It's Racing Season! We are headed to the Minneapolis Sprints June 18.  If you are interested in racing, please contact Coach Heather immediately.  (hswan@mendotarowingclub.com)

We have also secured a trailer driver for the Chicago Sprints July 8th-10th!  If you haven’t already notified Coach Heather (via survey) of your interest in racing please do so by June 10th. 

SafeSport Training Requirement. A reminder for all rowers wishing to race this year -  USRowing requires all individuals 18 years and older to complete Safe Sport training.  You can access the training by logging in to your personal profile on https://membership.usrowing.org. Log in with your member number and password, click the SafeSport button in the menu bar on the left-hand side, and from the Catalog tab select the course for “Adult Athlete.” The thumbnail is green with a woman boxing. The course should take no more than half an hour to complete. You will not be able to race unless you take the course.

Additional Practice Opportunities.   The summer is almost here and we are gearing up our practice schedule.  Adult practices are available Tuesday (Competitive), Wednesday (Competitive/Rec) beginning June 8th Thursday (Competitive), and Saturday (Competitive/Rec) mornings.  Adult Novice/Rec practices will be available Wednesday and Friday evenings beginning June 8th. (no novice on Saturday mornings).   Please sign up for practices here.

National Learn To Row day is June 4^th.   The boathouse will be open from 12 – 4.  We will be providing tours and the opportunity to row in an 8.   Please consider volunteering at the boathouse and spread the word!

Volunteer opportunities.   We have many volunteer opportunities available – National Learn to Row day, Learn to Row classes, and concession sales at Forward Madison games.  A volunteer calendar is available on our website with links to sign up to participate.  This is a great way to help our club and fulfill volunteer hour requirements.

Did you know you could support Mendota Rowing Club just by shopping on Amazon?  Just shop on Amazon Smile and designate Mendota Rowing Club as your charity.  Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases.   Smile.amazon.com

Do you want to row a marathon? Check out Coach Carlee's Rowing Marathon Training Program. 

In addition to our JL Racing MRC Team Store you can order other MRC items from SimplySwimming.Below is the link to order:

https://www.simplyswimming.net/mendotarowingclub

Order Deadlines: 
Apparel Deadline: Sunday, May 1^st @ 11:59pm!

Projected Delivery Date: 
Tuesday, May 17^th 
(Julie Lanear will be picking up orders & handing out)

When checking out, please make sure you enter both your billing and shipping address.  Our system requires both to process your order.  After checkout you should receive an e-mail confirming your purchase (it may end up in your junk e-mail).  If you do not receive an e-mail confirmation please contact us to make sure your order processed in case your credit card declines or your billing address doesn’t match correctly the order will not process and you may not receive an error message via our website.

This is a team distribution; if you would like your order shipped directly to your home please select shipping at checkout!

If you have any questions or problems with the website, please contact us either by e-mail (info@simplyswimming.net ) or phone (608-836-6649).  We are happy to help however we can. 

Rowing with well-maintained equipment is a joy.  Replacing worn oarlocks, getting new sets of oars and even buying a new boat periodically keeps our fleet smooth, safe and fast.  But did you know that our dues only pay for a fraction of equipment costs?  The remainder of the funds come from generous donations from folks like you, who know how important it is to keep our equipment in good shape.

With this in mind, this spring we are providing you the opportunity to “buy” some new equipment for the boathouse.   We have generated a list of parts, tools, supplies and equipment that are needed.  Please look over the list and consider pledging the cost of one (or more!) of the items listed. You may even wish to contribute toward a new midweight double, to be purchased later this year. Your generosity will be very much appreciated!!!

This fundraiser will only be active for TWO WEEKS, so do not delay in getting in your pledge!

Here's how it will work:

• Between now and April 20^th, open the “Equipment Fundraiser” Google Spreadsheet
• Put your name on the line next to the item you would like to fund.  If you wish to remain anonymous, enter "anonymous" on the line, and email fbreit@mendotarowingclub.com with your pledge amount.
• If you would like to contribute to the purchase of a new 2x/2- put your pledge amount and name on the New Boat spreadsheet.  If you would like to match all boat pledges made during this fund drive, list the matching amount.

·      You will be invoiced for your pledged amount. 

Thank you in advance for your tax-deductible contribution to keep our club equipment in great shape!

Thank you for taking the time to fill out the recent survey, your responses are important and so helpful in shaping Mendota's Masters 2022 rowing program.

Once mother nature decides to release the icy grip on our lake and water and air temps rise there will be (3) coached springtime practices per week,time TBD. 

Currently land practice is offered Monday (captain led) 5:45am-6:45am, Wednesday 5:45am-6:45am (coached) and Saturday's 8-10:00am combined practice with the Juniors (coached). Consider getting your booty back into the swing!

Beginning in June and through the summer (4) coached practices will be offered per week, time and day TBD. Private or semi private coached sessions for water or land training outside of club practices can also be scheduled, please reach out to Heather with questions. 

Coached practices will be categorized by competitive, recreational and novice. Competitive practices will be rigorous focusing on building speed and using technique to increase rowing efficiency (recreational rowers may attend these practices). 

Recreational practices will help increase rower technique and athleticism (novices with a minimum of 3 months rowing experience may attend these practices). 

Novice practices will be for those just starting out. A minimum of 2 rowers will need to be signed up for any practice to be held. 

Erging workshops are being planned and during the summer we will offer a club wide mid week later morning coached practice so stay tuned! 

Summer regattas with the most interest:

• Minneapolis Sprints - June 18th (Youth-Masters)
  
• Chicago Sprints - July 8th-10th (Juniors-Masters) *The Lanear family is not available to drive the trailer for this race.
  
• Michigan Club Invite, Ann Arbor MI - July 16th (Youth-Masters)
  
• Midwest Summer Sprint Championship, Nashport OH - July 30th
  
• Master's Nationals, Sarasota, FL - Aug 18th - 21st (Masters) *We will train for this race however participation will be on your own. 
  

Until a Masters head coach is hired Heather will act as Masters head coach with the support of the other Mendota coaches. 

Lastly, now that COVID has released its grip we will begin to plan some club wide socials like 'CREW and BREW' and National Learn to Row Day on June 4th. If you want to be on the planning committee or participate in other volunteer opportunities please reach out, your help and support is vital!! 

The Mendota Rowing Club online team store opened today. Everyone MUST get their order in by April 21. For individual orders after April 21, pricing and shipping will be different than a team purchase. 

Orders are set to ship individually so please be sure to enter a valid shipping address with your order (orders cannot be delivered to a PO Box).

If you plan to race you will need to purchase a unisuit or tank top.

Click here to order.

Orders take 4 to 8 weeks for delivery. .

If you have any questions please contact me at: fbreit@mendotarowingclub.com

Answers to common questions can be found at https://jlrowing.com/pages/faqs.  Sizing information can be found here.  

We're excited to announce that we've partnered with Campfire Coffee for a fundraiser to support our Cynthia R. Cauthern STEM-to-Stern program!  Please see the website https://www.welovecampfire.com/mendotarowing to support. Half of the money raised from purchasing this coffee goes directly to our efforts to make our club more accessible, diverse and competitive.  The fundraiser wraps up Friday April 15 so don't delay.

You can also donate directly to the Cynthia R. Cauthern STEM-to-Stern program here.

Please support and please share with your friends/network!"

Thanks to the efforts of our coaches and board of directors, we can now offer single sculling practice! Our goal is to get as many members as possible certified as independent scullers. Once you're certified, you can take a single out on the water any time. You can row on your schedule, with all the physical distancing you could ask for (unless a duck comes to visit).

It's a bad time for putting nine people together in a boat, and we are so grateful to the coaches and the board for working this out. MRC is lucky to have such a determined and adaptable group of leaders. Go Mendota!

In rowing, people often say that you earn your medals in the winter and pick them up the following summer. Winter training is essential to building fitness so you can hit the water at full speed when the dock goes in.

Whether you are a seasoned rower or new to the sport, indoor training on the erg (rowing machine) is one of the best ways to get fit. 

Winter training is part of an annual membership, but is also offered as a separate $190 membership for the December to February season. We meet Mondays and Wednesdays from 6-7am and Saturdays from 7-8am. Practice starts December 2.

Join now and get fit.