North Allegheny plans ‘Learn to Row’ event to teach students, prospective team members

By: Chris Harlan
Saturday, October 28, 2023 | 11:01 AM

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Bailey Chick wasn’t someone who grew up rowing, and in fact didn’t try the sport until she was a college student at Temple. But one day the rowing team there was inviting novices to practice, so she went and gave it a try.

Seventeen years later, Chick is the rowing coach at North Allegheny and strives nowadays to draw more newcomers onto the water. As part of that effort, NA Rowing will hold an introductory event Nov. 4 for students in grades 7-12 at the team’s boathouse (4551 Royal Ave.) along the Ohio River in Coraopolis.

“Our ‘Learn to Row’ days are an opportunity for people who have never rowed and have absolutely no knowledge of rowing,” Chick said. “They can come down to our boathouse, meet some of our team, hear about the sport and actually go out on the water.”

The event from 9-11 a.m. is intended for North Allegheny students, but Chick said she would happily include interested students from elsewhere. However, only NA students can compete for NA Rowing.

“But there’s a team for just about everybody in this city,” she added.

This is her sixth year as coach at North Allegheny, where she oversees a team that has close to 40 athletes on the high school roster. The 2023-24 season includes five regattas here in the fall, a couple of indoor events in the winter and a spring season that culminates with regional and national championships.

The fall schedule included local events at Moraine State Park and on the Ohio River, but also featured multiple trips to the Columbus, Ohio, area.

Chick said rowing gains popularity every four years during the summer Olympics, but many students and parents don’t recognize that the sport is also available on the high school level.

“I kind of knew about rowing because I grew up in the Boston area, which is where the world’s largest regatta is,” she said. “But I’d never rowed before my freshman year (of college).”

The origin of the North Allegheny rowing program dates back to 1989, when some students formed a team with borrowed equipment. Rowing became a school-recognized club sport in 2001. The team is sponsored by the North Allegheny Rowing Association.

NA Rowing owns 17 boats, a collection that features one of every size and oar combination available for racing. There are two types of oar configurations: a sweep (one oar per rower) or scull (two oars). The boats hold from one to nine people.

North Allegheny was the first Pittsburgh-area high school with a rowing team, but others have since joined, including Central Catholic, Fox Chapel, Mt. Lebanon, North Catholic, Pine-Richland and Upper St. Clair.

In the fall, North Allegheny practices five days a week on the back channel of the Ohio River along Neville Island. Chick said they increase to six days a week in the spring.

NA Rowing is a member of the Midwest Scholastic Rowing Association, which holds championship meets each May. The high school rowers compete in three categories: varsity, junior varsity and novice for first-year rowers.

Chick said her current roster has students with various athletic backgrounds.

“We have kids who’ve tried a million things and never quite fell in love with one,” she said, “and we have kids who have done absolutely nothing before.”

A number of years ago, she said, the boys team added a student who’d never played any sports, but he was convinced to row by a friend.

“Years later,” she said, “he became a team captain and was winning medals.”

Introducing and recruiting athletes to the sport is her biggest challenge for maintaining a rowing team. The “learn to row” days usually attract around a dozen new students, and some have joined the NA team.

“Rowing is a sport that you can come to at any point in life,” she said. “You don’t need to start rowing when you’re 4 years old. It is very common and often encouraged to not start rowing until later.”

Remembering back to her start at Temple, Chick said she was probably among 50 women who accepted the rowing team’s invitation to the tryout. She practiced a couple of strokes on a rowing machine, got into boat and “fell in love with it.”

Chick said she’s optimistic that some newcomers to North Allegheny’s event will do the same.

“Weather permitting, she said, “we will get everybody out on a boat to take strokes and row for the very first time.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: North Allegheny