Saturday, December 6, 2008
Welcome HHS Graduates
Welcome. Please come and use our new Ro*Fast Center free of charge during your winter break. Our new center has 19 rowing machines and a full complement of weights for you to use.
The high school Ro*Fast program runs Monday to Saturday between 3:30 and 5:30. You are welcome during those times on a 'space available' basis. You may utilize the gym other times by coordinating your workouts with me or one of the other coaches.
We look forward to seeing you all again.
Mr. McCaig
Monday, December 1, 2008
Thank you Ro*Fast parents
We are very lucky to have John Cotter directing this winter's program for the boys and the girls. John has done a great deal of work in developing the best way to have our athletes predictably improve their fitness over the season. John is a licensed personal trainer and brings a great deal of experience to our program. On the strength front, John will be joined by Seto Berry who is an incredibly inspirational 'all sports' strength coach. As the program unfolds, we expect that all of the athletes will see great improvement in their strength, endurance, and overall fitness. Nina Villanova will also work with our students. A Holy Cross rower and coach at Lincoln Maritime, Nina did a great job with our kids this Fall.
In addition to the coaches, Chris Sadler will be helping our kids during this sessions. Chris is the Spring and Fall team manager and will be extremely helpful in keeping all the details under control.
All in all, today was a good start to what I hope will be a great season. Thank you everyone.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Looking Forward and looking back
I could be looking back at last fall and last Spring but instead, now that you have been kind enough to get me the great binoculars, I can only look forward. Thank you all for my nice gift - a set of binoculars to watch the rowing races.
Looking forward, tomorrow, December 1, begins the first of our Ro*Fast sessions. We are beginning our season in earnest. I hope you will all make the decision to help create a winning season for Hingham Crew.
If, at the end of May, you finish the season and you know that you have worked as hard as you could from now until then, then you will have had a good season. Let's hope I don't need the binoculars to know whether or not Hingham is in the lead.
Let's go Harborpeople!!!!!
Friday, November 7, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
The rule of 20

Hingham at Quinsigamond. We had a great showing at Quinsigamond last week. 73 of our team got the chance to row in the MPSRA Championships.
Unfortunately, none of our crews did as well as I think we all would have liked to. So what's the dealio???
Wayland Weston won boys, girls, and novice events. Are they better people than we are? Do they feed the kids differently? Do they practice genetic mutation? IS their equipment better? Do they have better coaches? For those of you who came away dissapointed, take heart.
I calculate that WW had 2700 minutes of Fall practice to our 1200. Their water is more consistently good and this means quicker learning.
In order for us to have championship teams in the spring, we will need to earn our spot with a minimum of 20 minutes hard practice for every second of championship racing. We race roughly 5 minutes and 300 seconds. Our winning crew members will need to be engaged in practice... aerobic, strength, and technique for a minimum of 6000 minutes between now and the end of may.
When AC/DC says "work work, money made" they understand what we have to do.
Relatively simple. I hope you will all join me.
Doug McCaig
Liz Fitzgerald and the University of Pennsylvania
Hi Doug,
Yesterday I got to hold an Olympic gold medal. Susan Francia graduated from Penn in 2004, and won gold in the Women's 8+ this summer in Beijing. My whole team crowded around her to catch a glimpse of the medal, hear her inspirational words, and ask her what Michael Phelps is like in person. Yes, she partied with him in China. She walked on to the Penn crew team as a sophomore, having never touched an oar, and when she visited the boathouse this weekend eight years later, had some serious hardware to show off for all the work she's done since then. Crew is not an easy sport, but it really is worth it. Sorry if this sounds cliche, but there's nothing better. It is probably one of the most team oriented sports out there; Trusting and respecting your teammates is what gets every rower pulling their hardest out there on the water. You are nothing without the other eight rowers (including the coxswain!) in your boat. This past weekend was the Navy Day Regatta here in Philadelphia, and there were about fifteen teams racing. I was in the JV 8+ and the Thursday before the race was our first row together as a boat. It was a horrible practice. We were getting seriously beaten by the third boat every piece. But we put that morning behind us and started making changes during Friday's practice. Our new assistant coach, Coach B, made us each tell our pair partner what we were going to hold them accountable for, and then we had to tell her if she succeeded or failed at improving whatever that technical focus was. And on race day, it all came together. We walked away with a silver medal, not nearly as cool as Susan Francia's gold, but it still felt pretty good. Overall Penn did well at Navy Day: third place in the V 8+, and second, fourth, and sixth in the V 4+ race.
Monday, September 29, 2008
cheering for rowing races
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wrpnt-VQ8HA
Jessica Keefe and Fairfield University
"so I guess you might have heard....well you most likely heard...DAVE PATTERSON, the coach here at fairfield, apparently called john cotter (or you...i dont know...i will ask him about it tommorrow..) and said that anyone from hingham that wants to row at fairfield is welcome ..and they will be on a scholarship...ALL BECAUSE OF ME????Dave is hilarious....just because I pulled a 20:51 on my first 5K ever, and then a 20:20 (last weekend) on my 2nd 5K,and a 7:55 on my 2K after my 5K on saturday....,he is promoting fairfield rowing to hingham????it's funnyi thought people would be pulling much harder than that here...cuz it's college rowing...but i guess crew is pretty new here ....they are working on a new boathouse so we are currently rowing on the Norwalk river..and there are dead fish everywhere...it's gross....i would much rather be rowing on hingham harbor in choppy wateranyways, i currently have the best 2K and 5K score here at fairfield for the women's team.... =)we seat raced today about 15 times no joke...and in the end he chose me and 3 upperclassmen to row in a 4 for the charles oct 18th....so watch out for me if you are there/ if hingham is rowing in that....did you guys enter that this year?? and i forgot to ask dave about the golden mile... i will ask him later... i don't think we do that though...just some CT races...some in NJ and spring break we are going to cocoa beach, FLORIDA good timeshope all is welllJessica "
It's that time again !!!
Friday, July 11, 2008
New Ro*Fast*er
Downloadable Exercise Record. Call me for the 2nd 10 exercises when this is done. Doug
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
In the hunt
All of our crews did very well on Sunday. Here the V1 is vying for a medal against Wayland Weston, Shrewsbury, and Lowell.Boys V2 was robbed after an equipment breakage put them back in the pack during the finals. The 15 second margin between Hingham and Brookline on Tuesday proved that Hingham is a team to be reckoned with. Sunday, Brookline finished 8 seconds behind first - in third place.
As for the Super V or the Flying V as they are referred to, this team made a very respectable 3rd place showing despite water leaking in to their boat.
The boys Novice under the speedy tempo set by stroke John Smoot poured it on in the Heats to quallify for the finals. A tight race in the finals had Hingham falling a little short of a medal.
Girls V1 had a season best row in a very tough heat and just missed qualifying for the finals - by about 1 boat length. Had they rowed in the 2nd heat (slower), they would have easily qualified.
Girls V2 had a very fast race in the finals but missed the medal stand. A good effort for a crew that included novices.
Girls Novices who had a great morning race to qualify for the finals were surprised to be rowing the Currie for the finals and fell back to a respectable 5th place.
Girls 2nd Novice were not rewarded for the hard work that they did during the season. They had an unfortunate equipment break and were not able to finish.
All in all, our crews made great improvements at every level. All of you have helped build the foundation for a great year next year.
Thank you everyone.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Last Man Standing
Pat McAuley is the last man standing in this week's interesting seat racing competion. McAuley is obviously stronger.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Ernie Arlett and Mike McLaughlin

A Moveable Feast

Thursday, April 24, 2008
Expedition around Bumkin
Friday, April 18, 2008
Get some reach
Matt Cawley is 3 in the 2006 Polish national team boat.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Welcome Karen Beatty
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
LIz Fitz right in at Penn
Thursday, March 27, 2008
The true cradle of democracy could be said to be an Athenian trireme.

However, in post-war Athens, things were changing fast. The trauma of occupation, followed by the euphoria of victory, had transformed the city. Before the war, the foundations for democracy had been laid, but this was democracy in name only. In reality, only men with money had governed. Now a massive power shift was taking place.
The true cradle of democracy could be said to be an Athenian trireme. Each powered by nearly 200 oarsmen, these sea-borne battering rams had annihilated the Persian fleet at Salamis. At a time of crisis, it had been the poor of Athens who had squeezed down on to the cramped rowing benches and sent the triremes smashing into the hulls of their enemies.
These had been the have-nots of the city, the bottom of the political pecking order. But after Salamis, all that changed. The oarsmen who had endured the sweat, stench and terror of the triremes had won a historic victory and now they wanted their say. Athenian democracy was galvanised.
The first kid (other than Ross) who explains to me the relation between a Trireme and the formation of modern democracy - gets a Crow Point gift certificate. on me!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Welcome to the club
Friday, March 21, 2008
Saturday Workout Session - 10:00
Thursday, March 20, 2008
New One Hour Record
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
01:00 AM EST on Monday, January 21, 2008
HAROLD AMBLER
AUSTIN
I HAVE HAD CAUSE to ask myself why anyone other than rowers and former rowers should find the sport interesting. What follows is a list of things that separate rowing, the oldest intercollegiate sport in the United States, from every other sport.
Here are the top 20 reasons that crew is unique
• Seldom can you determine which member of a crew won a race; but it is frequently possible to tell which member of a crew lost a race, when that person took a bad stroke, dislodged his or her sliding seat from its tracks, or ran catastrophically out of energy at the end of a race.
• Rowing is the only sport whose participants travel backward.
• It is the only sport whose participants’ survival depends upon the intelligence and focus of a teammate, the coxswain.
• Rowers like to say that they are in the greatest cardiovascular shape of all college athletes, and it is a reasonable claim. Cross-country skiers and runners are their principal rivals for the honor.
• Rowing is the only sport in which novices have become Olympians in as little as two to three years, and that is not because it is easier than other sports or because there is less competition for spots. The competition for spots on the Olympic team is fierce.
• While runners and other endurance athletes also push themselves, they do so with the knowledge that they can quit at any time, even in the middle of a workout. Rowers cannot stop rowing in the middle of a practice or race, or else an oar handle will jab their spine, their ribs, or one of their kidneys. The pain of this is probably discouragement enough from the very reasonable idea of quitting in the middle of a piece, but the social component is stronger. To stop rowing, when one’s teammates are exerting themselves no less than oneself, is truly beyond the pale.
• Rowing is unique in that the athletes are not allowed to speak while participating (even if they had the wind to do so). This means, among other things, that a lot of strong feelings are running just beneath the surface of the average crew, which is palpable as soon as one approaches a working college boathouse.
• Water polo looks taxing, and it is. Football looks dangerous and exhilarating, and it is both of those things. Rowing looks poetic, relaxing even, but the sport is internally violent. The level of exertion required is so immense that death seems a real possibility on a regular basis, which is among the reasons that rowers are notoriously insular — they are in the process of having near-death experiences, psychologically, every day. For a group of rowers to depart from the subject of rowing in a conversation is not necessarily easy in such a context.
• There is no analog for seat-racing in any other sport. There is no intra-squad competition that is as intense, as personal, and as visible.
• No other coaches ply their trade at the helm of a boat; no other coaches burn gasoline to keep up with their athletes; no other coaches have to perform as much plane geometry and calculus in their heads to keep themselves and their athletes safe.
• No other sport involves a public-address system with speakers beneath the athletes’ bodies.
• No other sport involves tying oneself into shoes that other athletes have worn.
• No other sport involves tying oneself into shoes that are fixed to a craft that can sink.
• No other college sport has to concern itself with icebergs. (Both my father and I were in boats that struck icebergs at Dartmouth; Dad’s boat sank as they rowed it to shore. He and his boatmates had to run in socks, across the snow, three miles back to the boathouse. The boat I was in was an expensive Vespoli that the varsity had taken out for its maiden row at dusk; we started a power twenty and the next thing I knew I was sitting about two feet higher than before in the bow seat, looking down at a car-sized iceberg on either side of me.)
• No other college sport makes such extensive use of machines, principally Concept2 ergometers, or requires that athletes spend so much time physically attached to them.
• No other college sport involves the betting of an item of clothing to be delivered to or received from one’s opponent as soon as the contest has ended.
• No other sport uses a single piece of equipment that is nearly 60 feet long.
• Few other sports suffer an occasional drowning.
• No other sport requires such complex traffic control: At the end of practices, shells line up waiting to come into the dock like passenger jets waiting to land at a major airport.
• No other sport’s athletes carry the dead weight of a teammate, i.e., the coxswain, on the playing field; no other sport’s athletes are spoken to throughout their races by that same player-coach; no other sport’s athletes “reward” their victorious player-coach by hurling the individual into water that is frequently both frigid and polluted.
Harold Ambler is an Austin-based writer, editor and musician. He rows recreationally on Austin’s Town Lake and is the editor of the forthcoming Ever True: The History of Brown Crew
Monday, February 25, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
One man answers the call
Although Rick came a little short of the world record that was set for his age category, he gave it his all.
We are very lucky to have had Rick rowing and setting an example for all of us. Next year he has asked that everyone in our program join him.
Thank you Rick.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Crash-B Feb. 26

If any kids are interested in joining me to watch a part of the Crash-B championships, I will be driving in to the Agganis Center on the 26th after lunch - or possible taking the subway. Please e-mail me dmccaig@comcast.net or call me at 781-254-9700. There will be many student athletes of high school age. It will be a good opportunity to see what the competition is up to and for kids who might want to row in college - a good chance to meet coaches with me. Mr. McCaig
The HHS Devil Frogs... Beelzebufo
Scientists on Monday announced the discovery in northwestern Madagascar of a bulky amphibian dubbed the "devil frog" that lived 65 million to 70 million years ago and was so nasty it may have eaten newborn dinosaurs.This brute was larger than any frog living today and may be the biggest frog ever to have existed, according to paleontologist David Krause of Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York, one of the scientists who found the remains.
Its name, Beelzebufo ampinga, came from Beelzebub, the Greek for devil, and bufo -- Latin for toad. Ampinga means "shield," named for an armor-like part of its anatomy.
Beelzebufo (pronounced bee-el-zeh-BOOF-oh) was 16 inches
long and weighed an estimated 10 pounds (4.5 kg).
It was powerfully built and possessed a very wide mouth and powerful jaws. It probably didn't dine daintily.
"It's not outside the realm of possibility that Beelzebufo took down lizards and mammals and smaller frogs, and even -- considering its size -- possibly hatchling dinosaurs," Krause said in a telephone interview.
If we are having any trouble agreeing on a team mascot ... Harbormen, Harborwomen, Harborpeople- this new discovery could be just what we have been looking for ... and we could be the first Devil Frogs in existence. Food for thought
Monday, February 18, 2008
Ryan is the man
Merrily We Row Along
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
To Die or not to Die...
To be, or not to be: that is the question:Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;No more; and by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life; so make sure that you give it your all on the erg.Thursday, February 7, 2008
This kid needs a boat.

Monday, February 4, 2008
Patriots Win!

Player/Coach Alex London and the Unstoppable New England Patriots rolled over the New York Giants in an event which was much closer than the score reflects. The Patriots front line of Stanley, Josselyn, Keefe, and McCaig, paved the way for a fast moving backfield which included the unflappable pair of Burbridge and Burbridge led by Coach London.
On the other side of the ball was the power pair McCusker and McCusker who gave it their all as they anchored the team to several close finishes. Player/Coach Sally Dankner exorted fresh recruit Steve Sypek and the rest of the Giants to within 100 meters of a win in the signature 4th quarter relay.
Big match ups between Keefe and Keefe and then between Stanley and Lippis proved to add to the excitement.
Perhaps the biggest upset win, which resulted in the MVP award, came when Alise Burbridge matched up against Katie Hughes in the 500 meter event. After a powerful start, the breeder of the famed Bouvier Bernois, Alise Burbridge was set up for an easy victory, but half way through the competion, began to fade as the ever present Katie Hughes started to pour on the pressure. In the final strokes, it was too close to call. The photos were
developed and Alise Burbridge was announce the victor by less than 1 second.
For this extra effort, Alise was named the MVP and walked away (drove) with a new Cadillac Esplanade. The rest of the team is headed to Disney World.
All in all a great event. Thank you for participating. We'll see many of you at the Pro-Bowl next week.
Friday, February 1, 2008
The SUPER BOWL of Rowing

Saturday, January 26, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Thank our sponsors
All the board members of the Hingham Sports Partnership. They may be found at:
http://www.leaguelineup.com/directors.asp?cmenuid=9&url=hinghamsportspartnership&sid=93069410
Mr. Bob Gaughen and the Hingham Institution for Savings
Mr. Charles Clapp of Hingham
Mr. John McDonald of Hingham
Mr. Alan McKim and Clean Harbors Environmental Services
Mr. Richard Monaghan of Hingham
Mr. and Mrs. Tom Holovacs
and all the parents who have given to our program.
HHS Crew graduates rowing in college!
Jane Whalen is on the Women's Freshman team at Cornell
Liz Fitzgerald is on the Women's Freshman team at the University of Pennsylvania
Meghan McCusker is in the Women's Freshman team at Northeastern
Ted Mellors is on the Men's Freshman team at the University of Vermont
Brendan McGrath is rowing at St. Lawrence University
Meredyth Hurley is rowing at George Washington University
Annie MacIver is rowing at the College of Charleston
Good luck to all our graduates! Keep at it!!!

Thursday, January 17, 2008
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
St. Ignatius 2006
A good High School team to watch - the culmination of a great season.
Thank the rowers for American Independence!

What they don't tell you is that if no one knew how to row, Washington would never have gotten 4000 troops across the Delaware. John Glover a Gloucester rower and fisherman was largely responsible for organizing the effort. You never know when you will be able to use the vital skills you will learn with Hingham Crew.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Athletic Performance Testing









