HIGH ACHIEVERS: Ottawa Rowing Club showered with national honours, including club of the year

By Martin Cleary

The oldest rowing club in Canada is two years shy of reaching its 160th birthday, but it’s still pulling its weight because athletes, coaches, board members and volunteers are pulling together.

The 2024 rowing season was an exceptional year of achievement for the Ottawa Rowing Club and Rowing Canada, the national sport governing body, made a strong point of that during its 44th RCA Excellence Awards last month.

The club, which is located in the heart of downtown Ottawa on Lady Grey Drive off Sussex Drive, was honoured in four different categories from club to official to bursary to athletes. The national federation also paid tribute to the club’s head coach in a separate announcement.

Rowing Canada presented the Ottawa Rowing Club one of its premier honours: the Club – Outstanding Achievement of the Year Award.

Former athlete Melanie Bryce was named the Umpire of the Year for her dedication and passion as a national and international official, while inspiring others to embrace that necessary race responsibility.

Heavyweight rower Aidan Hembruff, who also competes for the Western University Mustangs, was selected the national U23 Athlete of the Year for his strong domestic and world championship results.

Former Ottawa Rowing Club athlete Anna Currie was presented with a $2,000 bursary from the Tony Zasada Memorial Fund for best emulating his character and determination. Currie moved to Calgary about a year ago to train with Ciara Stevenson in women’s lightweight pairs.

At age 15 and looking for some summer activity, Zasada went to the rowing club in Regina instead of the neighbouring canoe club. He followed the rowing pathway to the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics and helped Canada place fifth in the men’s eight. He was killed by a drunk driver in a car accident five days after returning home from the Olympics.

Rowing Canada also paid tribute to Ottawa Rowing Club youth athletes Jack Coulson, Mia Bulmer and Samaya Khosla, who were medallists at the CanAmMex International Regatta, and Rachel Weber, a women’s eight bronze medallist at the FISU World University Rowing Championships.

In a separate announcement earlier this month, Rowing Canada pinpointed Ottawa Rowing Club head coach Zak Lewis as one of three successful candidates for the Made in Canada Coaching Program along with Alex Marchuk of the Calgary Rowing Club and Michael Petrychanko of the St. Catharines Rowing Club.

Lewis is in his fifth year as head coach at the Ottawa Rowing Club, after experiencing a variety of coaching roles at the Antigonish and Niagara rowing clubs and in Australia. No different than the rowers he coaches, Lewis wants to use this one-year Made in Canada program as a stepping stone to coaching for Canada at a future Summer Olympic Games.

“It’s the only coaching program without an agenda,” said Lewis, who has worked with the Canadian U23 and U19 and Australian U19 national teams in the past. “Rowing Canada says to tell us when you’re lacking something and we’ll make it work.

“My big goal is to be an assistant coach with the senior national team. I want to go to the Olympics, work with rowing at a high level, learn and grow.”

Lewis’ strengths are communication, training and physiology, but he would like to develop his skills in athlete management programs.

Since 2021, Lewis has been a cornerstone of the club, which relies heavily on volunteer coaches, technical officials, general volunteers and a board of directors to operate year round and its six-month, on-water program on the Ottawa River.

Winning the Rowing Canada club of the year award was an awesome moment for Lewis.

“That’s exceptional. Just talking about it, puts a smile on my face,” said Lewis, who quickly added it was an achievement made possible by the contributions of everyone at the club.

“So many people have bought into our community and vision to support rowing. Those are the people who made it happen.”

Lewis cited four reasons for the club being put on the top pedestal for 2024.

He singled out the high-performance athletes, who won multiple medals at national and international competitions and were selected to national teams.

The club has between 50 and 60 volunteer coaches and “every coach is certified at some level,” highlighted Lewis. The club supports its coaches “to provide high-quality coaching and more competent coaching.”

The coaching program also took a big step forward with the hiring of a full-time junior coach and the hiring of a seasonal coach for its masters and club programs.

Lewis also is trying to debunk the myth that rowing is an elitist sport. He added a recent survey of 56 different junior sports programs in Ottawa showed rowing was No. 47 on the list based on participation costs. Athletes don’t need to buy specific equipment as the boats and oars are provided by the club.

During the past several years, the club has introduced more than 700 youth to rowing through its Everybody Rows Ottawa program, which focuses on boys and girls from lower socioeconomic and underserved communities. The seven-week program allows youth to experience rowing in different ways as well as activities around the sport.

When Bryce was selected as the Umpire of the Year Award winner, Rowing Canada described her as “an invaluable leader and inspiration within the rowing community.”

“She’s amazing. She flies under the radar and is as humble as they come,” Lewis added about Bryce, who is an international umpire and will officiate at the first World Cup regatta in 2025.

One of her major contributions has been to establish an Ottawa Rowing Club committee to develop up-and-coming umpires to keep former racers engaged in rowing.

Aidan Hembruff had a remarkable 2024 season, which led to his U23 Athlete of the Year award.

The 2024 rower of the year at the recent Ottawa Sports Awards Dinner, Hembruff was part of the Canadian men’s eight team, which placed fourth at the World U23 Rowing Championships. At the Canadian University Rowing Championships, he earned silver medals in the heavyweight men’s pair with Adam Griesbach and the heavyweight eight.

Rowing Canada also gave International Achievement Awards to national team athletes earning gold, silver or bronze medals, including four Ottawa Rowing Club athletes:

· Rachel Weber, Western University, women’s eight, bronze medal, FISU World University Rowing Championships;

· Mia Bulmer, women’s pair, bronze, and women’s eight, silver, CanAmMex International Regatta;

· Jack Coulson, men’s double, gold, and men’s four, bronze, CanAmMex International Regatta;

· Samaya Khosla, women’s quad, bronze, CanAmMex International Regatta.