A collection of rowers. One coxswain. A course. When the race begins, all bets are off.

Five years ago, one of the most recent additions to Prep Athletics made a debut: the rowing team. Envisioning a plan to take the team into varsity competition, Mr. Canale, a science teacher at Saint Peter’s Prep, started the crew program. His hopes of growing a small, passionate team transcended, just a few short years later, into national champions when a Junior Varsity 4 boat won the Stotesbury Cup as well as the SRAA National Championship. The crew team is four times larger than it was when it started back with only 19 members. Additionally, Prep’s crew team has fulfilled remarkable achievements every year. In 2014, another Junior Varsity 4 boat placed 2nd at the Stotesbury Cup as well as the SRAA National Championship. In May of 2015, a Junior Varsity 4 boat advanced to the Stotesbury Cup finals and placed 5th out of 73 boats overall.

So, where is the crew team based? They row five times a week in the Passaic river. There, the crew team owns over 10 boats, which are stored in their boathouse facility. Every year, the crew team participates in a home race in the fall and spring seasons, both the Head of the Passaic and Passaic River Sprints, respectively. In these regattas, the crew team has dominated the river. In 2014, Prep won the Junior Varsity 8 category for the Head of the Passaic, and the team has won the Passaic River Sprints Cup for the last 2 years.

This year marks the biggest fall season for the team. Participating in six events, the crew team also took part in what is undoubtedly the biggest race in the world: the Head of the Charles. From only 19 rowers to having the opportunity to participate in the largest regatta in the world, the crew team has made it a long way.

Looking beyond Prep, its graduating rowers have endured their success in the top schools of the country. In 2014, Hank Forsythe graduated from Prep and continued his rowing career in the United States Naval Academy, accompanied with Chris Kuczynski, who started there in 2015. Other rowers have attended universities such as Boston University, where class of 2015 graduate Andrew Dellechiaie is currently rowing, as well as Boston College, Colgate University, and Marist University.

As the successful graduating class of 2015  has left deep shoes to fill, the crew team now depends on its current roster; however, only time will tell if the team will follow in the glory of its former rowers.