by Alicia Desrochers
Staff Reporter

It’s the sport where every second counts, where every stroke could make or break a race, and every member of the team is vital to success. It’s crew, the new, up-and-coming sport for Westford.

The first thing crew members Heather Higgins and Gwen Orford want to make clear is that WACC does not stand for Westford Academy cross-country, and “crew” is not a shortened version of stage crew. Both Higgins and Orford are tired of being mistaken for members of those two Westford Academy groups. Westford Academy Crew Club is a unique sport that is completely new to WA.

Crew is an intense sport, involving a lot of work and effort as well as dedication. Despite the work, members of the team say that it pays off in the end; Higgins said it’s a feeling of pride and great accomplishment to succeed in this sport.

Crew is one very close group, despite how little time that the group has been together. Before practices, the team gathers to wait, and ends up talking, joking, and laughing together; they act like best friends, though many of them are in different grades and did not know each other before Crew.     

Crew members travel together, practice together, work together, lose together, and win together, so it’s no great surprise on how close the members are.

“We’re almost like family,” said Orford.     

It’s a good thing that they have grown so close; this sport demands many things, but teamwork is perhaps the most important. In fact, the first thing that comes to Orford’s mind when asked to describe the team is “teamwork.” The physical strength, skill, and endurance would mean nothing if the team cannot work as one.   

 Despite how close members of the crew are, they are still welcoming to new members. New kids trickle into practices, often brought along by friends to see what it’s all about. Instantaneously, they become part of the team.      

On the subject of new kids, Higgins said that the team is really welcoming, and that nobody has any need to be nervous. One can certainly hope so; the team is widely unknown, and every team member asked said that they would like to see more new members join.     

This upcoming weekend, October 4, the Crew team will be heading to the Textile River Regatta in Lowell, Massachusetts, which is their most local meet of the year.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 7:27 am and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.