Seems like the kids at Gonzaga had more time then others to vote. Taking nothing away from them or other crews but the Washington Men as a team did something special this year which.
Clearly, these are ALL worthy teams, and no doubt, so are many others that aren't even on this list. Los Gatos is privileged to be included in this group and what an inspiration all of these teams are for LGRC junior athletes. It's a great sport, and the passionate comments speak volumes about the competitive spirit in all of you. Kudos to each and every one of you for your dedication and commitment to excellence.
Get a life. All of these kids are busting their butts. Spare us all your politics. Your bad mothing Los Gatos obviosly exhibits your lack knowledge in the sport.
Calm down, and read more carefully. Rower (Ret.) is in no way bad mouthing Los Gatos, but defending them as well as every other crew on the poll. They aren't saying that the LG girls are small potatoes, but questioning why people would think they are.
it is true, los gatos did not have water in their lake for at least 7 months of their season. they trailered their boats on weekends to other sites just to practice, since they couldn't do it during the school week. go lgrc.
And....besides the USA 8+, the WWU Women's V8 was not nominated either. They went undefeated for the first time in school history, won their fifth straight NCAA Title with 4 freshmen novice walk-ons. The banter that goes on here is quite disturbing. Remember your audience.
Frankly, I am quite disgusted by what I am seeing on these posts. This has become a witch hunt for every single crew except for one's own. We are all rowers here, and an honor such as "Crew of the Year" should celebrate the expansion of our niche sport. Few people care for or pay attention to what we do (or did), so it is critical for us remain a united and civil community. Yet, we choose to break down the accomplishments within our own community, ridicule the gravity of competition within the sport, and stick our arrogant noses so high in the sky that we would walk straight into traffic. When you insult all of these crews, what does it say about other rowers and the people in the sport? What does Princeton's "worthless" accomplishment say about Cornell? What does Stanford's "meaningless" victory say about Virginia and Yale? Los Gatos' girls are "small potatoes" because they are in high school and female? Gonzaga is hated because they were able to bring more attention to this? Does the rowing community live in Tora Bora and lack access to computers?
Polls such as this and "Crew of the Week" and other websites such as Rowing Illustrated and SportGraphics have shown me two things about us rowers: we are extremely vain and attention-starved. People are going to vote for whoever they want to no matter how "stupid" or "logical" their reason is. When you deconstruct 11 members of this poll directly or indirectly (through arrogant praise of a crew), you insult a significant portion of our small community. Right now, I am seeing what a disgusting community this is.
What a statement! I hear the frustration in your words. The rowing community you slam is no different than the average fan of any pro sports team and some of the members would like to be heard. The sites you slam try to do more for the rowing community be it thru interviews, articles, podcast, polls, coaching tips, etc. While you may not enjoy this poll or type of format, others do! Who are you to be the voice of the rowing community? We are not all of the same mind and build. Don’t judge, enjoy what you like of the sport and let others enjoy what they like.
Congratulations to all nominated crews, and sculler. I am however a bit puzzled about why the U.S. womens national crew was not nominated. Happy holiday's.
Disclaimer: I'm a UW rowing alum, but also a rowing historian. Crew of the year? All of the nominated crews have had great years... congratulations all around. But have any of these crews (and the term is used loosely here... Mahe Drysdale a "crew"???) done anything that is achieved very rarely... something truly historic? Sweeping the river (or lake, as the case may be) in the IRA's with all the best crews in the nation attending has been accomplished only a handful of times in the past century. V8, 2V8, F8 winners at the IRA (and throw in a 4+ gold and silver for good measure)... that's incredible, especially in the ultra-competitive environment of D1 rowing these days. If Cal or Harvard or Wisconsin did it, I'd be the first to vote for them and sing their praises. There are some great crews on the list here (in their categories), but I'd argue that the best overall "crew" in the country in 2009 was easily the University of Washington Men. They made history, not just by doing better than they have before, but by doing that and winning it all at the highest level. IRA sweep. Come on. Credit where credit's due.
IRA sweep=quite impressive, but some people think that sprints are more important. brown HW men--sprints sweep. also, princeton LM won every event 2008-2009: HOCR, the chase, all duals, sprints, IRA. i'm just saying an IRA sweep is not clearly superior to any of those achievements.
Last year was an extremely difficult year for Los Gatos Rowing Club, and we are so proud of what we accomplished. We had major coaching changes and for most of the year, less then 2,000 meters in the lake we practice on. We really came together as a boat and pulled through it, though... And because of that, our final at nationals was the most meaningful and rewarding race we've ever experienced. GO LGRC!!!
Congrats again to your crew. As I said before, I had a crew race against your boat at Youth Invites. I gave you girls my vote because what you accomplished provided all the difficulties noted above is truly impressive. Tip of my hat to you!
My vote went for the NZL M2-. These two dominated the pair all summer; in a field that had Olympic champions whom team GB was really focusing on to to win the M2-.
How can so many people vote for Gonzaga when they aren't even that good, relative to other high schools to have done the same thing before. TJ did basically the same things and made it a lot farther than the first round at Henley more than once. Gonzaga was good. But they aren't crew of the year good. And they didn't even win Stotesbury! Princeton dominated everything by open water. And lightweights, for the record, even at 150 lbs run pretty much the same times on the water at the upper levels as heavies do. UW is definitely the most deserving crew in the Nation. But Mahi Mahi is definitely the best on the world level. He could sit in any boat in any country and help make them faster on the national level. So he gets my vote
Presumably all of these crews have won the respective "hardware" they set out to win this season or they wouldn't have been nominated. That said, I do not believe that any of these athletes appreciate others on the list being bashed to promote personal agendas. Great work to all on this list, that is really the honor that is won here. Look at the accomplishments represented...impressive. Get Some. Three Cheers for Old Nassau.
My vote goes to NAC... They by far have had the best year in the Junior Department. They went undefeated in the LightWeight and HeavyWeight 8's. And they won both heavy and light 8's at Cinci...first time ever by a junior crew Pretty impressive
Yes they did go undefeated, and who cares who wins the semi final at nationals, that doesn't mean anything. I don't see any point that you are trying to put forward. How can you say that a crew that won two eights at youth national championships isn't worthy of being a contender for this vote when Gonzaga High College HS Boys is?
Personally, I think crew of the year should go to a team that's spent more than a couple years in the sport training together. I wont vote for Princeton because that would be a douche move (though I hope others will). I also would consider the women's pair but, it was a post-Olympic year and Susan Francia hardly needs more attention. I'd also consider U-Dub, but I would rather support a team of mostly Americans, and I'm partial to Cal so, sorry Huskies. I would say Bruno is a really great choice. That was a phenomenal squad top to bottom last year, which is very difficult to do and speaks to the training they've done over the past few years. Great showing at Henley too and a great bunch of guys, very understated.
Gonzaga did a great job at stotes, I'll give them that, but they are obviously geared far more to the 8s. They had a time this fall trying to catch the Mobjack 4 up at the occoquan. But they did have a few good 8s that were contending with ODBC. But overall I would have to give the vote to UW just because they swept the heavy 8s at the IRA, thats damn impressive, not to say that GCHS didn't swing a few punches and leave a few black eyes of their own up in philly. Well Done Everyone!
the final at the IRA was one of the greatest races i've ever seen. maybe because I was there it impressed me so much but what they did in the last 500 meters was incredible. if you haven't seen it you should check it out.
I've seen the "Vote for Gonzaga Crew" group on Facebook...so there's that one.
In the real world: Princeton Lights pretty much dominated the competition in 2009 spring and fall, so I had to go with them (along with perhaps the majority of other rowing folk around here). It was a really tough decision, because the USA W2- beasted it at worlds, both members coming with double the hardware. Brown was #3 for me... they really turned the heat on when it counted last spring, much to the chagrin of the rest of the EARC.
All- Using row2k's data checker, there have been 1274 votes cast from 1192 distinct IP addresses. The multiple votes from a single IP addresses are spread out pretty equally between other finalists so it looks like Gonzaga HS is just getting the vote out better than everyone else.
12/18/2009 6:15:01 AM
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12/16/2009 8:46:21 AM
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12/15/2009 3:14:30 PM
Get a life. All of these kids are busting their butts. Spare us all your politics. Your bad mothing Los Gatos obviosly exhibits your lack knowledge in the sport.
12/15/2009 3:18:19 PM
12/15/2009 11:22:08 AM
12/15/2009 10:05:38 AM
12/15/2009 7:30:53 AM
Polls such as this and "Crew of the Week" and other websites such as Rowing Illustrated and SportGraphics have shown me two things about us rowers: we are extremely vain and attention-starved. People are going to vote for whoever they want to no matter how "stupid" or "logical" their reason is. When you deconstruct 11 members of this poll directly or indirectly (through arrogant praise of a crew), you insult a significant portion of our small community. Right now, I am seeing what a disgusting community this is.
12/15/2009 12:23:26 PM
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Heavies got 2nd in both their heat and semi, but I dunno if you would count that as a loss since they won the final...
12/20/2009 11:55:11 AM
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12/10/2009 5:48:24 PM
In the real world: Princeton Lights pretty much dominated the competition in 2009 spring and fall, so I had to go with them (along with perhaps the majority of other rowing folk around here). It was a really tough decision, because the USA W2- beasted it at worlds, both members coming with double the hardware. Brown was #3 for me... they really turned the heat on when it counted last spring, much to the chagrin of the rest of the EARC.
12/10/2009 12:50:02 PM
12/09/2009 7:22:18 PM
12/09/2009 5:59:18 PM