Getting to Know the South Niagara Rowing Club

South Niagara Rowing Club
Established: 1976
Location: Welland, Ont.
https://www.rowsnrc.ca/

Even before the South Niagara Rowing Club was established, rowing had already started taking place in Welland. Shortly after the Dain City section of the Welland Canal was decommissioned in 1973, Rowing Canada Aviron quickly discovered this flatwater gem and started training the national team on the waterway in 1974. In 1975, members of the Welland community thought it would be a great idea to establish a rowing club so this amazing waterway could be better utilized on a regular basis and their love of rowing could be shared with more members of the South Niagara community. So, in 1976 a small group of individuals, in partnership with the government and sponsors, formally established the South Niagara Rowing Club on one of the premiere waterways (now known as the “Great Dain”) for rowing in the country. In its first year, the SNRC hosted the Canadian National team along with the British National team who needed a training site in preparation for the Montreal Olympics.

The SNRC was established on the South Course in Dain City. The club is located on Colborne St. at the north end of the South Course and the club’s members have access to a straight 4 km waterway, all protected on both sides from the wind by its high banks. They’re also able to enjoy the water, with its ideal conditions for rowing, from as early as mid-March to as late as mid-November in some years. A portion of the waterway was fully surveyed for the creation of a full 2000 m, 6 lane, Albano buoyed race course, which has been usedover the years for many key regattas including the National Rowing Championships, Ontario Rowing Championships and the South Niagara Invitational, to name but a few.

The initial group of founding members of the SNRC included Jack Berkhout, Al Tendon, Donna Pearson, Tom Boyer, Ed Gudaitis, Silvio Palumbi, Brad Clements, Joseph Furgal, Norm Adams, James Reilly, Robert Reilly, Richard Mesaros, Paul Stringer and Ivy Riddell. In addition to founding the club, they and many others have made numerous contributions over the years to improve club infrastructure and build the South Niagara rowing community. The club’s Quonset Hut was the first building erected on site in 1977, followed by the Small Boathouse in 1978 and in the late 1990’s an additional portable building was brought to the site to be used as a club office. The SNRC’s Large Boathouse was completed in 1999, giving the club adequate facilities to house all their boats.

Also in 1999, the SNRC hosted the Regatta of the Americas which was one of the four major regattas in the 1999 World Rowing Festival and preceded the World Rowing Championships that were being held at the Henley course in St. Catharines. This regatta provided an international caliber racing opportunity for both junior and masters club athletes who did not qualify as part of the elite category of racing required for the World Rowing Championships. Thousands of competitors attended from places like Hong Kong, South America, England, Australia, Mexico and throughout the United States. This event put the SNRC on the map as an excellent regatta venue suitable for hosting major events.

Donna Pearson was a key leader for the club and served as Club President from 1984-1994. Described as being ‘one of those people who have an endless amount of energy and just makes things happen’ by current President Kevin Fuller, Pearson was responsible for bringing many events to Welland, including the Ontario Rowing Championships in mid-1980’s, where it remained for several decades. While serving as President of the club, she was also involved with the Canadian National Team program as a team manager (1984-1990) and took the team to the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Pearson broke many barriers as the first female national team manager for RCA, the first female rowing club President in Canada and the first female FISA team manager for Canada. She was also responsible for bringing canoe, kayak and dragon boat events to Welland. Over the years there were countless high profile national team athletes who trained out of Welland, including Silken Laumann, Kay Worthington, Derek Porter and Marnie McBean, some of whom have gone on to become key members of the Canadian Olympic Committee and International Olympic Committee. Pearson still keeps in touch with many of these former athletes.

“Scott is the guru we have for keeping our coach boats running or anything mechanical,” said Fuller. “Helen has been a key board member for many years, and she’s been our regatta chair for both our South Niagara Invitational and Head of the Welland regattas for a number of years now. She’s done a phenomenal job with that, making sure the events are well-run and organized and because of her efforts these events have become two of the premier regattas of their kind in Canada. They’ve both been major contributors at the club for a very long time and we are very lucky to have them.”

Fuller himself has been a member of the board of directors since 2012 and has done a tremendous amount of work during his time as President. He’s also helped guide the club through the uncertainty brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic over the last year and a half.

In addition to operating as a rowing club for almost 45 years, the SNRC has also been hosting regattas for almost as long. They’ve established two marquee events on the Ontario rowing calendar that are highly anticipated each year – the South Niagara Invitational and the Head of the Welland Five Bridges Classic. The South Niagara Invitational, formerly known as the High School Invitational, is hosted on the May long weekend and is typically the last major regatta on the calendar before the Canadian Secondary School Rowing Association (CSSRA) Championships. The event is a two-day regatta, and many schools use it as a tune up of sorts for the CSSRA’s. It’s the second largest high school regatta in Canada, next to CSSRA’s, and usually draws anywhere from 50-65 teams and over 500 crews who compete in sprint races on the South Course.

The SNRC will also sometimes host internal regattas for club members, as well as Come Try It Days for new rowers a few times per year, the occasional club barbecue and rowing clinics where they typically bring in some outside coaching expertise to work with youth and masters athletes on their technique and rowing skillset. They are a busy club in the spring, summer and fall months with the events they host, not to mention all the regattas the competitive rowers at the club travel to. Each year they host a Captain’s Dinner in the late-Fall where members of the club get together, have a nice meal, and celebrate everyone’s achievements and contributions over the last year before heading into the winter.

With over 150 members annually, the SNRC is a full-service club with diverse programming for every segment of the rowing population. They draw members from all over the Niagara region, with some coming from as far as Hamilton and Burlington. Their youngest members are around 12 years old and their oldest member is 91. The club prides itself on being able to provide programming for anyone interested rowing.

“Our programming is quite diverse, we don’t concentrate on any particular area of rowing or age group,” said Jirianna Couroux, General Manager of the SNRC. “We have quite a big masters program, with around 20 masters rowers and about 30 in our junior program. We’re currently building our recreation program which is a combination of both adults and youth and we’re also doing a sculling development program, which provides one-on-one coaching with athletes in singles. There’s always a lot going on at the club in the summer months.”

Over the last year and a half, the club has needed to adapt its programming due to COVID-19 Regulations, which restricted the use of crew boats. While the club is excited to be back in crew boats now that the restrictions have been lifted, they found an added benefit to their members rowing primarily in singles.

“With the COVID-19 restrictions, everyone new to rowing had to be in a single right out of the gate,” said Fuller. “Normally when we do a learn to row program the new rowers are either in eights, a quad, or a four. But we’ve found that the development progression of the athletes was greatly expedited rowing in singles. It was impressive to see how fast they developed their skill set. There was a time I remember seeing a dozen elementary school students on the water in singles. After they were coached a bit, they began to shine. Now we’re excited to see how the crew boats will come together with these athletes and the skills they’ve developed.”

Over the course of its history, the SNRC has developed a number of rowers who have gone on to compete at the elite levels of the sport. In addition to a countless number of rowers who have competed at universities across Canada and the USA, SNRC rowers have also advanced to the national team level. Kerry Maher Shaffer may be the most internationally decorated SNRC alumni who competed as a member of both the under-23 and senior national teams. In 2015, she captured two gold medals, one in the double sculls and the other in the quadruple sculls, on home waters at the Pan Am Games. Jacob Koudys is another SNRC alumni who had significant success internationally where he captured a gold medal at the 2015 Pan Am Games as coxswain of the men’s eight. Jacob was also the coxswain of the gold medal winning men’s coxed four at the 2014 World U23 Championships and the bronze medal winning men’s eight at the 2014 FISU World University Championships. Nick Tavares and Sam Stewart are also two recent club members who have competed at the international level. Tavares was on the national team and competed at the World Rowing Junior Championships in 2014 and 2015 and the World Rowing Under-23 Championships in 2016, 2018 and 2019. Stewart just joined the club after competing in the men’s double at the 2021 World Rowing Under-23 Championships in the Czech Republic in early July and is working as a coach for the competitive program this summer.

The SNRC has also had numerous Ontario, National and Royal Canadian Henley champions over the years and has the distinction of holding the course record at the Head of the Charles in the women’s youth four which has stood since 2010. In 2016, nine SNRC alumni were inducted on the Welland Sports Wall of Fame for the amazing five Henley gold medals this group combined to win in 1996. Within this group there were three sets of twins which included Tom Blacquiere, Rob Blacquiere, Chris Bonfoco, Mike Thibault, Craig Green, Jeff Joscak, Jamie Joscak, Sarah Montgomery and Steve Montgomery. Many probably know the Blacquiere’s from the many Ontario regattas they have umpired over the years. Tom is a FISA-licensed umpire and has had many key roles including member of the Row Ontario Umpires Committee, Chair of the RCA Umpires Committee, Regatta Chair for the Row Ontario Championships and Masters Championships and Row Ontario Vice President-Events and Umpires. Coaches at the club are also making their mark at the national and international levels as SNRC coach Mary Rao was recently named as one of the coaches for the Junior National Team at the 2021 World Rowing Junior Championships at the beginning of August. Brandon Campbell also represented Canada as a team coach at the 2014 FISU University World Championships and has spent the last three years as an assistant coach with the very strong Washington State University women’s rowing team. The club has invested heavily in coach education and development over the years, which many of the clubs’ coaches have contributed to, as well as benefitted from.

“We have quite an active coach development focus,” said Fuller. “Often times rowing clubs are focused on the development of the athletes, but we know that there is a lack of qualified rowing coaches in the sport, and we’ve taken it upon ourselves to try and develop coaches from within our club. We know there are a lot of coaches out there who’ve been coaching for many years, and there’s always that risk that they’ll decide to step away and do other things. So, we’ve been very active in developing coaches from our membership or athletes who have shown an interest. We’ve been able to employ some university students through summer job opportunities that we have, and we’ve taken it to the next level this year. We’ve created a coaching handbook for the club which includes training information, skills and drills, policies and procedures, boat rigging, water rescues and so much more. We’ve had some fantastic feedback from other coaches about it and it’s a great resource for our current and future coaches to have.”

In 2016, the club celebrated its 40th anniversary and a big celebration was held at the annual Captain’s Dinner. Many of the original founders of the club returned for the night, and they all sat around the same table, a nice sight to see for both new and veteran members of the club. It also presented a wonderful opportunity for current club members to meet those who had the vision and energy to persevere through the challenges of starting up a new rowing club. There’s a lot of history at the SNRC and they are set up to continue their success well into the future.

“We’re just a very accommodating club,” said Couroux. “If we don’t have a program that’s built already, we can usually tailor a program to fit an individual’s needs. We’re not opposed to doing that. We like to see people sitting in boats instead of sitting on the sidelines.”

The SNRC’s Masters Development program was one such example of this which provided members, especially former competitive rowers, the ability to gradually transition from the recreational program into the Masters program and as a result, the Masters program has tripled in size over the course of the last three years.

Growth in the club’s recreational program has brought many rowers back to the sport and in turn several alumni back to the club. The SNRC has come to truly embody all aspects of the sport from competitive rowing to recreational rowing for life.

“Our general mission statement is we want to give anyone who shows an interest in rowing, a chance to get out on the water,” said Fuller. “Whatever their skill level, whatever their goals, we’ll provide them with whatever opportunity we can to help them achieve their goals. We’ll support them no matter their age or skill level and help them enjoy the sport. There’s so many spin off benefits to rowing and we want to share our love of the sport with as many people as possible.”

Thank you to Kevin Fuller and Jirianna Couroux for their generous contributions and help in completing this profile. Photos are property of the South Niagara Rowing Club.