Tsawwassen's Morgan Stade raced to a silver medal finish with the Burnaby Lake Rowing Club junior boys straight quad at the recent B.C.
Championships and Challenge West Rowing Regatta at Elk Lake in Victoria.
Stade has been competitively swimming for the Boundary Bay Bluebacks since the age of six, but says he has always wanted to be a rower.
Local resident Katherine Dawe and the incredible Burnaby Lake Rowing Club introduced him to the sport. He started training at Burnaby last September and has only been rowing competitively for three months, with the B.C. Championships being his third regatta.
"I was excited that I had the opportunity to compete at B.C. Champs and I know I would not have been able to get there without the amazing coaching and training by Cinda Ewton and Laris Grikis at BLRC," said Stade.
Three of the four boys in his boat were "Junior B" and rowed up for the "Junior A" category.
Rowing in the second seat for his crew, Stade and Burnaby teammates Duncan McAlister, Sawyer Brown and Jake Elword placed silver.
"I was nervous, not just because I am a fairly new rower, but because we were the youngest quad versing five other top Jr. A boats.
Our start was very tight, but we managed to pull out just past the halfway mark, and we battled for second place," said the 15-year-old.
This year, more than 600 athletes from Canada and the U.S. competed in 75 different rowing events at the regatta.
Stade hopes to one day see a thriving high school rowing program in Delta that offers the same opportunities to teens as those he has been given through membership in the Burnaby Lake Rowing Club.
