Rowing Canada Aviron held this year's Junior National Team Winter Camp at Shawnigan Lake, BC from March 15th - 23rd. Athletes, Coaches, and Support Staff that attended the camp include:

Men

Conlin McCabe	Brockville Rowing Club
Nicholas Schudlo	St Catharines Rowing Club
Alex Housser	Shawnigan Lake Rowing Club
Pryce Waites	Lake Oswego Rowing Club

Women

Justine Galbraith	St Catharines Rowing Club
Katrina Pichelli	South Niagara Rowing Club
Quinn Erickson	Brentwood College Rowing Club
Sarah Aylard	Victoria City Rowing Club
Karoline Mikolajewski	St Catharines Rowing Club
Katie Dick	Shawnigan Lake Rowing Club
Brie-anne Breton	South Niagara Rowing Club
Elyse Weir	Saskatoon Rowing Club
Amanda McGeachie	Victoria City Rowing Club

Coaches/Staff

Chris Marshall
John Ruscitti
Dereck Schwandt
Gavin Mckay
Heather Hague
Jarret Poitras (Manager)

Athlete Camp Report - Alex Housser

Once again, the Junior National Team camp was held at Shawnigan Lake this year. I think all the rowers and coaches would agree that it was a very positive experience. The rowers arrived Saturday night and rowed straight through until the following Saturday. The focus of the first few days was to get everyone on the same page and rowing together with similar technique. Four guys and nine girls participated in the camp. For some, it was their first time on the the water all year. On Tuesday, we took a break from the water and jumped on the erg for a 6k “challenge”. Everyone felt well prepared and supported going into it and results were strong for the majority of the group. For the next two days we trained in preparation for the time trials and were happy knowing that the 6k was over with. The last three days of the camp were incredible. By this point, everyone was getting along extremely well and we had made many new friends. After our time trials on the last day, we climbed Mt. Finlayson in Victoria. It was a great way to finish off the camp.

We were very fortunate throughout the week to have many professional speakers come talk to us. Each day someone different would give us advice on how we could improve our lives as athletes. We listened to sports nutritionists, sport psychologists, etc. Some highlight speakers were National Men’s team coach Mike Spracklen and National Team rower, Malcolm Howard. Mike Spracklen gave a fantastic presentation talking about rowing technique. It was complete with pictures and video of his team in training. Malcolm Howard talked about his impressive three-year experience on the Junior National Team. It was very inspirational to hear what they had to say.

I will miss not coming to this camp next year. Everything about it was perfect, including the coaching, the accommodation, the facilities, and the food. For the first time in three years, no boats were broken at the camp. We were pretty proud of that. Thanks a lot to the coaches and Rowing Canada staff that made this happen.