Gulf Islands Secondary School students will be rowing in national championships in St. Catharines, Ont. next weekend.
The team has been practising all year in St. Mary Lake and competing in regional regattas around Vancouver Island. Their most recent event was at Shawnigan Lake from May 11-13.
“That was kind of the deciding factor for the crews that we would take. Every single crew that we entered at Shawnigan made the finals,” coach Stacy Mitchell said.
“It was the first time that we’ve ever had that.”
Thirteen Salt Springers will be attending the June 1-3 regatta, which is open to all high school teams in Canada. Mitchell said that about 3,000 athletes attend each year.
Salt Spring is sending two four-member crews, two doubles and one single. GISS has gone to the national competition before, but never with a squad this big. The team has grown since previous years and Mitchell decided to bring some novice rowers this year to build their interest in the sport.
Anyone interested in helping by sponsoring the team or contributing to fundraising can contact Mitchell by email at smitchell@sd64.bc.ca.
For more on this story, see the May 23, 2018 issue of the Gulf Islands Driftwood newspaper, or subscribe online.