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ROWING
Rowing Club Finds Temporary Home At
The Beach
Huntington-based group gets
contract for use of Fleets Cove Beach in Centerport
By Jacqueline Birzon/ jbirzon@longislandernews.com
For the next two years, Long Island Rowing Club
will hold water at Fleets Cove Beach in Centerport.
Lacking a permanent home, the club was authorized last week by the Huntington
Town Council to use a portion of the beach for their recreational and
competitive rowing program. The club will pay the town $500 per month
while the program is active.
The club operated for several years out of Coindre Hall, where they expected
to find a permanent home. When that didnt work out, they started
looking elsewhere, said club president Brian Giehl.
Lacking a boat house, the group uses a fenced-in portion of the beach
parking lot to store boats, oars, and other equipment needed to row.
[The] Town council has been very supportive of our program and athletics,
and [they see] the benefits athletics provide to young athletes, so were
very appreciative of that, he said of the renewed contract.
The June 4 public hearing on the agreement attracted nearly a dozen supporters
who expressed praise of the program and its benefits for student athletes.
Sharon Littman, a parent of a student rower, said the program provides
local youth with a healthy, fulfilling alternative to experimenting with
drugs and alcohol.
Im very passionate about an activity which not only gives
them exercise and a chance to compete but also offers them the opportunity
to work hard as a team in a challenging sport on our waterfront
Most importantly it offers them an after-school activity that keeps them
out of trouble, Littman said.
The rowing club offers beginner, advanced and private youth and adult
programs on a seasonal basis. Anika Selle-Giehl, the head coach, is a
former world champion from Germany who has raced in five consecutive world
championships.
The club takes members to regattas across the country, and recently brought
five boats to the Youth National Championship regatta in Tennessee, where
they competed against the top 20 programs in the country.
Our athletes are different for the most part, from your typical
big name sport ... Its on the water, its got an individual
component to it, but when youre rowing on a boat with four other
people you have to row as a team. Youre using every major muscle
group all the time; it really combines different elements from a lot of
different sports, Giehl said.
Over the next two years, Giehl said the club will continue to look for
a permanent home in Huntington.
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| Members of the Long Island Rowing Club
participate in the 2012 Baltimore Invitational regatta in Maryland.
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