The Brockville Rowing Club has taken big steps forward to rejuvenate a once high-profile sports organization.
It’s a proud and long-running club that has produced Olympic medal winners, a lightweight crew that finished seventh at the world championships in 1975, an Olympic rowing official and coaches at the provincial and national levels.
Now, after a number of years of struggling, the BRC is working and building its way back into rowing competitions.
“It was phenomenal,” said an enthusiastic Tyler St. John, the head coach and director of rowing and operations for the BRC. “We had such a good year in the development of our club. There’s excitement here again. I feel things are going really well.”
In the past year, the club has gone from a handful of young rowers to having more than 30 who are now training six days a week in the off-season in preparation for 2026.
The BRC finished the season at the Head of the Rideau competition in Ottawa recently. In the under-19 women’s eight – a crew made up of seven 17-year-olds and one elementary school rower – the BRC ended up beating the Royal Military College of Kingston crew by 20 seconds in the 5,000-metre race.
“We had such a good experience there. They were unbelieveable,” gushed St. John.
The BRC also had a first-place and second-place finish in the under-19 men’s sweep four in Ottawa.
The club competed at the schoolboy championships for the first time in a long time and the Eastern Rowing Association Regatta in Montreal, the Row Ontario championships and the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, making a good showing.
“People were coming up to me and saying it was great to see Brockville back in rowing,” said St. John.
The club has rowers from seven different schools, BCI, TISS, Rideau of Elgin, Gananoque, St. Mary of Brockville, Ange-Gabriel and Swift Waters Elementary School.
“There’s a level of excitement here for our young rowers at the club going into next year,” said St. John, looking forward to the improvement from a dedicated off-season of working out in the weight room and on the rowing machines.
The club is already planning on competing in indoor rowing regattas over the winter as well as hoping to host one at TISS.
St. John, who rowed on some of the powerhouse BCI and BRC crews in the 1990’, was drawn into the coaching last winter when then head coach Will Mulcahy asked him to help out. When Mulcahy stepped away, St. John was asked to take over. He began looking for other BRC graduates to join him.
“I’m trying to build a team of alumni, rowers who know the club and know what the BRC is all about and they’re stepping up to the plate to help develop the image that once was the BRC,” said St. John.
He thanked the parents and the BRC executive for all they have done to provide assistance and encouragement in the rebuilding process.
At a special event in mid-September, the BRC honoured the lightweight crew from 1975 that consisted of John Armitage, Bill Cody, Bill Earle and Jim Earle. They were the Canadian champions and finished seventh at the world championships, a feat that will never be duplicated again.
The club also presented former rower and head coach Chris Marshall with the Award of Merit for his dedication to the BRC over many years, joining his parents, Doug and Pat, as recipients of the honour.