Trinity Treasure

The Friends of Trinity Rowing Boathouse

Just a short drive away from campus, along the Connecticut River in East Hartford, lies the Friends of Trinity Rowing Boathouse. The facility houses 14 eights, 12 fours, and 20 smaller boats, as well as locker rooms; the Minot Training Area, with 48 ergometers among other equipment; the Ben Brewster Room team room for meetings, stretches, and video viewing; and the Captain’s Room, which serves as an athletic lounge, rowing library, and study room.

Trinity’s Head Men’s Rowing Coach Kevin MacDermott, in his 15th year leading the team, notes that the boathouse is a far cry from the original facility, a tobacco shed on the Farmington River in Windsor. In the mid-’60s, the Bliss Boathouse was built on the current East Hartford site. In the 2000s, the Friends of Trinity Rowing Boathouse opened in two phases, with the boat bays completed in advance of the interior spaces upstairs. “The boathouse is such an incredible space for training,” MacDermott says. “It is large, it is open, the air quality is wonderful,” he says, adding, “The Captain’s Room is really special. It was the gift of the Graves family—Harry ’78, Lynne, Tom ’05, Peter ’07, and John ’10. Peter now coaches the women’s team. That space is meant for the student-athletes; it’s their special space, and they really respect it.”

While the rowers also have a training facility in the Ferris Athletic Center that includes rowing tanks and more ergometers, the goal is to be on the river as much as possible. “If we can be on the water, we’re on the water,” MacDermott says. “Both men’s and women’s teams, that’s our first priority. If we are unable to be on the water, we share the two facilities.”

MacDermott also serves as narrator for The Bantam Oar: The Story of Rowing at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut (1974). The book, written by Trinity alumna, parent, and grandparent Barbara Connell “B.C.” Mooney M’68, P’74, ’75, GP’06, offers a glimpse of the rowing program through the years, from its founding in the mid-1800s through the addition of women’s teams in the 1970s. With the book out of print for several decades, the audio format and attendant photo gallery on the Trinity website help to preserve Bantam rowing history.

To listen to the book, please visit The Bantam Oar and to learn more about Trinity rowing, please visit Men’s Rowing and Women’s Rowing on the Bantam Sports website.