By Matt McFarland
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, May 17, 2008; E01

This afternoon, at the oldest and largest high school regatta in the country, a Fairfax County public school boys' rowing team, in its 19th year, will attempt to win the Stotesbury Cup for the fourth time in five years. It will duel with private schools such as St. Joseph's Prep of Philadelphia, a perennial national power that recently built a $3 million boathouse.

Jefferson doesn't have its own million-dollar boathouse. The Fairfax team will row down Philadelphia's Schuylkill River in a boat in which the naming rights of each seat had to be sold to raise $6,100 for the team.

The Jefferson boys' team, one of the most successful high school sports teams in the Washington area, receives no financial funding from Fairfax County. Jefferson's recent success exceeds other area teams, but like all their area public competition, the Colonials must hold fundraisers.

High school rowing is thriving on the Potomac, the Anacostia and Occoquan rivers, despite public school programs in Fairfax and Montgomery counties and the District receiving no financial support from their school districts. Arlington and Prince William counties and Alexandria city provide limited funding.

While private schools such as Gonzaga, National Cathedral and St. Albans have built strong programs with their schools' financial backing, the majority of local teams are public schools that rely on the sale of everything from wreaths, mulch and raffle tickets to afford today's carbon fiber boats, which can cost more than $30,000.

The right equipment is crucial, however, because the size of the fields have grown. In 1965, three local high schools rowed. In 1980, there were five, then 15 in 1990. Today, more than 40 have programs and of the 67 girls' and boys' boats to qualify for Scholastic Rowing Association of America Nationals, 23 are from the Washington area.

"I used to joke that we had our meetings around the principal's conference table at T.C. Williams. Now, we take up half of the cafeteria at T.J.," said Lee West, treasurer for National Capital Area Scholastic Rowing Association.

When Yorktown Coach Andy Bacas rowed at Washington-Lee in the mid-1970s, his boat was made of wood, and he used a wooden oar. Bacas and his teammates had to sand and re-varnish the 20-year-old boat. Traveling to Stotesbury meant a ride on a school bus, then sleeping in a sleeping bag on the floor of a boat club.

"Everything about it was very, very low rent. My parents never came to any events, and the number of spectators was much lower that it is now," Bacas said.

This year, his team rode to Stotesbury on a chartered bus and slept at the Embassy Suites. Parents will watch from the team's hospitality tent on the bank of the Schuylkill River.

West, who got involved in rowing in 1986, epitomizes much of what has made local rowing succeed: Parents who got involved when their kids started rowing, got hooked, and stayed involved after their children graduated high school. Her youngest child graduated in 2003.

As the director of regattas on the Occoquan River, she arrives at 6 or 6:30 a.m. and leaves between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. on race days. She estimates 100 other parents remain involved despite not having a son or daughter still rowing.

"It's a lot of hard work, a lot of long hours, zero pay, but my pay is to see the smiles on the faces when the kids walk down the hill with medals on their neck," West said.

During regattas, West and her staff work out of a building built entirely by the volunteer work of rowing parents. Currently, NCASRA is raising $50,000 for a new finish line tower. To cut costs, she has lined up parents to handle painting, drywalling and flooring.

"I think crew is an enigma within itself," McLean Coach Chris Gordon said. "I don't believe there is any program or sport with the [level of] parent involvement."

When Gordon helped launch McLean's rowing program in 1996, his budget was $3,500. Today, it has grown to 50 times that. The team sells a lot of mulch, and like most local schools, rowers pay several hundred dollars in dues.

Given the sport's expenses, successful fundraising is critical.

Madison raised $12,000 in raffling a flat-screen HDTV. Gar-Field sells $5 tickets to a pancake breakfast at Applebee's. Langley dropped golf balls out of a helicopter at a golf tournament as part of a raffle.

Westfield holds a "Buy a Boat Day," when the team canvases its community, hoping to sell between $5,000 and $8,000 worth of coupons for local restaurants. Whitman holds silent auctions. Wilson is considering selling the naming rights of one of its regattas to Chipotle.

Arlington County contributes to coaches' salaries, insurance and transportation costs, but Yorktown boosters now raise $100,000 a year to cover costs such as their new $33,000 boat.

While typical Washington area teams are not as fast as the Philadelphia schools, local rowing has reached some milestones.

For example, Wilson produced the first African American to row in the Olympics or to be a captain on the Syracuse women's team and Harvard lightweight men's team.

The Tigers' program raises $80,000 to $90,000 a year. "You can't drive through Northwest D.C., and not see a Wilson crew bumper sticker somewhere," Wilson Coach Bryan Tylander said. "Anybody who wants to buy us a boat, I'll put their name on it."