If you have a high schooler interested in crew, you should aim to live close enough to The Foundry to take advantage of all this facility has to offer. Located on Columbus Road in The Flats, The Foundry opened in the spring of 2017 following a multi-million dollar investment led by Michael & Gina Trebilcock (parents of rowers themselves) and his company’s charitable foundation MCPc Family Charities.
Unlike the Western Reserve Rowing Association (WRAA), which is Cleveland’s premier ADULT rowing club (for fun or to compete), this facility is strictly for high school and collegiate aged athletes.
The brand new buildings join seamlessly with century old buildings on this urban campus on the Cuyahoga River. To learn more about the history of the buildings and the source of the non-profit’s name, here’s a great story on the history of the space.
Currently, there are five high schools in Cleveland that offer crew as an extracurricular school sport: St. Edward’s, St. Ignatius, St. Joseph Academy, Magnificat and Shaker Heights High School. All other teens who want to row but don’t have a school team combine forces on the Cuyahoga Youth Rowing Association team. CYRA offers scholarships to those students who could otherwise not afford to row (each shell costs $40K+ as they are high performance machines). Minimum age for rowing on the busy commercial river is 6th grade, but younger students can practice in the tanks and use the workout rooms.
We challenged our corporate clients and staff to give it a shot using the indoor rowing tanks and were impressed with their teamwork. A quick five minutes with an oar shows you the full body workout it provides, until somone shouts “way nuff” to stop the experiment!
Parents bring their kids to practice beginning at 5:00 am (lots of parent lounges for hanging out while the kids practice), and practices resume again at end of the school day.
Adults can also take advantage of the rowing tanks with indoor excercise classes including this MeetUp group.
It’s fabulous to watch 600′ ore boats rumble up the river to Lake Erie as rowers glide silently next to them. There are lots of cool spaces (available for rental), including this courtyard with a 100 year old tree that anchors the campus and is a favorite good weather spot for students to take the rowing machines outside to practice.
Honestly, there is something for everyone in NE Ohio…no matter what your hobby, interest or passion, there are people here doing it and eager to welcome you. If your company would like to embed Executive Arrangements into your talent attraction and retention programs so that we can share our deep resources with your incoming candidates and new hires so they meet/see the people, places and resources they need to feel instantly at home in NE Ohio, call us at 216.231.9311.
