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05/25/2017 12:00 AMDr. Renny Schoonmaker’s history of competitive rowing and work as chairman of the head of the Connecticut Regatta give him great perspective to help the Valley Regional crew as a volunteer assistant coach. Renny is in his first season with the Warriors, who only a year ago had to borrow boats and oars from the team at Old Lyme in order to compete. After a local benefactor financed the purchase of new equipment, the Warriors have been able to compete this season, and they’ve even taken first place at a few regattas. Renny loves seeing the program grow before his eyes as Valley Regional keeps achieving new milestones on the water.
“I think the exciting thing is that we’ve been doing reasonably well. We recently had a regatta on the Yale course in Derby, and we had boats take first and second place. To us, that was a huge progression,” Renny says. “The vast majority of the girls on the crew are sophomores and most of them are completely new to the sport. To get them all together and putting their oars in the water at the same time is a huge accomplishment.”
Renny enjoys lending a helping hand to the Warriors while working alongside Head Coach John Laundon, who had a tremendous rowing career in his own right. Laundon’s success is one of the reasons why Renny decided to volunteer with the team.
“I heard from a friend that John Laundon was coaching at Valley Regional. Anyone who knows anything about crew in New England knows about John Laundon,” says Renny. “When I heard he was coaching this crew, I sent him an email asking if he would like any help and he told me yes. Since the program was just starting, they needed all the help they could get.”
Renny’s rowing career began at Poughkeepsie High School in New York, after which he competed at Yale University for four years. Renny’s hometown has an extensive rowing tradition as the Intercollegiate Rowing Association’s (IRA) National Championship of Collegiate Rowing was held on the Hudson River from 1895 until 1949.
“I had the advantage of a tradition of rowing there. A lot of the paraphernalia from the rowing team 20 years prior was there, too,” he says. “I often rowed out of the old Cornell boat house. There were a lot of nice boat houses in the area, and lot of schools in the area had rowing crews.”
When Renny was growing up, the story of the University of Washington crew that earned gold at 1936 Summer Olympics was still fresh many years after it happened. One of the ways that team qualified to compete at the Olympics in Berlin was by winning the IRA Regatta in Poughkeepsie. The 2013 book The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics told the story of that group, and Renny often refers to their process when communicating the habits and techniques of a successful crew to the Warriors.
“In crew, timing is everything,” says Renny. “In Boys in the Boat, they talk a lot about this thing called swing. You can’t define it until you’ve been in a boat and felt it...A myriad of technical issues go into it. There are all sorts of drills and exercises to improve the timing and application of force. What I like to tell the girls is that if you don’t put your oar in the water, you can’t pull on it.”
Coach Laundon has seen plenty of progression from his young team in a short amount of time. Laundon believes that Renny’s instruction and example have boosted the Warriors’ improvement.
“We have a very young team. What we’ve been doing for most of the season is teaching technique. It’s only the last few weeks that we’ve been able to go out there longer and work on building endurance,” says Laundon. “Renny, like any coach, will go out there teach technique and review with the crew what they talked about and how to improve. Certainly, enthusiasm is a big part of it. He’s a great role model for sure. Plus, he’s a doctor and that helps, too.”
One of the reasons why Renny sets such a great example for the Warriors is because he understands the benefits of crew. The sport not only involves physical discipline, it also requires everyone to work together as a team in the boat.
“It’s a wonderful way to stay in shape, and it’s a non-impact sport. It’s a fabulous one that uses almost every muscle in your body,” says Renny. “Also it’s a sport where there are no heroes...There’s no one person that stands out. It’s very much a team effort.”
Renny takes great pride in the fact that crew is building momentum at Valley Regional, and he thinks the future looks bright for the burgeoning program.
“Whether it’s theatre or sports, the community support is absolutely critical,” says Renny. “I think within a year, building on what we have now, there’s reason to believe we’ll be in the running with a lot of big schools.”
While he’s making quite an impact in his role as a volunteer assistant, Renny thanks Coach Laundon for the immense impact he’s had in getting the Valley Regional crew off the ground.
“John Laundon is the one who puts the program together. He gets the paperwork together. He has to get the school bus to show up. He also drives the truck with the trailer full of equipment all over to the regattas,” Renny says. “Without John, the program wouldn’t be anywhere. I’m just happy to be able to help out.”