By Martin Cleary
When we think of a sports club, several images instantly come to mind.
There are scores of athletes of all ages. They are guided by qualified coaches. There are some paid employees, but dozens of volunteers make the sport machine work efficiently.
Throughout the year, clubs play host to or attend competitions. There are winners, medallists and participants. There are year-end celebrations to reward and review.
Those are the first impressions. If you dig a little deeper into the operation of some sports clubs, you’ll find something rather unique – a connection to its community that adds a whole new dimension to the value of sports.
The Ottawa Rowing Club, which is Canada’s oldest continuous rowing club, is a prime example of not only developing athlete potential, but also introducing the sport to all-comers.
“As head coach, seeing 335 new faces on the water through our Everybody Rows Ottawa program has been a highlight of the 2025 season,” Zach Lewis wrote in this year’s Ottawa Rowing Club Participation and Impact Report.
“My goal is to develop athletes, but more importantly to ensure that rowing is a sport for everyone, regardless of their background or barriers.”
The club labelled the Everybody Rows Ottawa community outreach program ‘the heart’ of the report as it showcases the impact of the club separate from racing and training at its Lady Grey Drive venue in the city’s downtown area.
In its fifth consecutive year, Everybody Rows Ottawa had 335 participants from across the city experience the free program on the Ottawa River. The program is designed for “underserved and at-risk local youth,” according to the report.
More than 1,000 youth have benefited from the club’s expertise and equipment, since the program started in 2021.
In 2025, the club partnered with 11 different community organizations, including Canadian newcomers, youth-at-risk and racialized groups.
The Youth Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization and the Lowertown Community Centre were the largest organizations in terms of numbers with 89 and 81 participants each.
The other groups experiencing the Everybody Rows Ottawa program were CCI Ottawa, Heritage Academy, Nepean Rideau Osgoode Community Resource Centre, Athletes Combatting Racism Organization Ottawa Branch, Ottawa Carleton Lifeskills Inc., A New Day, Welcoming Ottawa Week with Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership, and Fostering Forever Friendships.
The report also produced some interesting numbers about its membership. The club had 589 registered and active rowers in 2025, which represented “a strong and growing base,” as well as 54 fully certified coaches for all levels.
The membership numbers didn’t include participants in its Everybody Rows Ottawa, Come Try Days and Let’s Row Ottawa programs.
As expected, more than half of the club’s members, 315 or 53.5 per cent, range in age between 11 and 25, making it “a vibrant youth and young-adult community.”
The number of female rowers is strong at more than 63 per cent of the total membership.
The club’s membership is spread over seven decades of age groups, which shows it’s a sport for life.
Featuring 10 different rowing programs, the club had a total of 710 participants, with the university rowers leading the way at 138 followed by the Adult Rowing League at 94, the U23 and senior competitive at 84 and club/recreational at 81.
The Adult Rowing League was dominated by women, owning 91 per cent of the membership, while the university rowing program is comprised of 63 per cent women.
The Ottawa Rowing Club also had an outstanding year at provincial, national and international regattas.
Its junior, U23 and senior rowers won six gold, six silver and nine bronze medals at the RowOntario Championships. At the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, Ottawa had crews compete in five finals.
The club also won the club efficiency award for top performance by the entire club at the Eastern Rowing Association Regatta and the Head of the Trent regatta in Peterborough.
The club’s 46-member masters program had five winning crews at the Masters Henley Regatta and 15 top-three results. Ninety-four per cent of the masters rowers won medals at either the Henley Masters or the Canadian Masters.
Internationally, Riley Richardson earned a silver medal in the mixed 8+ and bronzes in the women’s 2- and 4- at the Junior Pan Am Games. Jack Coulson, Henrik Neuspiel and Maxim Froeschl won gold in the men’s 4x at the International Challenge Cup and Samaya Kholsa competed with distinction.
Anna Van der Kamp was a five-time gold medallist at the World Masters Regatta.
Lewis finished the Canada Coach Program and attended the senior men’s national team camp last June as a support coach.
The Carleton University and University of Ottawa teams, which are based at the Ottawa Rowing Club, also had some record-breaking results for their programs last year.
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Martin Cleary has written about amateur sports for over 52 years. A past Canadian sportswriter of the year and Ottawa Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement in Sport Media honouree, Martin retired from full-time work at the Ottawa Citizen in 2012, but continued to write a bi-weekly “High Achievers” column for the Citizen/Sun.
When the pandemic struck, Martin created the High Achievers “Stay-Safe Edition” to provide some positive news during tough times, via his Twitter account at first and now here at OttawaSportsPages.ca.
Martin can be reached by e-mail at martincleary51@gmail.com and on Twitter @martincleary.