Burnt Hills and Shen rowing programs join forces on the water

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ALPLAUS — The Burnt Hills Rowing Association and Friends of Shenendehowa Crew, Inc. have shared a boathouse in Alplaus above the Mohawk River for more than two decades.

Now the two rowing programs have joined forces on the water, rowing together as Burnt Hills/Shen for three-quarters of the calendar year — until they face each other as rivals in the spring.

“The three seasons that scholastic rowing isn’t recognized are summer, fall and the winter [training] seasons, the scholastic designation is only a thing in the springtime,” Burnt Hills Rowing boys’ varsity coach Andy Sayles said. “Just like other sports — if you’re playing basketball in the winter you’re on the Burnt Hills varsity baseball team. Then you might play with a bunch of guys from the area the rest of the year on an AAU team.”

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The spring rowing season is designated as a competitive season for rowers, racing side-by-side in designated rowing lanes at regional, state and national championships representing their individual high schools.

The combining of high school [scholastic] programs outside of the spring racing season is not a new idea by Sayles.

“Hudson River Rowing, the Syracuse Chargers do it this way,” Sayles said. “I was able to call some of my friends that coach and asked how they set it up.”

Sayles was clear — this is not a merger of the two programs.

“Collaboration is the term and that’s important because it’s not a merger,” Sayles said. “A merger implies the dissolution of two things into being one.”

The idea was discussed and gained traction when the two rowing programs shared a charter bus, housing and a boat trailer during a spring trip this year to Summerton, South Carolina and a week-long training outing at Camp Bob Cooper on Lake Marion.

“It’s tough to find good rowing coaches in the area, especially experienced ones and everybody’s kind of scratching and clawing for a few people,” Sayles said. “Also, some things have a fixed cost. Instead of two fixed costs for two teams of 30, you could have one team of 60 and those fixed costs are cut in half.”

The current collaboration includes coaches from Friends of Shenendehowa and Burnt HIlls Rowing Association with Sayles overseeing the cooperative effort.

The combined group rowed in the summer at the Canadian Henly as Burnt Hills/Shen, rowed this fall in several regattas including this weekend’s 26.2-mile marathon row fundraising row from Schoharie Creek back to the Burnt Hills Rowing Association boathouse in Alplaus.

This winter the entire group will train indoors at the boathouse.

“Instead of Shenendehowa looking for a gym to do their winter training in their community we’ve got this unbelievable facility that was only used by Burnt Hills Rowing Association,” Sayles said. “Now we’ll do our winter training together too.”

Despite wearing different color uniforms in the spring and competing for state championships and possible berths in additional national championships the collective effort was well received.

“The kids have gotten to know each other through going down to Camp Bob, but they’ve gotten to know each other from sharing docks, being on the Mohawk at the same time,” Sayles said. “It was like that when I rowed, we were great friends. It was cool to see that come back around.”

Sayles, a 2008 Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake graduate, knows the importance of representing your high school.

“It’s been clear since day one of that that when it comes to the springtime and the high school season we’re going to be Burnt Hills Spartans and they’re going to be Shen Plainsmen,” Sayles said. “I take a lot of pride in coaching my old high school team.”

The marathon row launches on Schoharie Creek at 8:30 a.m. and quickly moves onto the Mohawk River where the rowers will pass through five different locks before arriving at the Burnt Hills Rowing Association Boathouse in the afternoon. The schedule is available on-line at bit.ly/3VdCX5M