While comparing CHS’s vast amount of sports to several other Montgomery County schools, one begins to notice there is something missing: crew.

For those who don’t know what crew is, it is a sport in which the athlete sits in the boat facing backwards (towards the stern) and uses the oars which are held in place by the oarlocks to propel the boat forward (towards the bow). This sport may be done on a river, lake, sea or other large body of water.

There are two forms of this sport. One is called sweep where each rower has one oar which they hold with both hands. This form can be done in pairs, quads or eights. The other form is called sculling where each rower has two oars, one in each hand. Sculling is usually done in singles, doubles or quads.

Although our school does not offer crew, Whitman, Holton-Arms and Walter Johnson do, which raises the question why CHS doesn’t.

“Crew wouldn’t be a varsity sport,” athletic director Dave Kelley said. “It would be a club sport, and staff members and students would need to have interest in it.”

Sophomore Jack Butler is one student interested in crew who would be willing to participate if the school offered the sport. In a survey of 25 CHS students, 20 said they would like to  have a crew team.

“I would love to have one because I love how it works,” Butler said. “I sometimes watch Navy’s crew team.”

Other schools’ crew teams are serious and competitive and find it odd that CHS does not have a crew team of its own.

“I am surprised that Churchill doesn’t offer this sport, when it offers so many [other] sports,” Holton-Arms senior Divya Angra said.

Even though crew is not offered yet, if students try to start a club with the help of an adult sponsor, the chances are high for the sport to be successful.

“There are opportunities for any clubs,” Kelley said. “All you need is some kids and a sponsor to start it.”