organized by Ted Wolvers and featured a combination of rowing on and around West Lake and visiting local wineries. The second tour, which they continue to host is called the Wilson Island Icicle Chase. The tour features a 21km row on the Trent River around Wilson Island held in mid-October every year, which sometimes sees some snowflakes.

On September 8, the club will be hosting another touring event of sorts involving OAR and the 2022 World Rowing Tour. Several of OAR’s members are completing a trial run for the 2022 World Tour, which takes place on the Bay of Quinte, and will be stopping by the Quinte Rowing Club during the trial. The club will be hosting the four touring quads and two coastal quads for lunch and there will also be a naming ceremony for two of OAR’s boats with the Mayor of Belleville scheduled to attend. The rowers are starting out in Brighton and will be rowing through the Murray Canal and across the Bay of Quinte before they reach the club.

In addition to participating in events on the water, club members also participate in indoor rowing events. Each year members compete in the Concept2 Holiday Challenge in December, which requires the participants to commit to rowing either 100km or 200km between American Thanksgiving and Christmas. The club has also gotten creative about how to promote rowing during the winter months.

“One year we entered a rowing-themed float in the local Santa Claus Parade,” said Greiner. “Sonya Wolvers was the main organizer, and the float had a boat with animated reindeer made from Styrofoam moving back and forth. It was a lot of work, but we ended up winning best float in the parade which was great.”

The club typically draws members from as far as 40km away, as many smaller communities in the Belleville area are represented at the club. With over 35 years of history, the Quinte Rowing Club has a lot to be proud about the rowing community they’ve built.