Crew, or rowing as it’s more commonly called, is a sport in which two boats compete against each other in races that are called regattas. These regattas are typically around 1.25 miles or 1000 meters. Crew is not a large sport with only 84 varsity programs for men’s college rowing; compared to the over 1,400 men’s basketball teams. Despite crew being less popular, evidence of rowing competitions predating more “household name” sports, like football and basketball exists.
Some sources state that this sport started, unofficially, in the early 1770s with people racing down the river Thames in London. Despite that the first real record we have wasn’t until 1829 that the current picture of rowing was created with the Oxford-Cambridge race. This race created an irregular tradition for the two schools. Then in 1892 Crew became one of the first sports to be claimed as a “college sport”. E.O, Smith’s crew team is impressive for its status as one of the “only public school rowing programs operating out of the Northeast corner of the state” as read on their website. Their focus since their founding was on having a very welcoming environment for beginners. But how did this team start?
E.O. Smith’s Crew History
1990
The EO Smith crew team was established in 1990 by a group of students and a teacher named Chris Hempel who was a staff member at E.O. Smith and a former UConn crew member. The team originally started as a club with around 20 people, including some Coventry students, rowing with their coxswain, pronounced Coxen, the person who directs the rowers, and coach Becky Dudzinski, who also participated on the UConn crew team. During their first race in the spring of 1990 in the Coventry Sprints, E.O. Smith was pitted against several college teams, which included UConn, Boston College, and Brandeis. This regatta had both the E.O. Smith novice teams come in last. The men’s team by 8 seconds and the women’s team by 25 seconds. But this rotten luck didn’t stick at the end of their first season in June 1990, they finished first in two out of the four races taking place against East Lyme’s novice team. There was one problem, however: much of their equipment had to be borrowed from the other teams because they didn’t own any shells, also known as boats.
1991
The next year, in 1991, there was a spike in growth for the club with around 10 new people joining. This year was also the first that an “ergathon” was set to take place, where rowers would row non-stop for 24 hours, to help with the costs of the team. This funding event would continue to be a source of money for the crew team for many years.
1992
The next year, 1992, was another great year for the club with an undisclosed number of new rowers. By this year,the crew team had saved enough money to purchase two eight-person shells and two two-person shells that were “very used” according to a former coach. However, another problem arose with the team not having any way to transport their boats to competitions, meaning that the boats could only be used for practice.
1994
This year was a big one for our team with the men’s first boat (that is,the boat with the best rowers) came in first for the first time in their race against Taft Crew’s first men’s boat on May 18th, 1994. The women’s first boat, which had won many times before, had come in second against the Taft women’s first boat. They also ended their season on a high note, beating Middletown and Hartford in the Emerson Regatta, despite both teams having better boats. Most of these changes were said to have been brought on by their new coach, Miss Carson, who is said to have “worked hard to mold E.O. Smith Crew into a success program” according to The Oracle, the old name for E.O Smith’s newspaper. This was when the team could afford a trail to transport their boats. Once again, the morale of the team was very high. The Oracle, E.O. Smith’s newspaper wrote, “The future looks bright for E.O. Smith Crew”. However, fundraising efforts were still underway with the team dedicating five weeks during the fall to maintain lawns, which raised around $1500.
1995
Their fundraising efforts continued into 1995, where they started the push towards becoming a varsity sport, which was spearheaded again by Chris Hemple and the students of the crew team. This was due to their lack of decent equipment. Their main goal was to get a new boat — the price at the time being around $14,000 — for their team because at the time they only had the same used boats that they had bought in 1992 that could only hold 24 out of the 40 members at a time. The want for a new boat was further pushed by their age. They also needed transportation because most of it was coming from parents. But just because they were pushing to become a varsity sport does not mean they did not fundraise. This year the ergathon was only 14 hours, from 7:30 am to 9:30 pm, as opposed to the 24 hours pushed in the early years of the club. They also sold long-sleeve shirts to people outside the club for $15 each while the members of the club had to pay for their uniforms.
1999
In 1999, the team was finally able to buy their own boat house and finally stop sharing with UConn.
2006
The boys varsity four and boys novice eight gained the state crown in their divisions, respectively.
Current State and Future
The E.O. Smith Crew team still holds up to this day with a recent survey, conducted by the Panther Press, showing that 33.3% of the people in crew believed that the team’s last season, spring 2024, was “great”. It also showed that new people are still joining the team, with around 22.2% of the people saying that they were new to the club for this season, spring 2025.
Coach Interview, Spring 2025
The current coach of the crew team, Coach Dobratz, has coached many sports, including basketball, soccer, and track and field, before, but this was her first season with the crew team. She said “Look, I want to make sure these kids have the best coach available, and if no one out there that actually knows the sport can do that, I’ll be happy to help out.”
When talking about her coaching style, she said, “I don’t think there’s a one-way street for a whole team.” She believes that everyone’s approach looks a little different. Going further into detail, she described some people need quiet to relax before a race, while others need distractions before the race.
When asked what types of people the crew team is looking for experience-wise, she said that people joining crew don’t need experience in the sport beforehand. Noting that since most people don’t have access to rowing materials at a young age, it isn’t expected for people to come with any prior knowledge.
When asked about how she planned on balancing the competitive and welcoming side, she said that it was more about getting to know the athletes and helping them get what they need, depending on the day and the person. She stressed the importance of learning and adapting to each student’s style of learning, saying that people may need different types of energy before a race or the team may need to focus on other things, like nutrition and psychology, more than just the “rowing aspect.” The main point she made was that crew has to be a welcoming environment for everyone: “It’s a fine balance of making sure that we have that welcoming community first, I think that number one because if you don’t establish that then it will be really tough to have that comradery, that respect towards each other”.
The Future
Looking towards the future, a majority of the team feels that the team’s prospects are good. One person wrote, “many people who were vital to our team left so this season we are missing a few people but with the extra practice every week we can counteract this.” But overall the Crew team is in an excellent position for the future with both a great coach, who is willing to do what it takes to make sure the members have a great time, and their overall hopeful feeling present within the team. So go down to one of the regattas when the season rolls around later this year and cheer on the E.O Smith crew team.
