Chatham Area Rowing Association

LEAGUE BASICS:

 -You don't already have to know how to row to join.

-Each League member practices two or three days a week.

-The League program is designed to fund our College program.

-You must have a basic ability to swim.

-The League program is designed to be for non-college students 21 and above.

-League Program fee is $275.00 per person joining alone or $200.00 per person joining as a team of 8 people.

 
TRYING TO STAY AFLOAT

 You may remember us... Our Black Jackets with SCAD CREW on the back of
them walking around the downtown squares. Perhaps on your drive over
the Thunderbolt bridge, you have seen our crews rowing in their long
narrow boats and working hard in daily practice? I'm sure it will be
hard to recall that we championed our region two times, won medals at
every race entered for the last two years, or that we were the only
Collegiate Varsity Rowing Team in the state of Georgia. Well please
remember us, because SCAD CREW was cut from the SCAD Athletics Department in June 2007. Our Savannah College of Art and Design Rowing Team is no more.

 
     The Chatham Area Rowing Association, (or CARA) was founded to
carry on this legacy began in 1989. Offering the students a chance to
still row in Savannah, the team will now expand to include the community. CARA is established as a way for all ages and backgrounds to learn the sport of
crew. Through it's many programs, the goal is to unite people for
social, charitable and recreational purposes. Individuals joining into
the 7 week League Program should be out of college, over 21, and know
how to have basic swimming skills.
   

     The League portion is set up just like a bowling league is set up. We meet
twice a week (with options for more), practice, and then in weeks 6 and seven compete against the other teams in the League. The goal is to have various teams of friends(neighbors, people from work, etc.), professionals (doctors group, lawyers, designers, etc), theme-sets (singles, religious
organizations, etc), college faculty and staff (Savannah
State/SCAD/AASU), register as this group, practice, then race against
each other for bragging rights in the area. A celebration for the
winning team marks the end of each session. League member fees raised in this effort will contribute to keeping a college program in the area. The college program will now expand to include Armstrong Atlantic State University, Savannah State University, SCAD, and all colleges in the Chatham Area. This spring, CARA expanded to offer a High School area students a program as well. 

     Rowing in Savannah goes back all the way to the 1700's. Sailors
on the visiting ship to Savannah Harbor would row their Captains ashore, and then spend the night taking bets who was the faster set of crew across the
Savannah River. Thats also pretty much the history of our sport and how
rowing evolved to become the first intercollegiate sport in the country. Today rowing is at just about every college in the United States. All crews in America are either formed as an association, varsity team, or club. Regardless of how an organization puts a crew together, all still compete in the same categories against other colleges at regattas.

 
     SCAD CREW started as a Club in 1989. By 1997, our team was the first, and remained the only, college in Georgia to offer Crew as a Varsity Program. From our team's example, we have helped The Savannah Country Day School, The University of Georgia, Emory University, and The College of Charleston form and organize their programs. Although we now have a different name, the efforts, hearts, and minds of our members live on under The Chatham Area Rowing Association. 

 
Please help keep rowing in our area!

Who is Coach Nohejl?

I first came to Savannah to row for SCAD in 1989. Upon graduating from High School in Atlanta, all my buddies went on to play baseball or football. I instead began looking for a sport that was unique, artistic, and didn’t require already knowing how to do it. From their 1988 catalog, I discovered SCAD offered a rowing team and chose the college for that reason. It was nice to discover that because I was choosing
to go to an art college that I could still continue being an athlete. My father was a coach and musician for over 20 years and he instilled in me that art and sport were interrelated.
            My first year as a rower on the SCAD team was in 1990. I actually could not find the group of athletes that had called themselves a crew. I later discovered that a new graduate student was to become coach. In fall 1990, I saw a flyer posted by Steve Knudsen forming the club. At the interest meeting about 100 people came to hear what this sport entailed. However, on a cold stormy fall morning, I was the only person to show up to practice. It was from this humble beginning that our team grew to about 20 people. I went on to become team captain, win the Most Improved award, and while still rowing in the mornings, in the afternoons, coached at Savannah Country Day School my Junior and Senior years.

 1991

            After working at other programs around the country, I came back to Savannah to serve as Head Coach for the college from 1996 till the sudden decision to drop the program in 2007. I have now dedicated my time to begin The Chatham Area Rowing Association or simply, “CARA”. Through CARA, I hope to offer several different programs throughout the year that work to unite our community through this wonderful sport. Everyone that knows me knows I'm passionate about this sport and how it changes you. I cannot think of this city, with all it's beautiful waterways,
and not having rowing available to young students.
            Saying that, I have purchased much of the former team equipment so that we may continue with a great tradition begun in 1989. Although we will assume a new name, the heart and spirit of SCAD CREW very much lives on and now will expand to include the community.