September - a month of starts

September 2023 - NEWS from Florida

School is in full swing, and our team is in

T R A I N I N G - M O D E

Our Middle School Team trains four times the week and our High Schoolers officially train six times and most of them do extra workout home, Sundays, in school or their gym. As the coach of the team, I cannot be prouder of them. Our training focus at the moment in the development of the whole body. Training like biking, running and weightlifting are the main components of our workouts.

Three days of the week are reserved to train on the water. Twice in the small boats - either the 1x or 2x/2- and on Saturday the 8+ is the priority. Here a few pictures of our training in Osprey.

Scullers are back to FUTEBALL

Besides rowing Futeball came back to the schedule. Every Friday of the week Twin Lakes Park brings out the best of us and the ball has to go into the square. While in the beginning a lot of discussion slowed the game down - with the result everybody needed to run around the field - our team developed slowly a 6 sense for the game - so that some balls finally ended in the net.

The female athletes (mostly in Volleyball mode) discovered some competitiveness during our weeks of playing so that during the team building phase the girls moving up the be chosen ladder and leaving some of the boys in skills behind … congrats.

introducing ….. Cameron Degroote

Member of Scullers since August 2023

Cameron was born in June 2009. He and his little brother call the Big Apple home till 2019. Just before Covid stopped the world - Cameron discovers a) the XBox and b) Florida for himself. How are you doing in school was one of our questions to him and a big smile and “GREAT” was the answer. MIT is calling in the back of his brain and Coach Stompo remembers the pictures of the Astronauts in the MIT boathouse - will it be him looking down to us one day - we hope so.

Lord of the Rings and other Fantasy movies bring him in front of Silver Screen or TV. Of course, Video Games and (surprisingly) swimming are his (now second) best activities. He tried rowing just because he was curious and from day one, he “liked” it …. Thank you. What is his erg-movie you are asking - of course Oppenheimer.

In which boat he would like to train and race the 4x it is. Cameron is a team player, still overthinking some things but loved by all of our Scullers.

We are Scullers and embracing all of our members - are they looking to the sky, knowing everything better, are dedicated or just excited to discover the world. We welcome Cameron to the Scullers - another personality who will bring rowing to the world.

Billy Plifka - one of our FIRST

A few months ago, I (Coach Stompo) heard the name Billy Plifka the first time. A Sculler from Sarasota - one of our FIRST - but somehow hidden in the shadow. After weeks of research - creating Alumni lists and other lists of lists a surprising coincidence happened. One of our members brought me together with our founding “mom” Betsy. After a long great breakfast and exchanging memories, she mentioned Billy. It was Betsy who brought us (Billy and me) together and then at the end of September Billy and I sat down at First watch Downtown Sarasota. We snowballed every remembering embarrassment of our rowing life - which super much overlapped - and be separated with the Rick Blaines quote.

But let Billy speak for himself - and MEANWHILE (favorite word of Dogman) most of you met Billy at the Boatyard:

“Hello everyone, my name is Billy Plifka. I started rowing in 1992 with the Sarasota Scullers that Peter and Betsy Demanio literally created out of their backyard for the love of the athletes and the sport of rowing. With Peter’s unrelenting drive and coaching ability, he formed one of the top clubs in the country with 150 youth rowers in just a few years. The Scullers were unstoppable. We were so fast that Peter would literally have to tell us not to showboat since we would have lengths of open water on most races. I ended up rowing in the Jr. World Championships in 1994 and 1995 and brought home a silver medal from Poland in the men’s 8. I then attended Northeastern University on a rowing scholarship and continued on the US World Championship teams where I brought home gold in 1999 from Canada in the lightweight 8.
With the opportunity I was given from Peter and Betsy Demanio, I was able to receive a scholarship for college, travel the world for free, and attain many jobs from the dedication in athletics that I was able to show on my resume. I am excited to help out with this organization since it has provided me with such a life changing opportunity.
With Stompo’s amazing world class rowing accomplishments and coaching ability, I can’t wait to see these crews showboating once again in the near future.”

Regatta HOOCH

October 5th, all of our entries for the HOOCH (Regatta November 4th and 5th) are confirmed. Our team will travel to one of the biggest Head Races of the South.

Also, there we will find former Scullers - from Caitlin to Will to even older members.

The training with the team is running on full steam - and the week before HOOCH the Halloween Regatta in Tampa will give us first feedback.

The team will travel with parents, plane and coach and team up with our Masters in Chatanooga. Our Lyn will be with us and helping again our Head Coach to manage the team.

In our next Newsletter we will introduce ….

Kayla and Jesse - Captains of our Middle School Team

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