A rowing club on the Neponset River that was once open only to teens from Milton High School is looking for new crew members from Boston’s neighborhoods to join in its fun, adventure, and fitness activities.
The brainchild of Milton’s Tony Driscoll, the Neponset Rowing Club has been in place since 2010 for co-ed participants in grades 9-12. It has been open to teens from Boston since 2022.
“I’m pretty sure we’re the only rowing opportunity between Cambridge and Hingham,” said Tom Leonard, the chair of the club’s board and a rower in the adult program. “And a lot of our students have gone on to row in college.”
Added Milton’s Kristen Brown, an adult rower whose son participated during high school: “It’s down the street from Dorchester and you don’t have to go to the Charles River to row. It’s right at the Landing and once you get on the water, it’s beautiful. It feels good early in the morning to have that sense of accomplishment.”
While the club has successfully recruited a few adults from Dorchester for an adult crew, the teen program’s plusses have yet to resonate across the river.
Organizers like Tom Leonard hope to change that.
A group of Junior boys in the Neponset Rowing Club competed on the Neponset River recently. The club accommodates co-ed high school students, and adults as well – leaving from Milton Landing in Lower Mills.
“We would really like to get some kids from Dorchester, Mattapan, and other parts of Boston, too,” he said. “We realize our sport suffers from a stigma of elitism. It’s expensive and exclusive and that’s why we offer scholarships because our mission is to bring the sport of rowing to all ages and all races and all socio-economic backgrounds living along the Neponset River.
“If a kid shows up and wants to row and can’t pay, we’ll make it work.”
Another hurdle might be long-held concerns about pollution in the river itself. But, progress has been made on that end, too.
The group cannot do much to control another reality: shifting tides that dictate when workouts are scheduled. Most practices start very early, around 5:30 a.m. Youth often practice in the morning, or after school.
Youth in the Neponset Rowing Club take off from the dock at Milton Landing for an afternoon practice.
For adults, 12 sessions per season costs $400, but for youth – who compete in short races in the spring and “head” races of three miles in the fall – the cost is $1,200. Students from Milton High, Milton Academy, Fontbonne, Archbishop Williams High School, and Blue Hills Regional participate, and scholarship monies raised at the club’s spring gala cover half or full costs for those who need financial help.
Beyond that, it’s about showing up and completing the course from Milton Landing to the Adams Inn and back.
Leonard said he never rowed until walking on while a student at Rutgers University. A lacrosse player, he wasn’t good enough to make the elite squad, and so he went for the rowing and found success.
He said it’s something a person can pick up very fast, as he did.
“It’s a sport where you can walk on and reach your potential very quickly,” he said. “The point is, no experience is necessary. It’s not a sport like hockey where they say if you’re not on the ice soon after birth, you’re behind.”
He said many young people might be looking for a new sport, or maybe they are athletic but haven’t found their calling yet, or perhaps they aren’t athletic and just want to be active. In all three instances, crew can fit the bill.
“Rowing is tailored to athletes that haven’t found their sport or kids that aren’t athletic to begin with,” he said. “Crew was a great equalizer for me and can be for others too.”
Leonard came back to crew as an adult after discovering Neponset Rowing down the street from his house. He has found it to be life-saving exercise.
“Rowing changed my life twice, once at 18 in college and once at 53 when I came back to it,” he said.
Rowing is a low-impact and high-cardio exercise, and one recommended by his cardiologist. Meanwhile, getting out on the Neponset to enjoy nature – often spotting two bald eagles that live along the shoreline – helps to take away the stresses of life and work, he said.
“If you’ve always wanted a different perspective on the Neponset River, a boat is very close to the water and you can’t beat Neponset sunrises,” he said.
Brown, who credits Neponset Rowing with helping her son get into Harvard, says “it taught him a lot of responsibility.”
After she was diagnosed with cancer, Brown said she was looking for a way to stay active and she went from parent to participant.
“After my treatment I took up skiing, but also needed something to do in the summer and fall,” Brown said. “I felt like I needed to keep moving. I don’t like going to the gym, it’s not my thing. So, I jumped fully into rowing.”
For the adult program, the sessions are great exercise, but also a social oppoprtunity to get to know others.
“You don’t need to know how to row to join; you learn how as you go, and they will train you,” she said. “Being outside really appealed to me and it was with other people, too…You’re out on the water and it’s wild. The river is clear and like glass and you’re gliding by the birds and you see the bald eagles. The environment is just fantastic.”
The view with the boats hasn’t escaped those on the shore either, with Ian Cooke, executive director of the Neponset River Watershed Association (NepRWA) praising the club’s usage of the river.
“Whether you are launching from Dorchester, Milton, Quincy or one of the 11 other watershed towns, the River is for everyone no matter where you live,” he said. “I think it’s just taking some time for word to get out that even though the dock is in Milton, the Club is for everyone, and of course, once you push off from the dock you’ll actually be rowing in Dorchester.
“Anyone who has had the chance to row or paddle out on the River discovers that it’s both a great workout and a great opportunity to decompress with a little “nature-time” right here in the city with seals, eagles and marshes as the backdrop,” he continued.
Neponset Rowing is accepting new participants at all times, but the fall season closes out at the end of this month. The organization is hosting a fundraiser to raise money to build a simple boathouse on the landing on Nov. 7 from 6-11 p.m. at the Adams Inn in Quincy on the Neponset. For more information go to neponsetrowingclub.org.
