County Rowers Tapped to Train for Junior National Team

Four rowers from Pelham Community Rowing Association (PCRA) have received invitations to the USA Junior National Team Winter’s High Performance Camp run by USRowing.

This invitation-only camp is limited to the 22-24 top junior male and female rowers in the United States. Invitees are drawn from last year’s Junior National Team, last year’s Worlds Development Team, and a few younger rowers considered the nation’s future stars. 

According to USRowing, the focus of the Camps to be held next weekend is “to work with a select group of athletes early in the process.”  High Performance Camp is “designed for the athletes to gain an understanding of the technical, physical and mental preparation that needs to start during the winter months in order to aspire to the medal stand in August.” 

The ultimate goal for any of these athletes is to make the USA Junior National Team and compete at the Junior World Rowing Championships, to be held in Trakai, Lithuania (2013), or Hamburg, Germany (2014).

Paul Verni, of New Rochelle and a senior at Iona Preparatory School, will be heading to Tampa, Florida while his PCRA teammates, Liliane Lindsay, a junior at Harrison High School, and Mamaroneck High School sophomore, Ellie Sawyer, will be training in Oakland, California. A fourth rower, PCRA-alum Yasmine Hemida from Mamaroneck, currently a freshman recruited to row for Syracuse University, was also invited.

It is unusual for a club to have so many of its athletes recognized at this elite level, especially for a relatively new club like PCRA, though all four rowers have on the national stage, three of them internationally. In 2012, Hemida and Lindsay claimed gold at the New York State Championships (second year in a row), were National Champions in both the blue-ribbon 8+ event and the 4x (setting a new national record) at USRowing Club Nationals, and finished off the year by capturing the Thomas G. Gannon Cup at the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta.

Last summer, Verni was selected for the Junior National Team’s High Performance Team, and represented the United States at the both the CanAmMex competition (rowers from Canada, America and Mexico) and at Club Nationals. Sawyer rowed in PCRA’s first sweep boat entry to make A-Finals at last year’s Youth Nationals in the lightweight 8+.

“No doubt our athletes will find rowing and training with the best in the country a challenging and exhilarating way to begin their own rigorous winter training program with PCRA,” said PCRA Junior Head Coach, Guy Monseair.  “We’re extremely proud of the unflagging discipline and determination that it took for them to receive this invitation.”

ABOUT PELHAM COMMUNITY ROWING ASSOCIATION (PCRA)

PCRA is the only community rowing program in all of Westchester and currently draws students from more than 10 area high schools.   PCRA rows out of Glen Island State Park on the 1964 Olympic Time Trial Course that they share with the New York Athletic Club.  PCRA offers a complete spectrum of programming from Learn To Row, Novice, Junior and Varsity competitive teams for teens, to their enthusiastic Master’s Programs for rowing adults.  PCRA is a not‐for‐profit 501©(3) corporation dedicated to sharing the benefits of rowing with athletes of all ages and abilities. PCRA encourages the pursuit of excellence—fitness, discipline and teamwork—through community youth and adult rowing.  For more information about learning to row, rowing lessons, or a competitive team experience at Pelham Community Rowing Association, please contact Jean Ippolito at jippolito.ny@gmail.com, or visit their website.