Team Update
With the first day of classes for the fall semester starting on August 23, Coach Craig and the Team Executive Board (Officers) are finalizing their on-campus recruiting plan and starting to put it into action. The first gathering of the returning squad of athletes will happen on August 18th, where Coach Craig and the officers will be laying out their goals and expectations for the coming season, as well as assigning responsibilities for the upcoming recruiting events that start on the very same day.
Recruiting events will kick off with team representatives volunteering at Move-In-Day, where school ambassadors volunteer to talk with students, greet parents and family members, answer questions, provide directions, help new students ease the transition into the SDSU community, and hopefully pick up some interest for the team along the way. After that, they will have Athletes recruiting at the Res Life (resident hall) welcome events on the 18th and 19th, the ARC-til-Dark event on the 22nd, the Associated Students Expo on the 25th, and a massive push at the Sports Clubs Expo event that is tentatively scheduled to take over the North Library Walkway from Tuesday 8/31 through Thursday 9/2. If you’re a local alumni and have interest in helping out, please contact Coach Craig at cdoan@sdsu.edu
In addition to the recruiting efforts planned for the first few weeks of classes, Coach Craig has been using his contacts as a WIRA Steward and now Crew Classic Board member to bring in 4 recruits who have junior rowing experience from places like Sacramento and Texas to bolster the existing squad of returners. Coach Craig also reported that he’s been in contact with several “walk-on” athletes that have already expressed interest in joining the program through their social media and website outreach.
Strong fall recruiting has always been a critical key to the success of the program. After essentially being put on pause for the last year and a half due to COVID, Coach Craig and the returners will be doing a “Full Court Press” on their recruiting efforts to launch the program into a successful year.
Assistant Coach Position
Since Coach Craig took over as head coach in the Fall of 2019, he has been the only paid coach supporting the program with some assistance from volunteer alumni coaches. The plan was to hire an assistant coach for the 2020 season, but COVID put a bit of a damper on that… With all of the effort around recruiting, and the plan to bring a few more boats of athletes to the program, Coach Craig and the Officers have decided to post and recruit for a new Assistant Coaching position to help with both the on-water practices as well as on-campus training activities. If you know of anyone interested in the position, please encourage them to apply through the Associated Students job posting.
2021 Alumni Survey
The 2021 Alumni Survey is still active and we’d love to hear from as many Alumni as we can. If you haven’t yet filled out the survey, please head on over and take the survey. After that, please do us a favor and reach out via email or post on Social/Twitter/Facebook/Instagram to any alumni that you’re in contact with and encourage them to fill it out as well. The responses so far have been great and have even included some constructive criticism. We want to hear it all! Please share the survey to help us get the word out.
Schedule of Events
While the schedule for the upcoming year still has a whole bunch of “tentative/tbd” in front of it, we’re making plans as if all things COVID will allow them to happen. Stay tuned as these events get closer for more details, but for now, here’s what to expect:
Alumni Events
| Date | Event |
| November 13, 2021 | Fall Alumni Row |
| November 14, 2021 | Boat Christening |
| February 12, 2022 | (TBD) Golf Tournament |
| March 25, 2022 | (TBD) Crew Classic Banquet |
| March 27, 2022 | H. Del Beekley Annual Meeting |
Team Racing Schedule
| Date | Event | Location |
| October 9, 2021 | Row for the Cure | Mission Bay, San Diego CA |
| November 14, 2021 | San Diego Fall Classic | Mission Bay, San Diego CA |
| November 21, 2021 | Head of the Harbor | TBD |
| February 19, 2022 | Gruenberg Cup | TBD |
| March 5, 2022 | Cal Challenge Cup | Newport Harbor, Newport CA |
| March 12, 2022 | Newport Regatta | Newport Harbor, Newport CA |
| March 26-27, 2022 | San Diego Crew Classic | Mission Bay, San Diego CA |
| March 30-April 1, 2022 | WIRA Regional Championships | Sacramento, CA |
Rediscover this 1986 LA Times article about the champion lightweight 8+, Del Hayes, Tom Hartley, Scott Petry, Brian Hughes, John Lingham, Bruce Branstine, and the rest of the returning crew of 1986 under coach Chuck Datte.
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