Rowing the Norwalk River

The New Canaan Crew team prepares for its spring season on the Norwalk River, partly from a modest facility on the river's banks and partly on the river itself. The New Canaan High School students get an unusual perspective of Norwalk.

Yan Vengerovskiy, a former member of the Ukrainian National Rowing team, still runs the program he started 11 years ago. Vengerovskiy said he and the other five coaches work on the whole person. To be a good rower you can't be just a good athlete, he said, you must also be a good team player and have a lot of mental stamina. 

The kids work on conditioning in the modest facility year round. A visiting coach from Harvard said the primitive outdoor set-up looks like it's right out of a Soviet training manual from the Cold War.

But everyone agrees, it works. Members of the NCHS class of 2010 who graduated from this program are now rowing for Princeton, Harvard, Penn, Columbia and Stanford. Last year, team members won a Gold Medal at the Junior National Championships, and six kids from the team represented the US at the Junior World Championships in the Czech Republic, where the women won a silver medal and the men took home a bronze.

As soon as the weather permits, the  shells are launched on the Norwalk River. Vengerovskiy drives his launch alongside the rowers, coaching all the time. His voice is heard over all the other sounds out on the river; the geese in flight,  the trains going by, the highway traffic.

"Light on da seat. Change da ratio. All must put chest on knee, left elbow out, less talk, do more business, sit up. What are you doin', man?" he calls to the team.

A number of the kids said they're amazed by the coaches, and by the dedication and commitment of their fellow team members. A small group laughed in agreement that they are known as the Undercover Sport at the high school.