Our first PBC Profile - Guess who?

Last summer, we received the photo above via email from a fellow PBC member, who was racing at Masters Nationals in Long Beach, Calif.  The subject line simply read, “Guess who?”  We tried to play along, but after guessing everyone from Apollo mission astronauts to Joe DiMaggio and Roger Maris, the sender finally gave up on us.

It turns out, at one point at least, we had the guy on the left correct:  That’s Tony Johnson, member of Potomac Boat Club, two-time Olympian, and coach of Georgetown University.  Tony was out in Long Beach training with his pair partner for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics when this photo was snapped.  We thought it was pretty cool that another PBC rower would just happen to spot the photo at the Long Beach Rowing Center more than 40 years later.

But have you guessed who the other guy is, yet?

Well, when we envisioned the PBC Profiles area of the Potomac Star the guy on the right was first on our list of potential “victims.”  And no, it isn’t Roger Maris.  Back then, this New York guy had a few vertical inches and probably more than a few solid pounds on Maris.  Give up?  Thought so! (Drumroll, please.)

It’s Jim Edmonds!

You can find Jim at the boathouse almost any time you show up.  In fact, some of us see him there so often, we’ve wondered if he is just always there.  (Of course, he probably wonders the same about us.)  A couple of weeks ago at PBC’s Annual Meeting, House Committee Chair Cal Sutliff thanked Jim for his involvement in almost every improvement and repair project at the boathouse, but, of course, it happened to be one of those rare occasions Jim wasn’t there with us.

If you know him at all, it probably wouldn’t surprise you to learn that Jim was back out in California racing at the San Diego Crew Classic the week of the meeting.  And maybe it was just as well.  Although Jim always seems to be there when we need him, he definitely is not one who likes a big to-do to be made about all that he has done.

When we decided that readers of the Potomac Star would like to know more about Jim, we also knew it would be tough to get him to let us do a write-up about his life.  Thank goodness Jim’s sons, Eric and Marc, were more than happy to share his story with us!

Following is our very first PBC Profile.  It was written by Eric and Marc Edmonds as a tribute to their dad, former Syracuse University rowing alum, Pan Am champ, Olympian … and just one of our most beloved PBC guys of recent time, Jim Edmonds.

Our dad, Jim Edmonds, comes from a long line of farmers, not rowers.  One of three children, Dad grew up with older brother Jack and younger sister Nancy on the Edmonds family farm near Keuka Lake in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.  Established in the 1830’s, the Edmonds family farm produced chickens, cows, corn, and cabbage.  Lots of cabbage.  In 1974, the farm was sold to one of the first Mennonite families to move to the area from Pennsylvania, and later became the subject of a National Geographic special on Mennonites in New York.

When Dad and his brother Jack weren’t going to school or helping out on the farm, they built race cars and raced them at a track a couple of towns away.  One year, Dad won first place in the National Teenage Road-E-O contest “in recognition of expert driving ability and proper driving attitude.”  Growing up on a farm, Dad gained self-reliance and practical mechanical know-how, but also learned the importance of hard work and helping others.  His parents instilled in him the modesty, humility and integrity that he continues to exhibit today.

In high school, Dad excelled in math and science, and never missed a day.  He did so well that he earned a state scholarship to attend Syracuse University, which is where he was first introduced to rowing.  At Syracuse, Dad majored in mechanical engineering, and initially tried out for the basketball team as a freshman.  He didn’t make it, but at 6’4”, he caught the attention of the rowing coach, who asked him to come out for the university’s rowing team.  He did and he loved it.  His freshman year, Dad rowed in the freshman eight that won the IRA regatta.  In 1959, his senior year, Dad rowed bow of the varsity eight, which beat all other competitor crews that season except for Cornell.  They would more than make up for that one loss, though, by winning gold at the 1959 Pan Am Games.

Dad ended up rowing all four years at Syracuse, one year achieving the highest GPA of any varsity athlete.  He graduated from Syracuse in 1959, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering, and went on from there to earn a Master of Science degree in Computer Science (then referred to as Mathematics) from the University of Michigan.  Following graduation, he accepted a job offer from IBM, and was assigned to supporting the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency in the DC area.  Moving to DC also brought Dad to Potomac Boat Club (PBC), where he started rowing a pair with fellow Syracuse alum, Tony Johnson.  They were coached by legendary Washington-Lee High School coach, Charlie Butt, Jr.

Dad trained with Tony twice a day, and continued to hold down his job with IBM.  It seemed like the hard work had paid off.  That year, they won the Olympic trials qualifying them for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.  In the end, the pair wasn’t able to medal, but the 1965 National Association of Amateur Oarsman (NAAO) Almanac reported that strong cross winds made their race “the most controversial race of the regatta.”  Of course, if you asked Dad why they didn’t medal at the Olympics, he most likely would not hesitate to take responsibility for it all himself.

Dad continued to row with Potomac Boat Club following the Olympics, and in 1965, he was in the PBC boat that won the Men’s Championship 8 event at the very first Head of the Charles Regatta, also the first official head style race in the U.S.  Around 1970, Dad hung up his oar and, as far as we know, didn’t touch one again for more than 25 years.  Instead, he focused on other outdoor activities, work, and family.  Dad met Yolanda Coppola, the future Mrs. Edmonds and our mom, at IBM.  They married and then moved to the house in Arlington where they raised us (sons Eric and Marc), and where they still live today.

Dad always loved the outdoors, and loved spending time with us outdoors.  He would pack up the whole family into a Volkswagen Bug for weekends of canoeing, hiking and camping up in the Shenandoah Mountains of Virginia, and for the annual trip to the Adirondack Mountains of New York.  Although he wasn’t actively rowing during this time, he was remained very active at PBC, and  continued to go down to the boathouse at least three times a week for a run or to help out anyway he could.  Dad  managed the timing for the Head of the Potomac Regatta from the first one in 1981 until 2005, and then again in 2008.  In fact, Dad might have been one of the first to employ a computer-based system to manage regatta timing.  In 1983, he used a simple timing program he had written on his home computer  to successfully manage the timing for the Head of the Potomac from that year forward.

In 1997, Dad disappeared for one very long day, and returned with a Filippi single on top of his car.  It seemed to signal his return to rowing.  To this day, we are not exactly sure what the impetus was, but he jumped right back into competition, racing in various regattas, including at the IRA in a gold medal winning Syracuse alumni boat, the San Diego Crew Classic, Masters Nationals, the Head of the Charles, the Head of the Potomac, and even the Head of the River in London.

Dad retired from IBM after more than 30 years.  He still enjoys hiking and canoeing and has been a long time member of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, where he volunteers to help maintain equipment and trails in the Shenandoah National Park.  And of course, as you know, Dad continues to row and race.  We followed Dad into the sport of rowing, and rowed at Washington-Lee High School for Dad’s former coach, Charlie Butt.  We continued the tradition of rowing in college, and returned to row for PBC after graduation.

If you’d like to see a few more images from this PBC Profile of Jim Edmonds, please play the slideshow below.

Protected: 2009APR15 BOG Meeting Minutes

USRowing Spring Speed Order Continues Today

Check out how Potomac Boat Club’s Margot Shumway did yesterday at the USRowing Spring Speed Order by reading the full article on Team USA’s homepage.

Informal racing continues today, April 11, in double sculls and fours. The top 12 finishers in the singles will be placed into double sculls combinations, and the men’s pairs will be placed into fours. Rowers will race twice, with lineup switches taking place between the two rows.  Today’s races just got underway at 7:30 a.m.

You can find all the results from the previous days and track today’s finishes at Powerhouse Timing.

Great job, Margot!

PBC Sculling Ladder Returns for ‘09!!!

PBC senior member and newly re-elected member of the Board, Ed Ryan, gives us the run-down on Sculling Ladder ‘09.

Attention all PBC Scullers!

Join us for this time-honored tradition of rowing, the PBC Sculling Ladder! It’s a way to have some fun, generate some friendly competition, and establish an informal pecking order of speed among the scullers in the Club. All PBC scullers are welcome!!!

Here’s how it works:

The Ladder.   You’ll see the Ladder hanging on the bulletin board across from the logbook.  The top rungs are now occupied by the top places from the ‘08 Ladder, as best as I can remember.  If you want to join, just take one of the blank depressors and place your name and age on it, together with any other embellishments you prefer. Place your depressor on the first open spot on the Ladder - - it’s that simple.  While last year we divided the Ladder between Girls and Boys, that distinction evaporated midway through the year and we’ll now have a single coed ladder and let the handicap chart work its magic.

The Equipment.  You, your single (or Club single), and oars.

The Challenge (or How to Move up the Ladder).  Any sculler can challenge another sculler within five rungs above his or her name on the Ladder.  A challenge must be accepted and rowed within two weeks at a mutually convenient time.  I’d like to see early Saturday mornings become the preferred time.  An extra incentive to encourage Saturday a.m.’s. — if raced at that time, the losing rower can immediately challenge the winner and the second race will take place as soon as both rowers can paddle back to the start.   Nice workout too.

The Handicaps.   A sheet of handicaps is posted right next to the Ladder.  It’s been scientifically calculated and essentially is a hybrid between the USRowing handicaps and what I’ll call the Gwadz handicaps.  Use your age as of the end of this year. There’s a lot of literature out there on the aging process and athletic performance, virtually all of it very depressing, and the handicaps are intended to adjust for that, as well as to make the racing as competitive as possible for PBC rowers.  The handicaps make this a great opportunity for everyone, from open through the most senior masters, to get out and scrimmage a bit on the river.    Last year we found that races were extremely competitive, and we’d like to see even more Open Scullers participate.

The Races. The race will be a 1000m race.  Standing start.  Challenger gets choice of lane.  The course - and this generated far too much controversy last year – is generally from the top of the Sisters to Key Bridge, but more precisely it is this:  the start is an (imaginary) line drawn perpendicularly from the first large sycamore tree immediately below the creek that empties on the Virginia side across from the top of Sisters – drawn to the sycamore tree immediately opposite on the DC side; the finish is an (imaginary) line drawn from the upstream edges of the Key Bridge abutments between the second and third arches (Virginia side).  If I can get my hands on a launch, I will tie a ribbon around the trunk of the upstream tree so you’ll know which one.  If you want to make it simple, just think of the top set of rocks at the Sisters to Key Bridge, and just do it.  The handicap adjustment is given at the start (i.e., the handicap differential is calculated, the boat receiving the handicap will start first and the other boat will then count off the differential and then start). This is all on the honor system. If there is a current, and you’re giving time, remember to keep backing lightly while counting down the handicap.
View Larger Map

The Spoils.  If the challenging sculler wins, the positions of the two rowers on the Ladder get reversed and the challenger takes the challengee’s spot (and visa versa), even if this means skipping a few rungs on the way up and down. If the challenging sculler loses, he or she must, at the sole discretion of the challengee, (a) wash the challengee’s boat, or (b) provide the challengee with uninterrupted drink service at the next PBC Happy Hour on the House, and address the challengee throughout such event as my liege.

Have Fun.  Row Fast.

-Ed Ryan

Strength in numbers

It was standing room only in the ballroom a few hours ago as Potomac Boat Club’s 143rd Annual Meeting got underway.  The teams were especially well represented, and the senior members amongst us were ready to talk Board seats.  In the end, there were three nominations for three available seats, which certainly made it all nice and simple.  Bob Price was reelected to the Board, and will serve another term as club president.  Ed Ryan was also reelected, and will take over as secretary.  Jean Hopkins is the new Board member-elect.

As for the rest of the evening, most attendees actually stayed after the Board member seats were decided to listen to the committee reports - a testament to the efforts of Susan Trice and Camilla Durfee of the Social Committee.  Those of us who came straight from work without dinner (or lunch for that matter) would like to say a special thanks to them for organizing another lovely event with lots of food and drink.  Thanks, Susan and Camilla!

We will post a more thorough run-down of the meeting later this week, but in the meantime, congratulations to Bob, Ed and Jean!  And great job to everyone who braved rain, traffic and a lack of sleep to be involved in the process.  We’re a stronger club for it today.

Please feel free to post your comments below on how you thought the meeting went!

Protected: 143rd Annual Meeting Minutes