Welcome Back to the Head of the Charles

The Charles River is a centerpiece to the city of Boston. It runs from its headwaters at Echo Lake in the area near Milford and Hopkinton and angles its way through the watershed surrounding metropolitan Boston. It winds through several communities and doubles back onto itself as it touches the areas surrounding Watertown and Waltham, but it is best recognized for the patch of current that flows through Newton and into the city itself.

It's there, sandwiched between both Storrow Drive and Memorial Drive, that the legend of the river gains its cultural experience. The Charles is one of the busiest recreational rivers in the world, and the central location offers a sweeping scenery for runners, scullers and motorists. Rowers launch from docks and boathouses lining its riverbanks, offering a once-in-a-lifetime area for the colleges and universities of the area.

The Charles is emblematic of a homey, intimate Boston, but once per year, it turns into one of the largest sporting arenas in the world for the Head of the Charles Regatta. Held over the penultimate weekend in October, it shepherds hundreds of thousands of people into Massachusetts for an annual competition that unofficially marks the high point of the autumn season for teams like Boston College, all of whom row annually on its waters.

"I think we're so lucky in the fact that we row this course every single day," said head coach Grace Hollowell. "We were out there this week with a lot more traffic than normal, and the team will row the course [on Friday] without me since I can't be out there with them, but this is our home course. We've done this hundreds of times, and there is some ownership over it. We're here to do a job and put the pieces together and show the work that we've put in, and this is an awesome opportunity to showcase that. I want us to go have fun on our home course, which is something our team loves. The emotion can be high, but our goal is to go out and have an awesome regatta while understanding our priority is always going to be the ACC Championship in the spring."

Competing in the Head of the Charles is an accomplishment for any rower, but the Eagles are entering this year with a renewed outlook after managing their way through an awkward and weird 2020 season that chopped their usual year-round schedule. They didn't have a fall season last year as a result of COVID-19, but the ongoing pandemic canceled any spring regatta with multiple teams.

The ACC Championship was held at Clemson in late May, but BC raced predominantly in dual-meets and tri-team competitions throughout a shortened season in April. Races were mostly against local competition, and the only trip outside of New England came at the Lake Wheeler Invitational hosted by North Carolina. It offered the rowers an opportunity to work together as much as possible, but making the most of the season lacked the flair of the tents and boathouses lining rivers across the eastern seaboard.

"It was pretty hard last year to stay [current] with the team," Ewing said. "We had to split up due to our numbers, and it felt like there was that disconnect. Coming back this fall, I was finally excited to be able to practice as a larger group with everyone. I've been able to make new friends on the team and help with the freshmen, who have been doing pretty well at acclimating to college and a new school. I'm just happy everything is getting back to normal because it makes it easier on our part to be able to race and have a full season."

The overall wait for a full-length season unlocked a hunger in BC's team, and the Eagles attacked this fall with a renewed sense of purpose and culture. They launched into full team training for the first time since the 2020 spring was unexpectedly canceled in March and built a new look to the team with a larger group teeming with numbers.

"There has been an excitement to getting back together," Hollowell said, "but I also think that transitions are always hard. I think it was hard to transition into something different, and I think there are things that weren't there that are here [now in the present]. I don't think anyone misses being on a single, but they had to adjust their stroke and their rhythm in a big group. It was easy when it was just 10 teammates out on singles, and now there are 50 people on boats every day. My hope is that it lights a fire because we have a deep team, and people are going to be pushing from both the top and the bottom. As a coach, that's exciting to see, but it's also different."

"There was so much solo work last year, especially in the winter because we would have to break down in groups without a space big enough to social distance with masks," senior co-captain Ali Hulsebosch said. "That's made it really awesome and exciting now to see our teammates at practice, and it makes you stand back and think about how this is what we've been waiting for. We've been doing the right things so we can train with our teammates and see friends at practice."

That added depth enabled BC to surprise a number of boats in the competition itself. The Eagles finished 4th, 10th, 16th and 18th in the 8-plus Collegiate Women's race. Each of the boats finished within a minute and 20 seconds of each other, a performance setting the tone for the two-week interim and run-up to this weekend's regatta.

"Going into the Housatonic, we felt like anything could happen," Hulsebosch said. "We'd been doing the training and pushing ourselves from top to bottom in the group, but we wanted to make our boats move as fast as possible. I think it was exciting to see us do well compared to [previous] years, and moving forward into the Charles, I think it exists where we don't know exactly what we can do, but we know we can do better than we have. I think that has people very excited and motivated."

It's the perfect build for a team that finally returned to the Parker Boathouse as a full unit this season. Hollowell and the captains both indicated their relief at working together with a larger unit, and they talked openly of inducting the freshmen into the college rowing scene with a renewed sense of what BC rowing means to the community.

"The Housatonic is a pretty secluded river without a lot going on around it," senior co-captain Carmen Ewing said. "It was pretty to row, but I think with Boston, there's always something on the sidelines and on the shore. There's a historical aspect to rowing with Harvard and Boston University and all these programs that have also been around for a long time. It's special to compete with them and be on those same waters."

"I'm super lucky that I have a great staff," Hollowell said. "It's been awesome with four coaches since it allows us to give a little more attention to everyone. You're trying to rotate through crews and trying to see as many people as you can to give them the attention that they need. We're going to do everything in our power as a coaching staff to help them, but we also wanted to see who would step up and ask us for help. We've seen the development of some of that personal agency within the big group, and for these young women, developing that voice is what we're seeing happen. That's what I need with them to learn how to advocate for themselves."

There's a sense of rebirth in training, but nothing will top the feeling of the first launch and start on the Charles this weekend. BC trains on the water with experienced rowers who all understand the river's current, windspeed and conditions, but settling into a boat for a race in the Head of the Charles is an unmatched experience. It's already obvious with the tents popping up along the river, and it will be there on Saturday and Sunday when the rock concert returns for the first time since 2019.

"It's the biggest rowing event and has a lot of excitement and emotion," said Hollowell, "but it's such a technical course with so many different events. It's kind of sink or swim where you could have a great race and have something random happen that just takes [your boat] out, but I think that's the excitement of it. It's not like spring racing where your job is to get from A to B as fast as possible. There's so many other pieces that make this fun, and I think the spectators and energy around that event is always super exciting for everyone."

"I raced this regatta in high school and it was a super special experience," Ewing said, "but I think coming to BC and rowing on the Charles every day [adds to it]. I know the river pretty well, and it's helped with knowing where I am in the race. Plus I think seeing the Charles on a daily basis and then showing up on a weekend like this, where everyone is there and having people pack the bridges, makes it special to race in Boston. It's been a while because of COVID, but I think that this weekend, everyone's really excited for our team to show what we've been trying to show for two years when we weren't able to race last year."

"This is a privilege," Hulsebosch said. "A lot of us rowed it in high school and know the course like the back of our hands. We aren't steering the boat, but we know where the turns are, and we know where the splits might come up or should be faster. The fact that we train on the Charles for a race like the Head of the Charles is an advantage, and we know we can [succeed] and that's very exciting."

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