Berkeley High Crew racing at Scholastic Nationals

Dear Reader,

On Sunday, April 24th, Berkeley High Crew (located in Berkeley California) placed first in five events at Scholastic Regionals. Scholastic Regionals is a race amongst schools with rowing teams that, if won, qualifies you for Scholastic Nationals. This means that we have the amazing opportunity, if we have the funding, to take all five of these boats with almost 50 athletes to Scholastic Nationals located in Camden, New Jersey!

Berkeley High Crew is one of the very few public schools with a rowing team and one of the only public schools to qualify for Scholastic Nationals in recent years. Through the pandemic we took a really hard hit as other teams were able to practice with limited protocol surrounding Covid-19 while we had to practice based on the schools guidelines meaning we had no practice in person for most of the year. The fact that this is the first year for most of the athletes with competitive racing and we placed first in Scholastic Regionals is truly amazing.

The Monday before Scholastic we received the worst news possible. A teammate and close friend to everyone at Berkeley High Crew had passed away. Everyone was so hurt and it was impossible to think about what we should do. After getting together as a team, we decided that we would race. Going to the race course, getting in the boat, and racing itself was emotionally one of the hardest challenges we’ve had to face. Winning the race wasn’t only to go to nationals, but was a way of honoring our teammate.

Unfortunately, as it stands, we don’t have enough funds for food, travel, and lodging if we are to keep the team afloat. With the help of the people reading this I believe that we can raise the money necessary to keep racing (and winning) this season and many more! Any contribution at all, from $1 to $100, is so greatly appreciated as it’s the collective effort that counts.

Thank you so much from the entire Berkeley High Crew team!