Volunteer at Southern Sprints

This year, 2017, was the 34th Annual Southern Sprints Indoor Rowing Championship. Started in 1983, the event is currently held at the Clemente Center on the Florida Institute of Technology campus. I have been a volunteer in probably more than 20 of the 34 events. My current job has been the posting of results and the presentation of individual medals to the top three places in most events. I volunteer all three shifts and usually have one other volunteer to help me for each of the four-hour shifts.

I got into the volunteering at rowing because of my friend and past classmate at FIT, Eileen Corelli. Back when we were working on our advanced Math degrees, she was just Eileen Kennelly. A few years after graduation, I ran into her at a wedding of mutual friends. I asked how she was doing and she said she was working in the New Orleans area. My company was looking for a mathematician to work on my projects since I was getting promoted.  I asked Eileen if she wanted to come work with me in Melbourne and she agreed. She worked many years for me at ENSCO. During this time, she met her husband John. I went to their wedding back in a past year.

Eileen & John Corelli discuss results at the 2016 Southern Sprints Indoor Rowing Championships

It was Eileen who originally asked me to volunteer at the Governor's Cup, a collegiate regatta held on the Indian River off the Melbourne Causeway, hosted by Florida Institute of Technology (FIT). FIT  pretty much dominated the race for many years under coach Bill Jurgens (now the Director of Athletics at FIT) and coach Casey Baker. They finally stopped racing in the river and moved to Canal 54 down in Fellsmere where the regatta still takes place. Eventually, I was asked to volunteer at the indoor event, which has been a money maker for the rowing teams.

We kind of take over the Clemente Center for the day, this year on Saturday, January 28. Information is gathered on a computer network that is sent up between the registration, the 64 ergs located in the basketball court, and our central results and medal distribution area.

Jeff, Ashley & Eileen (in baby blue shirt) in the Main Lobby working the computers

 I have my section for keeping the results including raw scores and giving out the medals and the six plaques for the relay races. I have my hole-punch, stapler, notebooks, pens and tape to hang the results for the competitors to see.

My work area in the Main lobby at the Clemente Center

 We do give out three cups. One for the Best High School Team called the Driskell Cup, one for the best Club Team called the Corelli Cup (named after John & Eileen), and the third, which is in the first picture, the glass Edsell Cup, given to the best Adaptive team. For every Cup, team points are acquired for each competitor placing in the top 12 of each event. Team with most points wins the cup.

Two of the three cups presented at the Southern Sprints

 Friday evening is when the Gymnasium is set up for the races. After the basketball teams have finished practicing, the floor is covered with a tarp and 64 ergs are set up for racing. All the ergs are connected electronically through a network for race results. We do keep what I called the raw scores, which is a manual writing down of each time on each erg after a race is completed. These are only used if there is a problem with the electronic scores.

Casey Baker and John Corelli prepare for the first race at FIT

There is an area for the racers to warm up on extra ergs. The ergs are manufactured by Concept 2, a company that is based in Morrisville Vermont.

Warm Up Ergs for the Southern Sprints

There are typically two weight classes for rowing: heavyweight and lightweight. There is a weigh-in for the lightweights to qualify for the race. If you make weight, a wrist band is placed on you and must be there at race time or your time will be moved to the heavyweight race. We actually have a Friday night weigh-in so people will have time to get fluids in them before race time.

Weigh-in area at the Southern Sprints

There usually is a great crowd for the races since we can have over 1500 racers. The first races of the day were for the Masters which have age groups of 30-39 and 40-49. And the Veterans are people 50 and over. The Veterans raced is handicapped by age. Each year you are over 50 gets you get more time deducted from your raw race score.

Eileen having last minute chat with the flight crews

 The ergs are set up into four flights of 16 ergs each.  There are large screens which display the race as it progresses, giving each flights status.

Competitors prepare for the start of the first race

 One of the volunteers I worked with at the first race on the Indian River was Ann Bernick. Ann does the race day registration and finding the volunteers (plus many other things).

Ann Bernick walks the floor before the initial race

And then the day begins with the first race...

Looking down one of the four flights as the race begins

Individual racers can have a coach or coxswain for pacing

One of the big screens as a race is in progress

Casey Baker talks with FIT Women's Rowing Coach Adam Thorstad while John watches race on the computer

 Once the first race has started, I keep fairly busy for the rest of the day. There are lulls during some of the big High School events which can have over 100 competitors and takes three Heats to complete. We only have 64 ergs so these events have to have multiple races.

This year Ann had some problems finding volunteers so we had to go to FIT and ask for help. To help me, my first volunteer was from the FIT volleyball team. Her name was Sam and she was from Clearwater. I think she said she was studying business. She was taller than me (six foot two) and a real good worker.

Volunteer Sam; FIT Roster Photo

My second volunteer was on the FIT Rowing team where she was a coxswain. Her name was Hana and she was from Honolulu. She was shorter than me (four foot eleven) and also a real good worker.

Volunteer Hana; FIT Roster Photo

My friend Ken Horton took a photo of me with Hana. Too bad my mouth was full of a sandwich from Jersey Mike's. Yeah, if you work the lunch shift, lunch is provided.

Volunteers Hana and BJ

 One of the reasons for our indoor regatta is it is a qualifying location for the CRASH-B World Indoor Rowing Championships held in February in Boston. If a winner beats a time for his age and weight, Concept 2 will provide the flight and accommodations to the World Championships. This year we had two qualifiers.
The first was Jim Taylor who is 65 and his race time matched the qualifying time down to the tenth of a second.

Jim Taylor, CRASH-B qualifier, after I had given him his Gold Medal, with silver medalist Don Davis

 The other qualifier was from the adaptive racers and his name was Mike Varro. Tim Edsell, one of our volunteers, has started to get more and more adaptive racers to come and participate in our regatta. Adaptive racers include people that have physical disabilities. Tim also keeps a record spreadsheet for our Southern Sprints. As I was going through the tables he emailed, I saw the names of two young girls that still hold the records for distance in four minutes, the event we have for youth 12 and under. They were twins named Isabel and Maria Wothe. I had taken a picture of them in 2008...

Maria and Isabel Wothe and their mom in 2008

 I remember when their mother came to collect the gold medal for Maria, her sister Isabel was crying. I asked what was wrong and Maria says she is crying because she beat her. I was able to cheer her up enough to get this great picture of them, both of them smiling. Maria performance that day is still the record for Girl Age 9. But Isabel has the record the next two years for Girls Age 10 and Girls Age 11. Maria has the record from 2011 for Girls Age 12. I had to see if they were still rowing.

Both of them have been on Junior US national teams and Maria is a freshman at UCLA and on the rowing team. Isabel is on the Cornell rowing team as a freshman. I may see them in the Olympics in the future.
They are just one of the reasons I volunteer.