USRowing has named Marin Rowing Association as its 2006 Club of the Year, the organization announced on Tuesday. The award will be presented to the club at the USRowing Annual Awards Reception on December 1 in Portland, Ore.
Located in Greenbrae, Calif., Marin Rowing Association was founded in 1968. For its first eight years, the program consisted of high school boys from Redwood High School and the "cardiac 8+," a small group of men who had previously rowed in college and continued to row on Sunday mornings. In 1977, a high school women's program was created at Redwood High School, and in 1984, the club added a program for adult women.
Today, the club has more than 120 junior and 280 adult members with the junior program drawing from high schools across Marin County, not just Redwood High School. Rowing on the Corte Madera Creek and the Larkspur Ferry Channel on the San Francisco Bay, the club offers competitive junior and adult rowing programs, as well as learn-to-row, inner-city/minority outreach and adaptive rowing programs. The competitive teams have been successful at the state, regional and national levels, while the junior program has produced several junior national and senior national team rowers.
"The Marin Rowing Association staff and membership are proud to be recognized by our national governing body as an outstanding organization," said Marin Rowing Association Director Sandy Armstrong. "We work diligently to ensure that the sport of rowing is offered to everyone in our community. At the same time, we are driven to ensure top results at the regional and national level. We are proud of our club and excited to have this recognition from USRowing."
Now in its fifth year, USRowing's Club of the Year Award is based on a points system focusing on the following criteria: performance, community outreach, service to rowing, USRowing participation, technology and communications, and safety. More than 1,000 member organizations across the country were eligible for the award. Previous winners include Oak Ridge (Tenn.) Rowing Association (2005), Boston's Community Rowing, Inc. (2004), San Diego Rowing Club (2003) and Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Rowing Association (2002). For more information on Marin Rowing Association, visit www.marinrowing.org.