SRA Junior Competitive

Featuring competitive rowing for athletes from 7th to 12th grades, SRA is one of the largest and strongest competitive rowing programs in the country.  It is a priority at SRA that every member of every squad: modified (middle school), U17, and U19 row regularly in practice and compete in races.  Everyone rows, everyone races.  

SRA Junior competitive program is made up mainly of rowers from Saratoga Spring High School and Middle Schools.  There are also members of the program from the surrounding communities whose schools do not have their own rowing program including Ballston Spa, Spa Catholic, Christian Brothers Academy, Schuylerville, Waldorf School of Saratoga, and a few others.  

The Junior competitive program is made up of 3 distinct seasons:  Spring, Summer, and Fall.

The Spring Season begins in early March (depending on age and other sports) and finishes the first weekend of June.  This season features the most racing and involves a good bit of travel depending on the crew.  Practices are typically after school in the 3-6 PM time span.

The Summer Season begins at the end of June and runs through the second week of August.  The Canadian Henley regatta is the featured week-long regatta at the end of the season.  The summer is open to athletes from outside the SRA community who wish to join.  Practices for the rising 10th-12th graders are generally from 6:45-9:00 AM.

The Fall season begins the first week of September and finishes the first week of November.  There is less travel during fall, and practices are typically after school also in the 3-6 PM time span.  Financial aid and scholarship opportunities are available in the form of our "Rower's Assistance Program."

 

Fall Junior Competive Team

 

Fall Rowing starts at the beginning of September and continues to the beginning of November. Updates for exact dates and cost will be available HERE.

The Junior Competitive program includes options for rising 7th-12th graders. Our Middle School Team includes 7th-8th; U17 group will include freshmen, U17s, and novices; and U19 will include the remaining high school athletes.

Join us this Fall in our pursuit of achieving our mission in fostering excellence and integrity in our athletes!

Ready to register?

Click here to be redirected to SportsEngine, our registration page!

Varsity Boys
Varsity Girls
U17 Boys
U17 Girls
Modified
Varsity Boys
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Mike MacMinn

Varsity Boy's Lead Coach, Program Director
About Mike

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Tessa Yurko

Assistant Coach
About Tessa

Tessa began coaching for SRA in 2020 as an ARION athlete and has since become our Assistant Varsity Boys coach. She began rowing in 7th grade and continued rowing in college at the University of Michigan where she obtained a degree in Women's Studies. She trained post-collegiately for 4 years at Princeton Training center and then for the ARION program. Tessa has coached consistently throughout her rowing career, starting with learn to row camps in high school and college. She was a Novice coach at Mercer Rowing while training in Princeton and then began working with the Freshman boys upon moving to Saratoga.

Varsity Girls
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Abbie Albright

Head Coach
About Abbie

Abbie Albright is moving into the position of Varsity Girls Lead Coach, beginning next week!  Our Mod program has made great strides under Abbie's leadership over the past two years, with recent highlights of the U15 boys bringing home a bronze medal in the coxed quad at USRowing Youth Nationals, and the U15 girls coxed quad in back-to-back A finals. This summer she has been an assistant coach with the Varsity Girls team and has previously coached at West Side Rowing Club and USRowing ODP Camps. Abbie is also an SRA alumni rower herself!

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Lauren Schall

Assistant Coach
About Lauren

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Kara Soucek

Assistant Coach
About Kara

Kara has been coaching at SRA since 2016 when she joined the ARION program as an elite rower. She was a walk-on rower in college for Gonzaga where she studied biology. Post-collegiately she was a member of the US National Team in 2017 and 2018 and a member of ARION until 2019 when she stepped away from competitive rowing. Kara has worked with all levels of SRA athletes, starting with Learn-to-Row, then moving up to mod girls, freshman girls, and now the varsity girls. She is a cat-lover from Idaho and enjoys anything outdoors, namely swimming, camping, hiking, and cycling.

U17 Boys
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Donnie Jensen

U17 Boys Coach
About Donnie

Donnie has spent the past two years as Boys Head Coach at Port Rowing. He has an extensive background in youth coaching as well as maintaining rowing equipment, docks, and launches. That extra skill set he’s bringing to SRA will be invaluable in keeping our equipment and facilities in good shape! Donnie will also be onboarding new freshmen and novice rowers, and generally be responsible for the development of all U17 boy athletes.

U17 Girls
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Ronnie Cantrell

U17 Girls Coach
About Ronnie

Ronnie is joining us from Michigan and has a variety of experience from coaching at both high school and collegiate levels as well as planning and running regattas. He began rowing in high school and continued on to row at Oxford Brookes University Boat Club in England. He has coached at the junior level with Skyline Crew, Pioneer Crew, and Washtenaw Rowing Center. Most recently he was an assistant coach with Michigan State Women's Rowing. He has also coached for Craftsbury Sculling Center, the USRowing Olympic Development Program, and the USRowing U23 Selection Development team.

Modified
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Abbie Albright

Middle School Coordinator
About Abbie

Abbie Albright is moving into the position of Varsity Girls Lead Coach.  Our Mod program has made great strides under Abbie's leadership over the past two years, with recent highlights of the U15 boys bringing home a bronze medal in the coxed quad at USRowing Youth Nationals, and the U15 girls coxed quad in back-to-back A finals. This summer she has been an assistant coach with the Varsity Girls team and has previously coached at West Side Rowing Club and USRowing ODP Camps. Abbie is also an SRA alumni rower herself!

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Connor Toomey

Middle School Lead Coach
About Connor

Connor is a recent Syracuse grad and SRA alum and in addition to the Lead Coach for Mods he is part of the regatta team as Regatta Assistant. He started rowing in 8th grade, rowing at Albany Rowing Center for 4 years, before moving to SRA for his senior year. In college he rowed for Syracuse from 2019-2023 while obtaining a degree in Sports Management. Connor began coaching Learn-to-Row here at SRA and has also worked as an assistant varsity boys coach under Mike MacMinn.