An Official Welcome to the HKIS Rowing Team

Classes in the traditional form have been suspended indefinitely, but the Rowing Club certainly hasn’t. In fact, they will become an official athletics team in the 2020-2021 school year.

 The Rowing Club began several years ago and is gaining more and more members each year. Team members are fostering new friendships and honing their rowing skills through rigorous training, which consists of a combination of land training in gyms and training on water (“everyone’s favorite,” added team captains Mili McCoy (12), Shloka Bahugana (11), and Nicholas Chen (12)).

The club has shown flexibility in continuing to train despite school suspension. They follow certain protocols including training at their coach’s house and only allowing team members who have not left Hong Kong in the past two weeks. Training is also staggered so that only three people attend every half hour.

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Front row, left to right—Lachlan Bailey, Nicholas  Chen, Micheal Rim
Back row, left to right—Chloe Shim, Yujin Kim, Mili McCoy, Sophia Peterson, Shloka Bahugana

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After more than two months of online school, many students are left without a proper routine which balances schoolwork, exercise, and social interactions. Although they have staggered the training due to the second wave of infections, the continuation of training greatly benefited all team members. “The continuation of rowing practice has given my life such stability, routine, and normalcy,” Mili said.

The club has demonstrated its success at multiple regattas throughout the year, even as some were canceled in the first semester due to the protests. While the awards and medals are important, the club’s sense of belonging and the community spirit is more admirable. “Our team has become more comfortable on the water and with each other, and a real sense of community and team spirit has formed,” said the team captains. 

“We are a dedicated team and we always experience success at races and regattas. We’ve been a club for a while now, and have proved our stability and longevity as one, so we all feel that the rowing club definitely deserves to be recognized as an official team sport.”