Montclair High School Rowers Headed To World Championship

Two 17-year-old Montclair High School rowers, Justin Murphy and Nate Goodman, have been chosen to represent the United States in the Junior World Championships next month in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

The students, however, want to bring their coach, which means they need to raise some money for the travel costs.

Indeed, they've started a campaign to raise funds—and fast.

Head coach Jeremy Michalitsianos said the boys have worked incredibly hard.

"And not just this season, but from the moment they joined the team as freshmen in 2010," he said. "They're obviously talented and are great athletes but that talent means nothing unless you are prepared to put the time in.

"Justin and Nate as well as many other members of the MHS crew team are prepared to do that," he added. "I'm hoping that their success inspires more young people to come and row for us."

On the website set up to raise money for their coach's trip, the two said: 

The two of us, Justin Murphy and Nate Goodman, are 17-year-olds at New Jersey’s Montclair High School, and we've been selected to represent the United States in the Junior World Championships, rowing a pair. We travel to Plovdiv, Bulgaria in mid-August to race against teams from all over the world. Junior National Team rules require that we bring our coach, Jeremy Michalitsianos, and in truth, we couldn’t do it without him. Our goal in this campaign is to raise part of the cost of sending Jeremy to Bulgaria.

Jeremy has taught us how to row a pair, a notoriously finicky boat to row.  When we were tapped to go to the World Championships, Jeremy didn’t hesitate to cancel his own plans to return home to England (giving up tickets to the Olympics to boot) and head back out in the launch to help us improve. He also gave up his afternoons and has been spending several hours a day putting us through our pieces.

Although a great honor, it is not inexpensive to be a member of the Junior National Team. All three of us are responsible for our own airfare and for a fee to cover room, board, and ground transportation in Bulgaria. Jeremy has also arranged for us to rent a boat overseas—importantly, the same one, a Hudson, we have been training and racing in. As athletes, we must pay our own way. But we'd like to pay for our coach, who has already sacrificed much for our benefit.

In May, squaring off against top crews from the United States and Canada, the Montclair High School crew team captured three gold medals on Saturday—as well as a silver and a bronze—at the 2012 Stotesbury Cup Regatta.

The annual oar-fest on the Schuylkill is cited as the oldest and largest high school regatta in the world, and last weekend’s victory gave the Montclair team a record number of medals.

"It's almost impossible for a small high school team like our team to do what we did but we did it," Michalitsianos said. "It's a dream come true."

He said that Montclair was the only American High School to win three gold medals at the regatta. In addition, 31 athletes won medals—more than the number achieved by any of the other 195 schools participating.

Michalitsianos, who is serving his fifth year as head coach, said the regatta included about 30 events contested between just under 6,000 boys and girls of various ages.

So help the 17-year-old rowers bring their coach to Bulgaria. Go here today to help out!