ROWING

Rowing Club Finds Temporary Home At The Beach
Huntington-based group gets contract for use of Fleet’s Cove Beach in Centerport
By Jacqueline Birzon/ jbirzon@longislandernews.com

For the next two years, Long Island Rowing Club will hold water at Fleet’s 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 didn’t 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 we’re 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.
“I’m 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 ... It’s on the water, it’s got an individual component to it, but when you’re rowing on a boat with four other people you have to row as a team. You’re 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.