Our Girls Row Stockton team always amazes us, and not just with their athletic performance. As the season continues on a little more unusual this past semester, their camaraderie has been consistent. And without their selflessness and support of one another, I don't even want to know where we'd be! Thanks, girls, for continuing to amaze us just by being YOU! We will all be back on the water soon.

We wanted to share with you a beautiful blog created by GRS athlete Sydney about her gratitude for the sport and this team, especially during quarantine:

Nature. God’s brilliant creation. It’s what surrounds us. Infatuates us.
Humble’s us by what a big God we serve with detail and beauty. I find myself drifting to the San Joaquin Delta. Home to where I row and sweat to death. I miss being on the water, despite the smell; I guess you get used to it after a while, I miss closing my eyes while on a long piece with the company of the boat, the water, and myself. I crave hearing the oars shift when I square up my blades and listening to the wake they make when I push them through the water. I yearn to feel the boat run under me and race the sea-lions swimming alongside...

Read more on Sydney's blog.

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We are so excited to share a WONDERFUL opportunity to watch the inspiring 40-minute documentary of Title IX pioneer and two-time Olympian Chris Ernst who together with her Yale women’s rowing team sparked the movement toward equality in women’s athletics. You really don’t want to miss this FREE showing, available using the link below for just three days, Friday April 24th through Sunday, April 26th! 
 
 More on “A Hero for Daisy”: In 1976 Yale women’s rowing crew shed their sweats in the Director of Physical Education’s office to reveal the words “Title IX” marked on their naked bodies. Accompanied by a photographer and newspaper editor, that’s what this crew did to get the public’s attention about the inequities they suffered when, wet and chilled to the bone after practices, they had to wait on a campus bus for the men’s team to finish showering. Then they got to be transported back to their dorms so they, too, could finally shower and change into warm, dry clothes. That’s just the beginning of the story that sparked a movement from which women athletes are finally benefitting. The bravery and foresight of that crew and their captain Chris Ernst, whom former Secretary of State John Kerry called “the Rosa Parks of Title IX”, comes alive in “A Hero for Daisy”, a must-see documentary for anyone who cares about equal rights. 

From Friday April 24th through Sunday April 26th, watch this documentary produced by Olympic rower Mary Mazzio FOR FREE using this link here !!!

That was Mazzio’s first film in rowing and it foreshadows another of her movies coming to us soon!

Don’t miss Mazzio’s most recent documentary “A Most Beautiful Thing” that premiered in Congress just before the COVID crisis hit. Postponed till June 12th for wide distribution, “A Most Beautiful Thing” is based on a book by Arshay Cooper, and it’s getting rave reviews! It documents the unbelievable challenges faced by the author and his teammates, who comprised the first all-black rowing crew in the country.

Stay tuned as we post updates on the wide release of “A Most Beautiful Thing”. You really won’t want to miss it! 
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Team Delta Tops Two Million Meters in the WEC

DSC’s Team Delta logged 2,172,989 during the one-month World Erg Challenge, travelling the equivalent of 46,000 meters beyond Amarillo (or within only 5.5 kms. of Prince George, British Columbia)!  Almost half of those meters were rowed by our top four participants, Kurt Johnson (301!), John Silverton (270), James Marquez (220) and Beverly Klunk (200). Beverly simultaneously did the April Fool’s Challenge, finishing both challenges with amazing results! Also above the 100 km. mark were newcomer Jean Hendrix and experienced rowers Susan Ollis, Rebecca and Renaldo Abreu, and Pat T. and Bob O. (both wives beating out both husbands!).

Several DSCers topped 40 kms., led by newcomer Jody Nance (90) and including Kim Sparrowk, Bob Lee, Rachel Tappero (who logged over 58 kms. as a PR 2 rower!), Lesley Galloway, Dee Shunk and Amy McDaniel. Masters scullers May Mardini and Dale Casale also contributed several thousand meters. In between school work assignments, several members of DSC’s Girls Row Stockton team also contributed many meters to Team Delta’s total. Besides Amy McDaniel (with 41 kms.), Tania Tufui-Niu (29), Skylar Flowers (22), Sydney Jones (18), and Hannah Noe (9) also contributed to DSC’s more than 2 million meters.

Very exciting was the incredible push within the last four days of the challenge, when Team Delta’s average per participant went from 77 kms. to 94+ kms.! That enabled our team to extend our average per participant over three teams, all with more rowers than Team Delta’s 23.

​WELL DONE TEAM DELTA!! MORE CHALLENGES TO COME.

- Bob O.

Check out the amount of beauty that we discover every day out on the Delta waterways...

DSC scullers brought lots of excitement to this year’s Golden State Indoor Rowing Championships at the Sac. State Aquatic Center and to the Peninsula Indoor Rowing Championships at St. Ignatius High School in San Francisco.

The GSIRC venue was packed with rowers and their cheering supporters and coaches, and, as usual, DSC scullers and their families and friends were well represented. In fact, DSC once again earned cheering honors, providing the loudest cheers among all onlookers. For all but two of DSC’s Girls Row Stockton team it was their first indoor competition, and they fared extremely well.

All GRS’s novices (Amy McDaniel, Briana Arceo-Salgado, Maya Castillo, and Skylar Flowers) had personal records when comparing their best practice 2K times with what they achieved at Sac. State. With tired wobbling legs they all made it down the stairway to ring the famous PR bell. Injured novice Sydney Jones played a big role by being chief cheerleader and coaching two athletes during the day. Returnee varsity rower Hannah Noe, who has four years of competition
left, came home with a silver medal in her event, and Elise Hill competed very well, as always, at her last indoor championship as a high schooler. Elise wants to return as a DSC rower after she graduates. Pizza was the prize for everyone following the day’s competitions.

One of the highlights of the day was when Rachel Tappero and Jamie Nance had the privilege of racing against the inspirational Sally Callahan, who set the world indoor record for those in their 90’s by posting a 1K time of 2:48.2. She is a Masters able-bodied rower. Rachel, a PR 2 rower, beat Sally to the finish line by demolishing her own 1K record by 46 seconds, posting an amazing time of 10:46 (but hold on for some other news below). Jamie, a novice PR 1 rower, finished strong and was not far behind his competitors in his first-ever rowing competition. He will be a force to be reckoned with in future events.
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The day finished with DSC Masters rower Lesley Galloway ringing the PR bell by clocking a 2:18 time that earned her a gold medal in her event. Because she was the only participant in her Women’s lightweight event, she raced with all the teenage coxwains from the clubs attending the championships. Lesley’s time was better than that of seven of those coxes in the 16-person event, and they were all less than a third of her age!

A week later, Rachel and Jamie competed again in San Francisco. Rachel surprised us all by besting her personal record AGAIN, logging a time of 10:42, which is amazing for someone as light as she is. Her new nickname is “The Beast”. Jamie, coached by his wife Kathryn, found the experience of another competition invaluable in establishing baselines for future endeavors as a rower.

CONGRATS TO ALL THE DSC ATHLETES, PARENTS, RELATIVES, AND FRIENDS WHO EITHER COMPETED OR LENT SUPPORT AT THESE TWO INDOOR ROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS. HERE’S HOPING EVEN MORE DSC REPRESENTATION WILL BE AT THESE EVENTS NEXT YEAR!

Stockton, California held its historic first indoor rowing competition on January 27, 2020 at Health Careers Academy.

The cheering never stopped! Unified Events brought together adaptive and general ed PE students from Stockton Unified School District schools that are benefiting from the George Pocock Rowing Foundation’s Erg Ed® curriculum.

Organizers Dr. Pat Tirone, Executive Director of Delta Sculling Center, and Zebulon Gromm, PE teacher at Health Careers Academy, brought together 75 students to participate in the competition with the assistance of Stockton Unified School District's PE teachers trained in Erg Ed® and SUSD Athletic Director Joseph Martinez.

Competitions (done as general ed, adaptive PE, and unified events) included 500 meter sprints, 2K races, 10-minute relays, and a 30-second max power challenge. The unified relay events consisted of 3 general ed PE and 3 adaptive PE  students. 

Competitors put so much into the day’s challenges that many were falling to the floor upon completing events!

​We look forward to continuing the championships for SUSD in the semesters to come!

Also, The Pocock Foundation graciously included the championship we held in their 2020 Newsletter. Read below for their write up:

Stockton, California held its historic first Erg Ed indoor rowing competition, Jan. 27th at Health Careers Academy, where the cheering never stopped. Organizers Dr. Pat Tirone, Executive Director of Delta Sculling Center, and Zebulon Gromm, a PE teacher at HCA, with the assistance of Unified School District's PE teachers trained in Erg Ed and SUSD Athletic Director Joseph Martinez, gathered 75 students to participate in the competition. The teams were divided into three categories: general ed, adaptive PE, and unified events (featuring three adaptive and three general ed athletes together on one team). The competition included 500 meter sprints, 2K races, 10-minute relays, and 30-second max power tests.  Competitors put so much into the day's efforts, it left some falling to the floor upon completing their events. 

Take a look at this past month's article in The University of the Pacific's Dean's Letter featuring Pat Tirone and The Healing Powers of Rowing:
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When Patricia “Pat” Tirone ’02, PT, DPT, EdD moved from New York to California, her career path was at a crossroads. In order to continue to work in adult education in California, she would have to go back to school, even though she had a doctorate in education from Teachers College, Columbia University, where she also had trained teachers. Her experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa, prior to graduate studies in New York, had sparked an interest in pursuing a career in health care. “Physical therapy married everything I was interested in because physical therapy requires teaching skills,” said Dr. Tirone.
Becoming a student in Pacific’s doctor of physical therapy program also led to a new hobby when one of her classmates introduced her to the world of competitive rowing. When she discovered individual sculling, she never looked back. In sculling, the rower has an oar in each hand as compared to sweep rowing, where each rower has a single oar. “The feeling of being on the water by yourself and propelling across the water is very addictive,” Dr. Tirone said.

“Without my experiences as a physical therapist, I would not have had the courage to bring my own patients down to the water to help them reclaim sport.”

Dr. Tirone is the director of Delta Sculling Center, where she is also the head coach. The center’s motto is “Where EveryBODY Sculls.” “I think a sport is not really a sport until it is inclusive,” she said. They adapt their boats to meet the needs of individuals with physical, cognitive or sensory limitations. Many of these individuals use wheelchairs, walkers or prosthetics. “When you are in the boat those things are gone,”Dr. Tirone said. “There is a meditative quality to the freedom one finds on the water.” The sport demands commitment and perseverance, but offers a sense of peace and community. Time and again, Dr. Tirone has witnessed the restorative power of rowing.

She received the USRowing 2018 Isabel Bohn Award, named in honor of a pioneer and role model in the world of adaptive rowing who lost her left leg at age 11. Dr. Tirone was humbled to receive the award and accepted it on behalf of the center’s volunteers, staff and athletes. Speaking of the award’s past recipients, she said, “Those are my mentors.”

In 2016, the center received a grant from USRowing, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, to establish Freedom Rows, a program for military veterans suffering from PTSD and other war-related injuries. The center is also bringing rowing to local schools. Dr. Tirone helped successfully secure a grant from the George Pocock Rowing Foundation to bring Erg Ed®, an indoor rowing education program, to Stockton Unified School District and local Aspire Public Schools.

Established in 2010 in Seattle, the program uses indoor rowing machines, known as ergometers or ergs, to introduce students to the sport. In addition to rowing skills, the students learn about exercise, goal setting and teamwork. Delta Sculling Center facilitates moving the rowing machines from one school to another and assists the work of physical education teachers who implement the Erg Ed® curriculum in their schools.

Dr. Tirone is currently a consultant for Rehab Without Walls. She works with patients who are coming out of acute care, many of whom have severe orthopedic and neurologic injuries. She is part of an interdisciplinary team that consists of an occupational therapist, neuropsychologist, speech-language pathologist and social worker. “For me, that work is really exciting in terms of both getting that patient back on his or her feet and back to being a part of the community.” She finds great reward in “being a part of getting them back to their life.”
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Looking back at her time at Pacific, Dr. Tirone remembers the “incredibly positive, supportive atmosphere.” “The way my classmates supported one another reminds me of a rowing team,” she said. “My life is so much richer than it would have been had I not become a physical therapist. I bring to my physical therapy the insights of an educator. Without my experiences as a physical therapist, I would not have had the courage to bring my own patients down to the water to help them reclaim sport.” Through the power of rowing, the center is helping individuals become athletes again.

By Anne Marie H. Bergthold

What a great day it was in Gold River on Saturday October 26, 2019 —flat water and sunny weather!

This is to extend the most heartfelt thanks to ALL of you who came to help our DSC Girls Row Stockton and Masters teams for the Head of the American on Saturday! Special thanks to Kim for being our fearless trailer driver and accompanying Pat and Bob O on Friday evening staking out our “camp”, returning home to Valley Springs, and coming back before dawn to do ALL we do at regattas!

Much gratitude to our Masters (Bev, Chuck, Jody who helped at the boathouse on Thursday evening when we loaded boats and Sandra, Carmen, Jean, Karen, and Chuck at the race course on Saturday).  None of these generous Masters were competing but all gave of their time and energy to assist getting boats off on the trailer and later off and then again back on the trailer, rigging and de-rigging boats, getting our scullers in and out of the water, and SO MUCH MORE!! 

And, of course, the fantastic parents and grandparents and an aunt of our GRS scullers who 1) set up our “camp” before the sun came up and took it down before dusk, 2) provided the best nourishment any team could hope for, 3) cheered (along with the Masters) louder than any team at the regatta, and 4) helped in many other ways. 

Thanks also to Coach G for helping to organize everyone with getting boats ready for the races and working with the girls to have a positive experience.

Finally, congrats to all the competitors, who all felt very good about their races:  Masters Kim, Lesley, Amy K. and Susan in a quad, Bob Lee and Rachel in the inclusive mixed double, and Bob O in his single; and GRS scullers Amy [initial] & Ivy and Sydney & Skylar in doubles, and Hannah, Elise, Khushi and Callie in a quad.

As Junior scullers Amy and Ivy said at the end of the day back at the boathouse, probably echoing what every DSC sculler would say, they felt so much more confident, happy, and willing to train harder to do even better in future races next year.  

MUCHISIMAS GRACIAS A TODOS!!

​The New York Times recently published a beautiful article about balance in our boats and balance in life! When we read the author's words about her rowing experience, it sparked us to deeply reflect on how sculling has changed our lives over the years.

Ask yourself:
What has the sport taught you about yourself and about your life?
How has it improved your relationships with others and the relationship with yourself?

Please comment below with your reflections, or share your experience with others.

Take time to reflect, and  maybe even write down, the ways our sport has impacted your life. 

The more we can talk to others, the more we can change lives through the beautiful and impactful properties that our sport has to offer to everyBODY!


Finding Balance in a Tiny, Wobbly Boat
by Tara Murtha
October 1, 2019
* This article was published in the Wellness section of The New York Times

Rowing is a rigorous workout for the muscles as well as for mindfulness: Not wanting to flip keeps you focused.


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​I woke up one day a few years ago and realized my life had been reduced to a hamster wheel of deadlines. I worked through nights, weekends, dinner, vacations and almost my marriage. At the time, I thought of strength as endurance and thought I could handle it. My body disagreed.

I’d drag all day long then lie awake in bed at night, overwhelmed by the hot buzzing sensation of intense anxiety. Sometimes I struggled to breathe. I’m being choked to death by the invisible hand of late-stage capitalism, I’d say, only half-kidding.

I knew I needed to get offline, go outside and exercise, but physical activity more intense than yoga or walking made me dry heave and break into a cold sweat. My body was sending a clear message: My typical Type-A style of mowing down deadlines wasn’t working anymore. I needed a new approach.

I spent about a year building strength by doing 20-minute yoga videos. One day I was stretching on a dock by the river near my home in Philadelphia, the Schuylkill, when a dragon boat full of female paddlers pulled up and invited me, a stranger, to join them. Why not? I climbed in and took a paddle. The random experience inspired me to join a dragon-boating team the next year.

I enjoyed being on the river, but dragon-boating means you have to swing your paddle at exactly the same time as everyone else in the boat or you slow everyone else down. I got in shape, but it felt like having to hit dozens of deadlines a minute under a blazing sun.

One day while walking by the river I spotted a single rower peacefully sculling across the water just before sundown and realized that’s where I wanted to be. I didn’t want to try to keep up with other people. I needed to find my own pace.

The next spring, I signed up for a new-member training program at Philadelphia Girls’ Rowing Club. Eight weeks later, I was wobbling down the river in my very own, very tippy-feeling, absurdly tiny boat. It was unsettling to feel as if shifting a few inches the wrong way could flip me face-first into cold water. That whole first summer I nervously stayed close to the shoreline, awkwardly stabbing my oars at the water while watching real rowers glide past me.

Rowing is a physically tough workout but also provides excellent practice in mindfulness. Not wanting to flip is a strong motivation for staying focused on the present moment. Every stroke is an invitation to correct mistakes made during the one before. Rowing is about perpetually starting over.

Slowly, I learned how to stay afloat.


There’s nothing like shoving off the dock at sunrise when the water is calm and still as a mirror. I stretch my arms out like a divining rod and press my legs until the boat glides backward and takes me with it. I do it again, micro-correcting my stroke. Whoosh. A rowing lap on the Schuylkill begins by facing the Philadelphia skyline. I can see the statue of William Penn standing atop City Hall a few blocks from my old office, where I spent countless hours alone staring at words on a computer screen well past midnight. Whoosh. The city disappears behind the river’s bend.

I took up rowing because I needed to get out of my head and into my body but along the way, I realized I was also rowing myself back into the world. I glide beneath a bridge rattling with trains carrying suburban commuters to their offices then begin looking for sunbathing turtles, calm kings perched on rocks along the river’s edge. I check out the ducks. If I’m lucky I glimpse a great blue heron and get to watch this magnificent bird’s slow wingbeat lift its hollow bones into the air.

You can learn a lot about yourself in a boat. Over time, I realized my bad rowing habits reflected the same shortcomings that led to burnout in the first place. I can be anxious and too eager to please, so I often find myself yanking on the oars instead of relying on stronger muscles in my legs and back to do the work. At the end of the stroke, I’m supposed to push my hands away as quickly as possible to set up for what’s called the recovery, meaning the slow slide back up to the stern. It took me months to stop rushing through the recovery, even though you’re supposed to spend more time in recovery than in the more muscular parts of the stroke.

I still catch myself staring at my feet, miserably muscling through the miles instead of maintaining correct posture and lifting my chin enough to gaze at the horizon. When my coach sees me hunched over he laughs and gestures at the trees and blue sky. “Look up! It’s beautiful out here!”

Sometimes I realize I must be doing something wrong because I’m too tired, too soon. I’ve come to recognize exhaustion as an opportunity, an invitation to efficiency.

Like the burnout that led me to row in the first place, feeling exhausted when I have to row two miles back to the dock tells me I need to reconsider my approach, to work smarter, not harder.

Rowing taught me that balance is more important than endurance, and that I can cultivate it.

I work hard now but have a life outside of the office, complete with nights and dinners and vacations. My husband no longer refers to himself as a writer’s widower. I took tap dancing lessons last year, and I play in a band. I even have sunlight hours to spend on the river.

More experienced rowers tell me that achieving the perfect stroke can take a lifetime. That’s fine with me. All I have to do is remember why I got in the boat in the first place, and then start all over again.
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Tara Murtha is a writer and author of “Ode to Billie Joe.”

To view the full article, please visit The New York Times' website.