About CSRA:

Cleveland's oldest existing rowing team for high school students, CSRA began in 1988 as the Beaumont school team. The Beaumont Crew Team eventually became the Cleveland Scholastic Rowing Association, which was still a girl's team, but open to any high school girl in the Cleveland area. In the fall of 2009, CSRA merged with the Burning River Crew boys team to become co-ed.

CSRA is housed in the Cleveland boathouse, which is owned an operated by the Cleveland Rowing Foundation. We share the boathouse with adult rowers (Western Reserve Rowing Assoc.), college teams (CSU, John Carroll and CWRU), as well as two other high school teams; St. Ignatius boy's team and Shaker Heights High School girl's team. We own several 8-man and 4-man boats called shells. The 8-man boats are 65 feet long, but can easily be lifted by 8 people. Boys and girls often practice together in the same boats, but generally compete in regattas in boys' or girls' boats.

CSRA is a parent-run organization, and we rely on the help and participation of both rowers and their parents. We receive no school funding, and so each rower must pay a registration fee of approximately $520 for each season for rowers, $260 for coxswains. Some partial scholarships are available.

Rowing seasons:

The rowing year is divided into two seasons: fall and spring.

During the fall season (late August - late October), rowers compete in Head races. These are longer races - usually 6 K, 18 to 20 minutes - in which boats compete against the clock.

In the spring (March - May), the races consist of sprints - usually 2 K, 7 to 9 minutes - where boats race head to head. This is the type of racing you see in the Olympics. Conditioning in the winter months is critical to prepare for these very intense races. Winter conditioning practices are held starting in early January, and lasting until the rowers start on the water in mid-March.