On Saturday, April 12th, friends, family, relatives, teachers and more came out as the Saints rowing team hosted Vancouver College at the John M.S Lucky boathouse for the annual Saints-VC boat race. This year’s races featured some fast and competitive racing from both schools. To kick off the event, the Saints rowers and coaches joined director of athletics, Mr. Richard Cohee and his family, on the dock for a special presentation. In honor of Mr. Cohee’s dedication and commitment to the rowing program, the newest boat was named after him. Mr. Cohee was given the honor of christening the boat and received a memento to take home with him. After the ceremony, the first of three eight’s from each school were launched off the dock for their warm up.

Shortly after, the rest of the eight’s proceeded to leave the dock. Because of weather conditions on that day, adjustments had to be made to the race course due to unsafe conditions to row in. Instead of the traditional course, this year’s was from near the Canada Line to the boathouse. However, the distance of three kilometers was not changed. In the first race, which featured the Junior. B’s, Saints was strong right off the start with VC on their tails for the majority of the race. Near the finish however, Saints put on a burst of speed putting VC behind in the dust and sealing the deal. In the second race however, VC came back with a strong performance and managed to hold onto a steady lead over Saint’s boat. In the final race, and the one that determined the winner of the whole competition, our top eight crushed VC right off the start and finished the race with an impressive lead over the rival boat. After the senior eight came back into the dock and had their photos taken, all eight rowers from the winning boat celebrated by swarming coxswain Kevin Chung and tossing him into the water. For some of the seniors, it was a special day because it was their last Saints-VC race.After all the boats had been brought back to the dock and put back into the boat bay, the Senior eight was presented with the trophy.

The Creed asked the Junior. B coach, Ms. Teena Schneider, about her thoughts on the event and how it felt to experience her first Saints-VC race. Coach Schneider had this to say, “It was exciting to see such a competitive race from the Jr B crews. I was very proud of how the boys performed in light of several last-minute changes to the lineup. I think the boys have created a very strong base for the entire team to build off of moving forward towards Nationals in eight weeks. In terms of how I felt about it being a first-time coach of the event, it was extremely nerve-wracking to watch! It’s easy to row in these races where all you have to do is sit down and pull hard; watching from a coach boat and knowing it’s out of your control, that’s hard.”