From giving out jerseys in the cafeteria to a number of SHPTV sports highlight reels, SHP student athletes do not go unnoticed. But many students remain unaware of the talented group of rowers within our community. Thoreson “Thor” Dakin ‘26, Sabrina Akhtar ‘27, and Leland Danesh Maleki Tehrani ‘29 pursue crew at a highly competitive level. For them, participating in sports outside of school has been both rewarding and challenging.
Dakin explained his daily schedule: “In the afternoon, it takes 30 minutes to get to my 2.5-hour practice. I don’t settle down at home until around 8. Also, sleeping before morning practice at 5:15 is tough, making me sacrifice doing homework in order to get the sleep I need.” Student athletes at Sacred Heart don’t run into these issues. For most, practice is right after school, and almost always on campus. Dakin’s commute to practice is not the only sacrifice. These students give up hours of intensive training, usually before 7 a.m. Not to mention the brutally frigid morning weather out on the bay.
Although rowing comes with many challenges, it has also provided life lessons. Tehrani, a coxswain, highlights that “the two biggest lessons [he’s] learned from rowing so far are how to be a great leader and how to make logical decisions quickly.” Tehrani believes that many students at SHP would benefit from such a demanding environment. Akhtar highlights her ability to learn good time management habits. With 16 hours of practice per week, she has learned a lot about commitment. She underscores that her schedule was more demanding once she began rowing outside of school. Like Tehrani, Akhtar is a coxswain and believes that the best lesson she has learned from her journey through the sport is mental toughness.
When asked if SHP would benefit from the implementation of a crew team, Dakin raised several concerns. For example, he said, “the only other school with a crew team is Serra High School, and usually races aren’t ever Co-ed, so finding enough people for even one boat would be difficult.” There are also few to no high schools around that would be up for competition. Creating rivals to fuel best performance is a critical part of high school athletics, so this would be a struggle. Crew also requires resources. Thor explains, “crew is insanely expensive, even for SHP. Not only does SHP not have a boathouse, each boat costs up to $25,000 each and every oar costs $3,000 each. Therefore maintenance is not feasible.”
Implementing crew into SHP athletics would be incredibly difficult, although to some, equally exciting. Tehrani explains that, “Sacred Heart used to have a rowing team long ago, and [he] honestly thinks that bringing it back again would really benefit the school.” He says crew teaches “discipline to show up and work hard, no matter the circumstances.” He thinks SHP students could benefit from these qualities.
