Public high school rowing club expense/experience
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Anonymous
| How expensive is it to start a high school rowing club? This would be for public high school. Some basic advice on early years would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for thoughts |
Anonymous
| Well, you need to buy boats (to row, and a launch for the coach) and you need a boathouse to use. Then you need coaches. Ideally also a bus to take kids between the school and boathouse. Our school pays a ton for the use of a boathouse used by many college/HS teams, and rowers pay a fee of about $800 per season to participate. Public HS near Philly. |
Anonymous
| What school is that? $2500 in Fall and Spring for us |
Anonymous
LM. It's about $700 fall and $800 spring. |
Anonymous
| Ours is about 1k per season fall and spring. The school kicks in alot as well. |
Anonymous
| Thanks to the PPs for costs. What is the easiest team to field at first... |
Anonymous
But your club presumably already has boats. Start up costs will be higher. How much does an eight cost these days? |
Anonymous
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You also need a trailer to take the boats to regattas, if you plan to compete. It's an expensive sport.
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Anonymous
It is not cheap but certainly not expensive. Golf and tennis are cost much more than rowing. |
Anonymous
One would think a club would have them so its more the coaches, repairs and any fees to store them. |
Anonymous
Seems like the teams with smaller programs are more likely to have 4-person boats; the top public programs (Whitman, B-CC, Wilson, McLean, W-L, Wakefield, and Alexandria City) have 8-person boats. In Virginia you can check the VASRA sites for more information. |
Anonymous
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So you want to start a team from scratch? Start up costs would be pretty steep. Do you have access to a boathouse in which to store boats? You’ll have to buy the boats (a new 8 is at least $35k, but you could get a used one for half that). You will need more than one boat - maybe a quad, a 4+, a double, maybe some trainer singles. You need to buy oars, maybe used at $250 minimum apiece for an 8 that needs 8 oars. Like a PP said, you need a launch (small motor boat) or two for on-water coaching.
You have to pay to store the boats, for repairs, for coaching, entry to regattas, transportation, access to a boat trailer and a vehicle that can tow the trailer, someone who knows how to drive a rowing trailer…etc etc My kid belongs to a very low budget regional rowing team (many high schools represented). We get cast off boats for cheap from local private schools, we use a city-owned boathouse, our coaches are basically college students, we get grant funding to cover some of our programming, and our fees are $900 per season. We never win, but the kids love it. Big endeavor to start a club, but not impossible! |
Anonymous
| Ah great detail...thanks so much for your good words |
Anonymous
| If you’re mostly interested in a rowing program for your kid, there are clubs in the DC and MD areas that take kids/juniors from all over. DC National, Blair Rowing, Annapolis Jr Rowing and Baltimore Community rowing are examples. |
Anonymous
| ^ Capital Rowing also takes kids from DC public schools (maybe other areas too, I’m not sure). |