Every Saturday morning, from 8:00 to 12:00, a group of determined USC students can be found on the rivers of downtown Pittsburgh. These students are members of the USC Crew team and, in turn, athletes in one of the most difficult sports at the high school level.
Crew practice takes place from 4:00 to 8:00 in the evenings of Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday and in the mornings on Saturdays. The team is shuttled down to the boat house, which is on an island in the Allegheny river about a mile north of the Convention Center.
When the athletes arrive, they put the boats into the sheltered, narrow part of the river between shore and the island. The rowers then proceed onto the rivers in eight oared boats with eight rowers and a coxswain, who steers the boat, and in four oared boats that have four rowers and a coxswain. The team then rows as far down the river as Heinz Field and
as far up the river as the dam.
On Wednesdays, the team practices at the high school from 5:00 to 7:00, working on their times on ergs, which are rowing simulation machines. With such extensive hours of practice, the athletes of the Crew team must be able to balance academics into their busy schedules along with practice.
The rowing year is separated into three seasons: fall, winter, and spring. During the fall season, which lasts from late August to mid-October, the team must train for long distance races of 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) and focus on endurance training. The team participates in several regattas on weekends in the second half of the season. The second phase
of the year, the winter season, consists of weight training and intense training on ergs.
The team has its busiest season during the spring. The races are relativelyshort 2 kilometer sprints, and the team participates in several races at the end of the season, the last of which is Nationals. The team has qualified for Nationals for the past five years, where they competed against teams from all over the U.S.