When Bob Cummings started the first Redwood crew team in 1968, only Redwood boys could join. There were only a few eight-man shells full of boys who participated in the program, which was located next to the old train trestle on Corte Madera Creek.
Then, in 1977, shortly after Title IX passed, Jana Barto set up a women’s program for Redwood girls. The team was renamed the Marin Rowing Association in 1984, and any high school athlete was permitted to row.
“It truly is something special,” said Jim Andersen, who has been the Varsity Boys coach at Marin since 1991. “It’s an honor to be involved in something so incredible. It makes me nervous trying to uphold the high level of expectations we’ve developed in the past.”
In fact, the MRA has had at least one rower in each of the past five Olympic games.
Marin’s latest national championship was the 2007 Varsity Boys Double. Dan Felling, senior, was a member of that boat.
In 2004, the MRA took home the Men’s Lightweight Eight Championship, which five Redwood students helped win.
“Redwood, and now Marin, used to dominate,” said Andersen. “There were times when none of our crews lost a race for a few years in a row. Over the years other teams have found ways to push us, and yet we are consistently still top three in the region and top six in the country.”
The rowers put in thousands of hours of training to make the boat move a few seconds faster. For 40 years the MRA has been known to have among the most intense workouts compared to other Redwood sports. The 3.5-mile loop run is normal in practice, and a few runs of the Dipsea Steps are common. The crew triathlon, which is a six thousand meter erg test, a run to the Larkspur steps, and 15 runs up and down of the steps, is the peak workout.
“You feel sore for days after, but you feel more in shape, too,” Felling said. “I wouldn’t trade in what I’ve done at Marin Rowing for anything.”
