04.17.09 Picnic Recap, Pi Mile & Storytime.
Post date: Sep 1, 2009 2:07:16 PM
Georgia Tech Crew Alumni Newsletter
3.14 = Pi Mile Race Tomorrow!
Friday April 3rd, 2009 - Vol 1, Issue 3
Dear Robert,
Although it may seem like things are winding down for the GT Crew team, we alumni know that they are just getting started. The team is headed out to SIRA this weekend in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and if we remember correctly, it's about this time when we truly appreciated set line-ups, set schedules and hopefully, set boats. As we near Dad Vails, the GTCA is keeping the current team in their thoughts as this is what they've been training for all this time. As all of our coaches have said, then and now... it takes 9 months to make a Dad Vail Champion. Let's see what GT Crew has this year!
Important Dates
The GTCA is aware that many of our alumni live out of town, so keep your eye on this list for future event dates and plan your trips accordingly!
04-18-09: Pi-Mile Race at GT
05-09-09: Dad Vail Regatta, PA
10-17-09: 2009 Homecoming
Quick Links
Inaugural Member T-shirts
Get your Georgia Tech Crew Alumni Inaugural T-shirt!! They are available to anyone who wants to become a founding member of the Affinity Group! Check out your GTCA Board on the right! Find out more.
GTCA Meetings
The GTCA meets every other Monday at 6:30pm in the College of Management building in Tech Square. The next meeting is Monday, April 27th. All are welcome. See our calendar on the website: http://alumni.gtcrew.com/
Pi-Mile Road Race TOMORROW
We hope you've been training! April 18th, 2009 - 7:30am We'll see our fast alumni tomorrow at the GT Pi-Mile Race on Georgia Tech's campus. Please join us near Tech Tower (look for the GTCA banner) to get your FREE GTCA Racing T-shirt before the race! Don't worry, we'll have someone there to watch over your stuff while you run. After the race, we'll head out to a popular brunch spot somewhere close to campus to refuel. See you there!
Spring Picnic Recap
A great time was had by all at the 2009 Annual Spring Picnic. The team really spruced up the boathouse and the GTCA provided a delicious meal. The rain held out just long enough to allow the alumni men to race against the current team in eights out on the Chattahoochee. Of course, the alumni men won. The women were hoping for the same but the current team must have been scared of the same outcome because they didn't stick around to race. But thanks to a few remaining varsity women, the alumni women were able to field and eight and row up and down the 'Hooch with the same grace and strength they had in their good 'ole days.
Again, thank you to everyone that could join us. We hope you enjoyed yourself and we will see you again soon! Below is a photo of the current team, alumni, family and friends around the new trailer and here are all the rest of the photos. We'll see you next year!
Dad Vail Events
May 8th and 9th, 2009The GTCA and the Delaware Valley / Philadelphia GT alumni club will be co-hosting an official spectating tent on Friday May 8th and Saturday May 9th. Join us on both days for free food, free drink, and many cheers for GT Crew! We'll be relaxing on the Schuylkill River bank while supporting the team through heats, semis, and finals!We are thankful for the financial support of the Alumni Association and the Georgia Tech Division of Student Affairs, as their support has allowed us to rent a large tent and provide free food and drink all weekend long.
In addition, on Friday, May 8th, at 7pm, the GTCA has organized the first team-alumni dinner at the the Spaghetti Warehouse in the heart of Philadelphia. All of the crew team and coaches will be present and many crew alumni and GT alumni in the Philadelphia area will be attending as well. Dinner is all inclusive and only $16. The deadline to register and pay for this team-alumni dinner is May 1st. And you can do that quickly and easily through Google Check-out on our website!
Alumni Storytime
Alumni Anne-Marie (Richards) DeBacker and Cassi Niemann were talking to some of the current women rowers at the picnic about their experiences at SIRA in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Cassi started to tell a story about her Varsity Women's Open 4+ that got second place in 1999 by less than one second. It was the Varsity Women's Open 4+ with coxswain Mark Bearak, Dana (McAlhany) Hutcherson, Natalie (Horan) Woody, Cassi Niemann and Laura (Sassaman) Solomon - coached by Harriet Hamilton. In their race, they moved from in the pack to second place, battling it out bow to bow with the first place team. It was a close race but GT Crew women only lost by inches...by less than a second. Of course it was still one of the best races in their careers and it definitely set themselves up for a great race at Dad Vails (where they got second as well).
But what caught their attention was that Anne-Marie had a very similar story... except this one happened in 2002. She remembered that it was one of the best races of her career at GT where her Varsity Women's Open 4+ surprised their competition by making a move in the third 500 to give the first place boat a fight for the win. They finished less than a second behind first place... sound familiar? That year was very successful for GT Crew as the women's team had many graduating seniors. In that boat was coxswain Jenn Haney, Anne-Marie (Richards) DeBacker, Joy (Parrott) Smith, Deniz (Ozmen) McGee, and Sarah (Tourtellot) Kimbrough - coached by Ethan Johnson.
So here's to hoping that history doesn't repeat itself and that the GT Crew Women beat ALL their competition by MANY seconds this weekend at SIRA. Good luck ladies and let the history of women's crew at Georgia Tech be the fuel for your fire.
(Another interesting piece of Trivia is that five out of the nine women listed above married someone they met on the Georgia Tech Crew Team. How's that for matchmaking? In addition, four of the eight rowers were true lightweights at the time... not even real heavyweights.)
Want to tell us another story? Fill out this form!
Alumni Announcements
1995-2000 GT Crew Alumni Dana, (married to GT Crew Alum Jeremy "Regulator" Hutcherson), informed us that she is now the Flow Director of Space Shuttle Endeavour....a.k.a. top dog responsible for entire shuttle maintenance and processing between missions at Cape Canaveral. Her next launch will be mid-June.
So, it would seem that Regulator has a "Sugar-Mama" now, meaning he has taken an early retirement to be a Cocoa Beach lifeguard! Perhaps Coach Rob has met his match?
In addition, it turns out Dana and Jeremy also ran the ING Georgia 1/2 marathon this year!
Do you have news to share? Just fill out this simple form!
The GT Crew Affinity Group (GTCA) is organized to promote and facilitate the engagement of GT Crew Alumni, Affiliated Students, Friends, Faculty and Staff with the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, the current Georgia Tech Crew team and the Institute as a whole.
In an effort to keep in touch with all our alumni, we will be sending out this newsletter every other Friday to let you know what we are up to. The easiest way for us to remain in contact with you is for you to continue to receive this newsletter. So please don't unsubscribe unless you really don't want to ever get any information from us. In addition, send it to a fellow teammate, make sure they got it too. If they didn't, they can subscribe right at the bottom of this email. And don't forget, you can always update your bio with us on our website.
Thanks for all you do alumni. We appreciate it and so does the team.
Sincerely,
Cassi Niemann
Officer of Communications
Georgia Tech Crew Alumni Affinity Group