With the season coming to an end, senior Jacob Bissett Herre has been apart of the crew team since his freshman year. At first, Herre admitted that at the beginning he was apart of the team in order to get some extra curricular activities and add it to his college resume, but after a couple of weeks, he found himself enjoying the sport.
During the offseason last year, Herre decided “to join a club team so [he] could do crew… which was exhausting, but fun.” In Herre’s opinion, what makes crew enjoyable is that it’s “more team oriented than other sports” because if they are doing sweep rowing, then an individual is paired up with a teammate on the opposite side, so they have the “same stroke, but if someone is a stroke off,then it could set the entire boat off.”
Since this is the last crew season Herre will have with Malden High School, he states he “will definitely be doing crew in college” while attending UMass Amherst. UMass Amherst has a men’s rowing team affiliated with the school. “When getting to the college level, it gets pretty tough” whether it’s against competitors like Yale or Harvard, to getting up before sunrise to practice, or attending regattas. But it’s something [Herre] enjoys doing”.
The UMass Men’s Rowing website shared they have had “a historical tradition of producing strong athletes devoted to their teammates, community and self-improvement”, but for Herre and other teammates, it’s something they do regularly whether it’s at practice or supporting each other at regattas.
One experience Herre has been able to take out of Crew that “everyone has to contribute at least one thing…[making] those little small parts help form a much more bigger whole”. For example, if a teammate has a great erg time, it won’t necessarily mean the boat will have a better time. Since everyone has a different time it’s significant to have rowers with similar times to have the boat move at a constant rate.
Although crew is a tough sport, Herre definitely encourages students to give it a try. The team holds events annually like Moose on the Malden where several cities come to the Malden River to compete. The most significant aspect of this event is to compete against 14 cities like joint team Somerville and Everett or others from Maine. The event is completely run by students and volunteers that include staff members from MHS.
As the spring season for sports come to an end, Herre has had a great four years with crew and has had many great experiences with the coaches and teammates. He hopes to excel with the men’s rowing team at UMass Amherst and finish the season off strong.
