[dd-parallax img=”https://jesuitroundup.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IMG_0377.jpg” height=”1000″ speed=”2″ z-index=”2″ position=”center” offset=”true” text-pos=”top”]Pictured: Jesuit Crew Fall 2023. (Source: Jesuit Crew Booster Club Parents)[/dd-parallax]

The fall semester of the 2023-24 school year is approaching its end, and looking back, it has been both an eventful and a trying one – indeed, an eventful and trying few years – for Jesuit Crew, the school’s rowing team, both on and off the water. Recapping these events, especially in the context of the last two or three years, helps to understand where the program is now, as well as the optimism for where it’s headed in the future.

Spring 2021

First of all, a recap of the preceding two or three years in Jesuit Crew history to set the stage for the last three or four months of it. In the spring of 2021, the Crew program was in great shape, spearheaded by experienced and well-respected Head Coach Randy Dam with a strong coaching staff – including current Head Coach Eli Brown, then coach of the freshman program – and a robust, dedicated body of athletes at all levels. The team saw great success that season, with strong performances from the squad throughout, including podium finishes from the Varsity side at nearly every race they went to. Meanwhile, the freshmen – now seniors – got faster and faster as the months went on, struggling early in the fall but culminating in a historic 2nd place finish in the Boys’ Freshman Eight event at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta in Philadelphia, PA, one of the biggest races (if not the biggest race) in the culture of American high school rowing. That eight-man freshman crew, who shaved their heads for the regatta in keeping with team tradition, were the closest Jesuit has ever come to winning an event at the renowned race, tied with a few other silver-medal finishes across program history and by a closer margin than many of them.

2021-2022

Late that summer, Head Coach Randy Dam and much of the coaching staff at the time left, each for varying reasons. With the loss, the boys were saddened, disappointed, anxious, and a whole swath of other emotions –

“The culture of the team saw a definite change, as before hearing the news we were all feeling confident and ready for the season. [Afterwards,] I’d say the vibe was unsure more than anything. I know most of the seniors, especially me, were sorry to see Randy go. He’s the one that opened my and many other athletes’ eyes to the possibility of rowing in college, which is something I will always appreciate.” – Garrett Brown ‘22

– yet the team’s motivation and drive remained firm, and the strong performances continued into the fall. Stepping in to help the unsteady but eager team, Interim Coach Mike Morschauser, along with Assistant Coach Eduardo Calderon ‘14 who’d helped with the freshmen earlier that year, led the varsity squad to the five-thousand meter Head of the Oklahoma, where the Rangers found a swath of successful racing. The two varsity eights both had strong finishes in the Men’s Youth 8+ event, with the 1V8+ finishing 2nd in the event and the 2V8+ finishing 90 seconds behind them at 7th. That night, the 1V got another shot at success in the centerpiece event of the weekend, the Night Sprints, a 500-meter head-to-head sprint complete with blaring music, cacophonous cheering, and a fireworks display as a backdrop to it all, all while boats and athletes glowed – both figuratively and literally – with decorations and accessories. Overcoming rival crew Dallas United, who had won the earlier full-length event, by a nail-biting 3.5 hundredths of a second, the triumphant Rangers came home with gold from the exhilarating event. Far from a one-note weekend, though, the boys also won both the Lightweight and Openweight Four (4+) events, the lightweights by a nearly two-minute margin. Even Coach Mike added to the list of high finishes, donning a uniform and racing for the Rangers in the Masters’ Single (1x) event, finishing 5th amongst a tightly competitive field of rowers aged from 55 to his own 75.

[dd-parallax img=”https://jesuitroundup.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IMG_1419.jpg” height=”1000″ speed=”2″ z-index=”2″ position=”center” offset=”true” text-pos=”bottom”]Pictured: Top Row (Left to Right): Jack DeGroote ‘22, Rodrigo Aldrey ‘22, Garrett Brown ‘22, Landon Cowan ‘23, Mason Nothaft ‘22 (C). Bottom Row (Left to Right): Mark Villalba ‘22 (C), Ian Smith ‘23, Sebastian Esquivel ‘23, Truman Mininger ‘22. (Source: Jesuit Crew Booster Club Parents)[/dd-parallax]

Soon after, a new head coach was found in Coach Troy Howell, and under his leadership, the Rangers carried the successful momentum through further podium finishes that fall, including another early win at the Halloween-themed Pumpkinhead Regatta in Austin. Though they struggled to find their footing in the spring, with inspiring wins like dominating the leaderboards at the Jesuit-hosted S.W.E.A.T. (Southwest Ergometer Amateur Tournament) indoor race interspersed between defeating moments, largely ones outside their control, like racing cancellations at the regional Central Youth Championships and the Stotesbury Cup. By early summer, though, they reached the goals they had set for themselves that year, making it to Nationals where they wore an unconventional purple to show their solidarity with a recent Jesuit Crew alumnus who was diagnosed with testicular cancer earlier that spring. The Rangers’ 8+ finished 28th in the nation, and the team was successful across other events too, with a high-finishing 4+ and the best-ranked pair (2-) from the region, Landon Cowan ‘23 and Truman Mininger ‘22, or as Coach Troy endearingly called them, the “Skinny Nobodies.” Additionally, the ‘25 Freshmen, who raced that spring after a semester of training with Coach Eddie, showed promise throughout the season with high finishes echoing those of their ‘24 predecessors and their Varsity teammates, including a 1st place finish at the regional championships in the Novice 8+ event and both gold and silver medals in the Novice 4+, though they faced the same disappointment as the varsity squad at the Stotesbury Cup with racing canceled before they got a real, side-by-side chance to show their potential after a tough but optimistic time trial.

2022-2023

Early that summer, though, the team’s coaching staff departed again for differing reasons, leaving the crew in a tough and demoralizing situation at the beginning of all-important summer training. With the return of Coach Eli Brown, though, the still-determined squad hit its stride. Returning to the Head of the Oklahoma after months of hard work with Coach Eli, as well as new Head Coach Ryan Hemelt and new Assistant Coach Hayden Grobleben, the Varsity squad looked to reprise the success of the previous year’s squad, and by all accounts, they did. The 1V8+ finished 2nd in both the main event and the coveted five-hundred-meter Night Sprints, bringing home near-identical hardware to their Fall 2021 predecessors, while the 2V8+ placed 5th in the 5000-meter main event and fought their way up to an impressive 3rd that night just 3 seconds behind the 1V. In the fours, though, the crew saw even greater success, resounding victories in the face of a much smaller squad than previous years, with the Varsity 4+ bringing home a gold medal in their event, almost 8 seconds ahead of the competition, setting the stage for further success to come. Additionally, the next day, the Under-17 8+ finished 2nd, 40 seconds ahead of the next-best boat.

The Varsity team, especially the dominant 1V4+, continued their success throughout the fall season, with finishes like both 1st and 2nd place from the Varsity 4s at the Waco Rowing Regatta, the 1V4 beating the next non-Jesuit boat by nearly a minute and a half and the next boat after that by around two. The Varsity 8+ also put up strong performances throughout the fall, competing well in Waco and at the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, MA. That spring, though, was a much more challenging time, with the entire coaching staff leaving yet again, a hit that led to many athletes leaving the team, putting the crew in a tough spot at the beginning of the new season. 

“I love rowing, but it isn’t fair. To be honest, that’s my feeling for everything in rowing. It’s not always fair, but you can push through with dedication, discipline, and heart.” – Hunter Colbeth ’23

When Coaches Davis Colwell and Amanda Perry stepped in, the crew worked hard to get settled into yet another new norm. The team admittedly struggled to find its footing throughout the season, with a significantly smaller (and, with only two upperclassmen remaining, younger) varsity squad working hard to compete against crews that hadn’t faced as many speed bumps. Beginning to overcome this, though, the team opened its season with a hard-fought performance at its own S.W.E.A.T. 2023, including strong individual finishes such as Dawson Zavala ‘24 and Matthew Firley ‘25 at 2nd and 3rd in the Lightweight Men’s event. On the water, the crew fought its way to strong performances at state and regional levels, like a silver medal for the Novice double (2x) of Zavala and Hunter Colbeth ‘23 at the 2023 Central Youth Championships and top 5 finishes from the Varsity 8+ at the same race and others throughout the spring.

Similarly, at the 2023 Stotesbury Cup, the varsity team faced challenges they had grown familiar with over the season, but they still managed to find promising form even amongst an extremely competitive field, putting out impressive showings for boats of almost exclusively sophomores against competition of juniors and seniors from massive programs across the country. The same 2x of Colbeth and Zavala fought their way to 17th in a cutthroat race of experienced doubles, while a new, younger all-sophomore 4+ of  Matthew Firley, Evan Mallinson ‘25, Charlie Mac Hiatt ‘25, Royce Szaryzinski ‘25, and Andrew Wilkes ‘25 reached the semifinals of the Boys’ Junior Four event, where they had a highly promising 5th place finish in one of two 6-boat heats against crews that had trained together for months or years.

[dd-parallax img=”https://jesuitroundup.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IMG_4257.jpg” height=”800″ speed=”2″ z-index=”2″ position=”center” offset=”true” text-pos=”bottom”]Pictured: Spring 2023 Jesuit Crew at the Central Youth Championships. (Source: Jesuit Crew Booster Club Parents)[/dd-parallax]

Additionally, throughout the whole year, the ‘26 Freshmen squad showed promise with their competitive results at races in both the spring and, for the first time, fall seasons. At the Waco Rowing Regatta, freshmen raced in a variety of events, such as the Novice 4+, where they placed 3rd and 4th, and the Novice 8+, where they came in just one place shy of the podium by about a minute over the 5000-meter race course. In the spring, they continued to stay competitive, with impressive showings at S.W.E.A.T. like Stavros Gonzales ‘26 and London Spoor ‘26 getting gold and bronze, respectively, in the Openweight Novice Men’s event, and Colin Salm ‘26 taking home silver in the Lightweight counterpart. The squad stayed competitive on the water as well, with strong performances at the Heart of Texas and the State Championships, and only improved as the season went on, earning both gold and bronze at the Central Youth Championships in the Men’s Youth Novice 4+ event, capping off their season with a respectable 17th place finish at Stotesbury. At spring’s end, though, Coach Davis departed, echoing a seemingly repetitive pattern, but Coach Amanda Perry stood by the team through the summer with help from returning Coach Mike Morschauser, new Assistant Coach Alyssa Manganello, and a small group of recent alumni dedicated to seeing the team succeed, continuing to aid and improve the program until a permanent coach could be found.

Fall 2023

In early fall of this year, a head coach was finally found with the return of Coach Eli Brown, who had left that spring to finish his Masters’ Degree but whose presence with the team has always been an earmark of program success. Throughout the fall season this year, parents and spectators watched as a young, thinned and weary Jesuit Crew began to reemerge, hardened from months of intense training and years of uncertainty but still dedicated to the program’s restoration as a dominant force in regional and national rowing, showing slow-but-steady signs of improvement towards that eventual lofty goal. At the latest edition of the Head of the Oklahoma, the Varsity 8+ remained a competitive crew despite everything the team has faced, with a hard-fought 5th place finish in the 5000-meter race that qualified for yet another appearance in Night Sprints. There, they finished just 4.5 seconds off first, adorned with glow sticks, glasses, and face paint that put their persistent team spirit on full display, despite everything they’d faced.

The crew kept fighting throughout the fall, finding small successes and hoping for more in the future at every race they visited. Returning to the Pumpkinhead Regatta, the team put out two doubles, with Dawson Zavala and Stavros Gonzales finishing 18th, while Royce Szarzynski and Jesus Rosales ‘26 finished 19th just 3 seconds behind them. Meanwhile, the Varsity 8+ placed 5th in a competitive 13-boat field, just 25 seconds off the podium and only a minute behind 1st over the long race course. The team had similarly competitive results in the fours, placing 9th and 10th, only 6 seconds apart and less than a minute from the first-place finisher. Just one week later, they traveled to Tennessee for the massive Head of the Hooch regatta, one of the oldest and largest races in America, the team returning for the first time since 2021. There, they had similar performances, like a 30th place finish for the Varsity 4+ out of about 60 and 15th of just over 30 in the Under-17 8+ events. With about a month before their next race, the Rangers went deep into intense training, working tirelessly at the freshly constructed Dove Center and in the Dell as winter training began. Beginning to bring the Jesuit Crew community back together, the team hosted a cluster of Alumni Reunion events over Thanksgiving Break – first, a Friday night tour of the team’s new facilities at the Dove, then up again Saturday morning for an on-the-water reunion of rowing and a bagel breakfast.

The reunion was a massive success, with alumni from across the country and throughout the team’s decades-long history, from teams just two or three years ago to nearly decade-past crews that made now-legendary runs on the national and international stage, all returning to the boathouse to row, to see each other again, and to show their support for the current athletes after the team’s tumultuous experiences over the last few years. The oldest athletes loved seeing alumni they’d been friends with and looked up to in the past while meeting more whose names had become legendary invocations over the years; Meanwhile, the freshmen and sophomores got to meet many of them for the first time and put faces to the names of athletes they’d only heard stories, myths, and inside jokes about. 

“Having experienced alumni row as an athlete and an alumnus, this year has been the best by a mile, seeing older alumni and meeting people we only heard stories about was an incredible experience.” – Mason Nothaft ’22

[dd-parallax img=”https://jesuitroundup.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IMG_1458.jpg” height=”800″ speed=”2″ z-index=”2″ position=”center” offset=”true” text-pos=”bottom”]Pictured (Left to Right): Dawson Zavala ’24 (c), Elijah Garcia ’23, Ian Smith ’23, Truman Mininger ’22, Landon Cowan ’23, Garrett Brown ’22, Mason Nothaft ’22, Jack DeGroote ’22.[/dd-parallax]

The event gave the squad a critical morale boost as winter training began to ramp up, and with a somewhat refreshed mentality, the team returned to racing one last time this semester at the first annual Frosty 500, a fittingly named Christmas-themed race of short, sharp 500-meter sprints hosted on the team’s home White Rock Lake with medals for podium crews and trophies for both the individual boat and the team with the most Christmas spirit, complete with merchandise, food trucks, and a festive parent-run market. Starting to see real success, the varsity Rangers raced in reindeer onesies and elf costumes to earn a plethora of hardware at the race, with a few gold medals and plenty of silver and bronze, each by better and better margins compared to where they started this season – results that, over a much closer distance to 2000 meter spring racing than the far longer fall races, provide optimism for the spring season to come – and even closed out the day by bringing home the inaugural Team with the Most Christmas Spirit trophy, a new and unconventional addition to the Rangers’ trophy case.

Looking Ahead

With their last race of the fall done, the young squad goes into the depths of winter training tired from years past, but excited for the season – and the years – to come. As anyone skimming this article could discern, coaching instability has plagued the Jesuit Crew program over the last few years. Each time it seemed a solution had been found, the team has faced disappointment by year’s end with yet another coaching staff departing for a variety of reasons; over the last three years, in fact, the team’s oldest members have rowed under twelve different head and assistant coaches. This time, though, athletes, parents, and coaches see the situation differently. Coach Eli Brown has been a recurring presence with the program and a relatively stable one, a coach who has always heralded success for the Jesuit teams he’s coached. He’s had successful careers both in his rowing and as a coach, being part of winning crews at Brown University that found success at the highest levels of rowing, and helping to coach crews like Jesuit’s ‘24 Freshman 8+ that reached historic heights at the Stotesbury Cup. This time, he plans to be here to stay, and looks ahead to the future of the program with optimism:

“Right now, the unfortunate truth is that it has been very unstable…I know that there’s a lot of interest in being in a successful position and I know that if they have the right guidance they’re going to accomplish whatever goals they set for themselves,” Brown told the Roundup earlier this year.

A stable coach, and a skilled one at that, puts the program in a good spot compared to past years – with the benefit of hindsight, at least – despite the less glamorous finishes so far; although this season’s results have often seemed more disappointing than prestigious compared to past years and haven’t been gilded by quite as many medals, the results the team has seen so far should give some optimism for not just the spring but for the year(s) to come, and the position the team is in sets up it well to keep building on them.

“As a relatively young crew that’s just found some permanent stability, I see nothing but potential for the team, even if it might take a bit to reach it,” junior said Royce Szarzynski, one of the team’s two captains along with senior Dawson Zavala.

As a small team of almost entirely freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, the program sometimes struggles to compete against crews with more depth and age. However, as the semester has gone on, the gaps have begun to close, especially over shorter distances that reflect more closely the spring competitions to come, and the boys have held their own against crews that seemed miles ahead earlier in the season. This hope comes at the beginning of a long winter training, a period seen in the rowing world as something of crucible that, though intense, forges crews into faster and stronger teams. For a team where, by force of a smaller roster, many of the top athletes are sophomores and juniors, the strong results against crews of mostly seniors paint a hopeful picture, though it may seem like only a pencil sketch at the moment. While other teams will see their crucial older athletes graduating out, Jesuit’s team will remain largely the same over the next year or two, the same rowers that already hold their own continuously improving and rising through the ranks. 

The last few years have been a struggle for the team, and though the spring will likely be more successful, it will almost certainly also see the burgeoning program again trying to find its footing. In my opinion, though, with a consistent coach and a body of dedicated young athletes, the future, the light at the end of the tunnel, is a bright one for Jesuit Crew.

Stay tuned to the Jesuit Roundup for more Jesuit athletics news!