ROWING ON A
THE RIVERS
Local rowing club brings a new
sports opportunity to students
of the South Hills.
BY NICOLE TAFE
PT Rowing Club founder
Judy Alexander
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s a two-year member of the
Pittsburgh Rowing Club, Judy
Alexander would watch two
high school teams row out of the
same boathouse each day and began
to wonder why Peters Township did
not have a rowing team of its own. She
started to look into rowing teams in
the area and learned that a multitude
of surrounding boroughs had teams
available. With this, Alexander decided
to put ideas into action and establish
Peters Township’s very own rowing
club.
Rowing is America’s oldest
intercollegiate sport and crew teams
have been established throughout the
greater tri-state area, nationally and
internationally, for over 130 years.
Locally there are approximately 17
high school competitive rowing teams
in addition to 147 postsecondary
schools that offer rowing and team
scholarships.
While Alexander really enjoyed
rowing, her expertise in organized
sports was a bit lacking, so she enlisted
the help of Pittsburgh Rowing Club’s
Director and 2012 Romanian Olympic
Rower Florin Curuea to help her get
started. Curuea has been an athlete and
coach in both Romania and the U.S.
for many years. “We were incredibly
fortunate to have someone with his
level of success and Olympian-level
experience work with our upcoming
team,” says Alexander.
Together, Alexander and Curuea
hosted a two-week “Learn to Row”
camp in May 2015 to enlist members
for the new club. Thirty Peters
Township students attended and
instantly fell in love with the sport.
While Curuea returned to Romania
to continue coaching the Romanian
National Team, Alexander officially
founded the Peters Township Rowing
Club and began working with a few
very devoted parents—Lorie Strennen,
Kevin and Colleen Hannegan and
Marlene Luster—to continue to
build the club and get things rolling
for a number of students who had
participated in the camp and were eager
to join the club.
Meetings became more frequent and
the group expanded its membership
opportunities by sending informational