18 I NOVEMBER 2020
SportsPHOTO / MAX ARONSONSpace Coast Crew is in a reloading phase after losing 21 of 78 high-school rowers to graduation last spring.Crew team looks to youth movementMAX ARONSON /SPECIAL TO THE ROARAs junior Anastacia Devlin and herteammates reflected on the end of lastseason, they realized that Space CoastCrew had just gone through a dramaticchange. More than a quarter of thehigh-school crew team graduated, alongwith their capable leadership and strongcontribution to team performance.“[The team] honestly feels a lot smaller,especially because it’s my fourth year onthe team,” Devlin said. “And a couple ofthe guys that graduated last year were onthe team the same year that I joined. It justfeels really small when I think about all ofthe people that left.”Twenty-one out of 78 high-schoolrowers graduated and the club is nowlearning to adjust to a different teamdemographic.“We lost a [quarter] of our team, butthen ironically we got a [quarter] of a teamthat joined in from the eighth-graderscoming up as freshmen,” said Bryan Little,director of rowing and head coach atSCC. “Really, we’ve flexed from being areally mature team to a more novice team,a younger team. It’s got its pros and itscons, but I wouldn’t say we’re rebuilding. Iwould just say we’re reloaded.”Little said he believes SCC is lucky.“I mean if we were rebuilding instead ofreloading it would be much different,” hesaid. “If we had lost 20 seniors but gained20 novices, or brand new kids, I thinkit would be a whole different story, andright now we have a lot of experiencedfreshmen, and that’s really helping us.”Devlin said she also believes having new,experienced freshmen on the team is anadvantage.“I love having more girls on the team,because I just want the team to get big andget fast,” Devlin said. “There are already acouple of freshmen who are getting reallystrong and getting really good.”Little said that while SCC lost manyof its leaders last year, he is confidentthe team will continue to find internalguidance from rowers.“We have Thomas Eastwood right nowwho’s stepped up to the plate on the men’sside, who’s a team captain this year,” Littlesaid. “And then you also have AnastaciaDevlin, who’s stepped up as a team captainwith Riley Gilman on the women’s side.”Junior Joseph Derenthal also said he hasseen teammates step in and lead.“A lot of people had to step up tobecome team captain and basically justleaders of the team,” Derenthal said.“There’s definitely a big hole in the teambecause there were like 20 seniors last year[who left].”Devlin said she became a co-captainwith Riley Gilman because of howimportant captains are for the youngerrowers.“I kind of just realized there needs to beat least a couple girls on the team who takeinitiative, otherwise some stuff just won'tget done,” Devlin said. “I think that havingcaptains is really important for the teambecause, especially for the newer kids. Itcan be a little intimidating for them to talkto the coaches. It’s good because we wantto make them feel comfortable, and if theyhave any questions that they are nervousto ask a coach [about], they can come tous.”Little said he has high hopes for thisseason.“Every year since I’ve started with thisteam we’ve progressively [kept] gettingbetter,” he said. “The senior class rightnow is really stepping up too and doingtheir thing, and if [the team] can continueto develop in the right manner and havethe right culture, we’re going to come outof the woodwork here and just scare thestate of Florida.”WESTSHOREROAR.COM / ROAR I 19