Some Pictures From The Race Against The Hampton School

"The Sweet Sixteen"- St. Joseph's Prep v. The Hampton School

After a long day of napping and movie watching following our race yesterday we all woke up this morning feeling refreshed and ready to prove ourselves once again in our second day match against The Hampton School. After quickly eating a light breakfast we left from the Coleman's house at about 9:10 and began a warm-up jog down to the race course. We arrived at the boat tents around 9:30, leaving ourselves 25 minutes to stretch out and complete our pre-race routine. After going over our race plan with Coach Lamb and saying a quick prayer, we shoved from the dock at 9:55. After a focused row on the water we pulled up to our stake boat at 10:30 and settled in for the longest five minutes of any of our lives as we waited for the race to begin.

After what seemed like an eternity the Umpire finally gave the start command and we were off. Although we had a strong start today, it was clear at the end of Temple Island that we were racing a stronger crew seeing as we only had a couple seats on them. However, once we settled into our base rating of 34 spm we began to walk away from The Hampton School much more quickly and 400 meters into the race we reached their bowball. At the Barrier (600 m.) we had obtained a two length lead over them and Kyle called for our first down shift of the race (to 30 spm). By Fawley (1000 m.) we had a 3 length lead over our opponent and again Kyle called for another shift, bringing the rate down to 26 spm where we stayed until we reached Hole in the Wall (1800 m.) where we again shifted down to 24 spm to finish the race. The final verdict for the race was that we "easily" beat The Hampton School.

Looking ahead to our race tomorrow, we will race either St. Edward's School or Eton College. It will most likely be Eton College who is also a seated team and ranked the second best team in England after losing to Shrewsbury by .1 seconds at English Nationals. Eton College is also the proud alma mater of both Prince Harry and William. The race will most likely be later in the day because if we were to race Eton they would want it to be the prime time event seeing as we are both seated schools.

We appreciate your support.

Love,

The Prep V8

New Race Photos from Wednesday

Row2k.com, in addition to a coverage article, has taken several great shots of the racing- St. Joe's Prep should be among the first pictures in the lineup. Notable also is the Trinity boat we scrimmaged: [1, 2], Newport [1, 2], and Cornell's Lightweight 8 [1, 2, 3, 4].

The Calm Before the Storm

Dear friends, family, members, and alumni of prep crew,

Yesterday marks our ninth day in England. As routine begins to set in, we reach our final day of practice, and see how different the days to come will be. The town of Henley has begun to fill as spectators and competitors alike arrive for the weeks events.

We practiced with Williams College again. After a warm-up to the lock down river, we entered the chutes with Williams for a starting sequence to the end of Temple Island followed by a 40-second piece at base rate at Fawley and ending with a closing 40 second piece at the end of the course. Williams won the first piece by about three seats, but met our strong 34 stroke-per-minute base during the second piece, losing by a seat. However, we were most proud of our third piece of the day. Williams started the shot a few strokes sooner than we had anticipated. We acheived our base speed half of a length down to Williams, but used our sprinting skills to finish the piece up one boatlength. It was a result we were all content with, and we were eager to put our honed speed into competition against Cheltenham College.

After practice, we wandered down the toe path to just above the finish line to watch the Spare Pairs race. The two coaches were seeded in their bracket, and were given a buy in the first round. Their first race held promise, holding a healthy four lengths ahead of their competition, but ended in misfortune as Coach Fife's oar connected with the dreaded white wooden poles that line the racecourse with about ten strokes to go. The pair lost the race by a small margin, but were happy with their performance otherwise.

The rest of the day consisted of a viewing of Atonement, some croquet, some shut-eye, and a tasty dinner before an early bedtime.

The day that some of us have dreamed of for the past four years has finally come. Our first day of racing at the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta was at hand. We were woken up early so that we would be fully awake by the time we reached the racecourse. I must say that waiting to start the course was nerve wrecking, but after a few songs on the iPod, it was time to depart for the race. We stayed in routine by jogging to the racegrounds, and got a long stretch in as we inspected the Bill Lamb Sr., which had been washed for the occasion.

We shoved off on schedule, and took down the course in our everyday warmup procedure; buisness as usual except we wore our new unisuits sporting the Jesuit logo above the quote "For My Brothers". We lined up next the Cheltenham College crew from whom we didn't know what to expect. By the time we completed our high-20 starting sequence, we had gained a length on the other boys in black and red. by the time we reached the Barrier, we had shifted down to 30 strokes-per-minute, and reached 26 strokes-per-minute by Fawley, where we stayed for the remainder of the race. The official announced that we had won our race "easily" with an estimated lead of about 8 boatlengths.

We met with our friends and family in front of the boat tents afterwards, and watched a few more races at the regatta enclosure before returning to the Coleman's house.

Thanks for the continued support!

Love,
The Prep Varsity 8

Day 8- Ain't Nothin' Hotta Than Henley Royal Regatta

Dear Friends, Family, Alumni and Acquaintances,    

On the 8th day of our trip to England, we awoke around 7:30 for a light breakfast and a brisk jog to the racecourse. The morning's row consisted of a light paddle up and down the racecourse. For the rest of the day until our second practice, we hung around the Coleman's house, snacking on our newly bought goodies from the neighborhood Tesco Supermarket. The day included more cutthroat games of croquet and cards, comfy naps, and hours of comedic DVD watching. Our second practice, held around 4:30pm, was comprised of a rematch between St. Joseph's and Newport Aquatic Center. The two race pieces were an opening shot to the barrier [around 1:52] and a closing shot from the mile marker to the finish [roughly 500 meters]. The Prep was victorious over their foes on both. We made up for that .08 and showed that we are determined to not let anyone come in our way over here.

Instead of our normal feast at the Coleman's abode, we were extremely privileged to have dinner at the historic and swanky Leander Boat Club. After bellying up to the bar, we sat down in the dining room for a scrumptious meal. For a starter we had the choice of a delicious mushroom soup or a roasted ham appetizer. The main course were prime slices of lamb served over carrots, potatoes and greens.  To top off the meal, we had a very rich and tasty tart along with coffee and/or tea. Afterwards, Coach Lamb distributed the competitors badges with the notion that we had fully earned them and that we were privileged to receive them. He also exclaimed that it was always one of his dreams to take a crew to a dinner in Leander and tonight was the first time he was able to do this [he just became a member this year]. After talking more about the beginning of racing at Henley and its unique nature, we departed for the Coleman's to retire for the night, eager to have our last practice in the morning and race on Wednesday.

Thank you for all the support.

Love,

   The v8 boys

Music The Boys are Listening to:

Taylor Swift- Our Song

Miley Cyrus - 7 Things

Mika - Happy Ending

Then They Rested On The 7th...

After 6 days of grueling morning practices and 9 workouts, the coaches finally blessed us with the opportunity to sleep in...and sleep in we did. After a long night, we lazily drug our refreshed bodies from bed and followed the intoxicating scent of croissants down to the kitchen where Mrs. Coleman had breakfast ready for us. After breakfast we went our different ways as some of us went to play croquet while others went back upstairs to play cards and watch episodes of "The Office" on our laptop.

At 4:30 we packed up our gear for the river and made the 2 mile jog down to the Thames to get ready for our evening row. The row was short but efficient: a one and a half loop "skeleton" row, in which we did some light drilling and warm up 10 stroke pieces on the way down river and then executed our five different moves as we traveled back up river through the booms with a cool-down loop afterwards. Focus was at a high in the boat after our long day of rest (or 3 days of rest if you follow the Coach Lamb Calendar) and as a result we had one of our better practices yet, leaving us confident as we look to do pieces with Newport Aquatic Center (the same Newport that beat us by .08 seconds in Cincinnati 2 weeks ago today) tomorrow afternoon.

We then returned to the Coleman's for a delicious, traditional, English Sunday dinner consisting of turkey, gravy, potatoes, broccoli and spinach, followed by a competitive game of croquet between all the rowers. We are proud to say that Kyle Moyer made it through both games without popping a blood vessel or throwing his mallet in frustration. All good things come to an end eventually though as we jump right back into the daily grind with an 8 AM practice tomorrow morning.

Much Love,
The Prep V8

Check Out The Article About Us in Today's Philadelphia Inquirer

Check This Out <--- click here for a link to the article

new arrivals, nature walk, the draw, and a bit of rowing

This morning was our last opportunity to row the entire race course at full pressure. Our workout was two full trips down the course rowing at 26spm and we kind of dropped the ball on both. The focus wasn't there and we let the Cornell lightweight 8, with whom we were doing the pieces, walk all over us (in addition to a harmless run in with the boom). Coach Lamb talked to us after the workout about what we needed to do to win the regatta: "Be ourselves". So without giving it more thought than it needed we decided not to dwell on the practice and go about our day.
We decided that it was time to take a nice nature walk and find a secret field that some mount girls had told us about, located right off of the Coleman's road. We ventured along a wooded trail until we emerged into a huge sloping hill of grass overlooking a small town and other such hills. Straight out of The Sound of Music, we started to frolic and run about the hill, watching the cows grazing not too far away (evidence of their presence in the feild can be seen on Kyle's shoe).
After going back to the house, Kyle, Jim and John Votta decided that their thirst for nature was not yet quenched. Fitted with jeans and a bucket they decided to trek down to the very bottom of the Coleman's backyard and crawl and forage through bushes and bramble-almost emerging onto the very active cricket pitch- for rogue golfballs hit from the nearby driving range. Their valiant effort was rewarded by a huge bucket filled with what had to be over 200 balls. We spent some time hitting these balls right back to where they had found them with a wooden baseball bat before heading off to watch the draw.
After a pleasant walk through town, we arrived at the town hall, where it seemed everyone from the boat tents had packed in and were watching carefully as names were being pulled out of a cup. We were chosen as one of the top seeds and drew Cheltenham for the first round. After we left town hall we took a walk down to the ice cream stand by the river and sat and enjoyed a frozen treat. Then we went back to the Coleman's for a delicious dinner of porkchops, carrots and potatoes followed by trays of brownies. Croquet followed, and soon we were off to bed.

sincerely,
the prep V8

The prep v8 is currently listening to:
Kate Nash- Foundations
Lily Allen- Smile
The Streets- Fit but you know it

From Henley to Oxford

This morning we were called from our slumber by Coach Fife at 8am as usual. After a nice breakfast we ran down to the racecourse for a three-loop practice consisting of add-a-pair, drilling, and steady state rowing. The practice went well, flushing the lactic acid from yesterday's racing and continuing the momentum we had established.
After practice, we were blessed with the opportunity of showering in the famous Henley boat tent showers, which are cold enough to shock as if by electricity. Still shivering, we piled into our Euro van for the trip out to Oxford where we were to meet Colin, a current graduate student, coxswain for the Oxford lightweight eight, and good friend of Coach Fife. Colin gave us a tour of key areas, namely, the filming area for the Harry Potter movies (see pictures). We were also able to walk through one of the Colleges along the Thames and see all the boathouses.
After the four hour hike all around Oxford, we slumped into the van for the ride back home, during which we passed by the first McDonald's any of us had seen thus far. We stopped by the racecourse to catch a few qualifying races before heading back to the Coleman's, where we were greeted by a great meal of turkey, potatoes, peas, and the standard six loaves of bread. After the glorious dessert of apple crumble and ice cream, we headed up to bed early, anticipating the 8am shove tomorrow morning for race pieces with the Cornell lightweights and Crazy Eye Kerry Quinn. Goodnight!

Love,
The Prep V8

A Screaming Headwind and A Flightless Bird

This morning we were all introduced to Mr. Coleman's new way of waking us all up, the cowbell. After groggily stumbling out of bed with our ears still ringing, we headed downstairs to have our standard breakfast of cereals, bagels and fruit.

Now may be a better time than never to tell you more about where we are staying here in Henley-on-Thames, England. We are staying at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Coleman. For those of you familiar with the 2005 Henley trip, we are in the same place that they stayed and according to Coach Lombardi, not much has changed with the house since they left it 3 years ago. This year Mike P, and John V share a room on the third floor right across from Jim, Steve, Kyle and John S. On the 2nd floor, Kevin, Vince and Ryan share a room right next to Coaches Lombardi and Fife. Every morning at 8am sharp, one of the Colemans wake all of us up in some fashion. We also eat all 3 of our meals here with dinner being quite extravagant. Mr. Coleman informed us that normally when crews come to stay with them, they only need to serve 3 loaves of bread at dinner, but us ravenous young lads regularly consume over 6 loaves per night. 

Back to today, our 4th day in the Uk... After our breakfast we ran down to the regatta venue as we do before every practice (about a mile and a quarter?) and had a skeleton row over the course to rehearse a few different parts over the racecourse. The practice didn’t go as well as we could have hoped but we learned a lot on which to build upon before our race in the afternoon with Trinity College. After our morning practice we went back to the Coleman’s for lunch. Most of us were pretty worn out from all that we’ve been doing this week so we gave up the croquet and wiffle ball for some naps, movie watching and card-playing.

After collecting ourselves together for the evening row, we ran down to practice and prepared to race Trinity College’s Varsity 8 from Connecticut. The racing consisted of two trips “in the booms” with each trip beginning with a starting piece to the barrier and concluding with a closing piece from the mile marker on the racecourse (about 500m to go). This was a great opportunity to race a crew that was faster than us. It was a great row for us as a boat and feel like we have reached a level of speed and confidence that we had yet to feel in the U.K. After warming down past the boat tents and launching docks, we came across a distressed swimmer in the middle of the Thames in the form of a small black baby bird with a red beak and a blue head. The bird was obviously struggling to swim (it was not a water fowl as Kyle identified it). As we glided by this helpless creature some of us immediately called for the boat to stop and for us to rescue it. And so John Scanlon plucked our new friend, who would later be named Gnarles, from what would have surely been a watery grave. Gnarles fell in the care of his mother Kyle and his father Jim after we docked and his screeches during our post-practice debriefing were certainly comical. [Check out the pictures of Gnarles on our photobucket account] Sadly though, Gnarles had to be relased before we got back into the van after his transportation with us was met by much opposition and this was much to the dismay of Jim, Ryan and Kyle.

The Coleman’s were out for the day as they were attending their son’s wedding in London. But luckily for us, the Coleman’s friend prepared a dinner of lasagna topped off with apple pie for dessert. After dinner, we just hung around watching movies and playing cards some more.

Thanks to everyone for all their continued support.

Love,
The Boys

The Rescue of Baby Gnarles The Bird

Steady as She Goes, Vegemite Edition

On Wednesday, we woke up for a nice breakfast of cereal and toast and left to run to the race course a little before 9:00. We did a steady state row with some skill drills mixed in throughout the three laps. It was long but it went well.
After practice we came back to the house and ate some lunch. Afterwards, we started an intense singles tournament of croquet with two heats and a final. Vince McLaughlin won with a strong finish.
We returned to the river again arounf 4:00 for what we were told was going to be another steady state row. It ended up being 2 laps down the course at 90% power and 26 strokes per minute. There also happened to be a 25 mph headwind. After that, we gratefully ate a delicious dinner of pasta, salad, and bread. 

After dinner, we broke out a second croquet set and played a rather massive game in which several of us conspired against Vince and Kevin, the early leaders. After the highly contested victory of Lombardi and Scanlon, Coach Fife came back from the store with snacks, drinks, and most importantly, Vegemite. Vegemite is a curious edible spread that created a tradition on the Henley 2005 trip called the Vegemite Challenge. It involves a rower ingesting a massive spoonful of the stuff (tooth marks on the spoon required), chewing for one full minute, swallowing, and not drinking anything for another full minute. Our contestants were Kyle and Vince; both succeeded but not without a struggle. They described Vegemite as containing a mixture of clay and gasoline, and Kyle should be a couple pounds lighter as a result of the experience. After many laughs, we went upstairs and called it a night.

Love,

The Prep V8

New Pictures From Our First Two Days

Click Here  <- to see a few shots of our first two days in Henley and us leaving from Coach Lamb's house.

Mike "Whatchya know about Mike Protesto?" Protesto Arrives! [edited]

It was 8:00am when Mrs. Coleman knocked on our door and yelled loudly, GOOD MORNING! IT'S 8 O CLOCK! We, still rather jet lagged, groggily walked out of bed, stumbled to the door, and opened it to the biggest surprise yet - MICHAEL PROTESTO! He was a site to be seen. We rejoiced; he was tired. The very first thing Mike got to do was row (what fun!). We immediately ate breakfast (three bowls of Tesco frosted flakes cereal), grabbed our unis, and started running. Unfortunately, following Vince McLaughlin's pace is near impossible to do at all times, let alone after hastily consuming a breakfast feast five minutes prior. We went for a swing row and Protesto won his first seat race as a Princeton rower, beating Mike Lombardi. We headed back to the house, where Coach Lombardi and Coach Fife picked up bottles of water (We've been dehydrated since America) and some soap and shampoo. We then placed countless games of wiffle ball (Camden Rules), the card game Palace, and croquet. Our croquet games get very heated, very quickly.

We then headed back to the course to race the Williams College V8 in two pieces to the barrier. Let's just say that the William Lamb Sr. '53 is still undefeated, and the Williams rowers weren't very happy.

Kyle, Scanlon, and Kennedy walked to the grocery store and picked up some cake origionally priced at 35 pounds, but marked down to 3 pounds....... and got what they payed for - stale cake and a stomache ache. The occasion was Ryan Sudeck's 18th birthday. He got to spend it in England, rowing, away from his family, friends, and girl friend. What more could a fellow want?

The celebration was followed by more croquet, with Team Black Ball Michael Lombardi and Kyle Moyer dominating again, closely followed by Team Red Shorts/Red Ball Kevin Kennedy and Jim Voter. Now we're sitting here, playing more Palace (the world's best card game), and still havent showered. Yeah, we should probably get on that now that there is soap.




Love,
The Boys.

7 rowers and a coxswain

Day 1: 

We departed from Coach Lamb's house yesterday at 2:30 and almost immediately hit our first snag when we realized 15 minutes into the trip that we had forgotten Kate and Lizzie's stroller.  From there on out it was smooth sailing, that is until we reached the airport.  As we went through our first security checkpoint it turned out that captain Mike Protesto's passport was three days expired. As the rest of us continued on to the terminal, Mike was forced to stay behind and take a flight at the same time the next day when his passport would be renewed.

We slept for most of the 6 and 1/2 hour trip to England and finally touched down in London at 6:30 on Monday morning.  From the airport we rented a van with manual transmission and laughed the entire hour (would have been 45 minutes had it not been for all the times the van stalled out) drive to Henley as we watched a very frustrated Coach Fife attempt to learn how to drive manual and get used to driving on the opposite side of the car and the road.

By nothing short of a miracle we arrived at Henley accident free and went immediately down to the race course where we familiarized ourselves with the course and then went to the Anchor Inn to eat lunch.  From the lunch we took a quick tour around town and then went back to the race course where we rigged our boat and then went out for our first row with Vince McLaughlin sitting in for Protesto at stroke seat and Coach Lombardi rowing the four seat.  Though tired and jet-lagged the practice went well as we familiarized ourselves with the course over two full loops of rowing (approximatley 10,000 meters).

Leaving the race course Coach Fife's manual driving skills were once again tested as he was forced to try to reverse the van while on the side of a steep slope.  This would not have been too bad if it weren't for the very fragile looking fence located just a few feet off our front  bumper.  Luckily for us Kyle was in the front seat and able to keep Coach Fife aware of the fence, as he stalled on the hill, by shouting, "FENCE", each time Fife stalled and began rolling back toward the fence.  Finally, we made it back to the Coleman's house around 6:30 where Mrs. Coleman treated us to a delicious meal of chicken, potatoes, green beans and bread.  After dinner we immediately went up to bed and quickly fell asleep.

Love,

The Prep V8 

Check Out Pictures From Our Henley 2008 Journey

2008 SJP Varsity 8 Photo Album