Rowing coach takes do or dye literally
Coach dyes hair green to support fundraising drive to buy new boats
The hue wasn’t quite right but Michael Roche wasn’t crying.
When the boys rowing coach at Hamilton’s Westdale Secondary School wanted to dye his hair forest green.
“But the closest we could get to the school colour was Kelly green.”
Roche’s hair, normally reddish, black, grey, didn’t appear green at all when he first looked in the mirror.
“It looked like it was jet black, it didn’t look like it was green,” the 58-year-old software developer said with a laigh. “It’s kind of ‘greened’ out today.”
Janet Ross, originally from St. Catharines, thought her husband was splitting hairs when it came to the colour of his coif.
“My wife says, ‘No, no, it’s green, it’s green, it looks good, it looks good.’”
Roche’s commitment to show — indeed, grow — his school colour started in the midst of a fundraising drive to buy two new rowing shells, hopefully in time for the Canadian Secondary Schools Association Rowing Association (CSSRA) championships.
“At one point in February, I made a statement saying, ‘Well, if you guys can raise $15,000, I will dye my hair green for CSSRA.’”
The goal of adding a double and a quad to a fleet Westdale shares on a 50-50 basis with the Leander Boat Club was reached recently when Westdale alum Alessandra Gage put the campaign, then stalled at $11,000,
over the top.
“She stepped up and said, ‘I will donate the $4,000, ’cause I want to see Coach Mike’s hair be green.’”
Roche didn’t take that lastminute commitment lightly.
Last night he went back to the well — ink well? — and did a do-over on his ’do by applying more dye.
“It’s not green enough, and I figured if someone made a $4,000 contribution I should go all out and make sure that it is green.”
A lot of the parents of the Westdale rowers think it’s “pretty good.”
“I’m getting a lot of looks at the side every once in a while when I’m walking through the compound,” he said on Henley Island on Day 1 of the national high school rowing championships.
“It’s seems to be positive. No one has stopped and asked, ‘Why is it green?’”
Roche’s new hair colour hasn’t received a second look at home, especially not from his daughter Pier, 14.
“Her hair is pink.”
No extended reign in forecast
E.L. Crossley has been a powerhouse when it comes to high school rowing in Canada.
The Cyclone’s historical dominance doesn’t mean the Canadian Secondary Schools Rowing Association Championships now underway on Martindale Pond in St. Catharines is “Crossley’s regatta.”
“I think some years we’ve had better years than other years, where we’ve had a lot more success, but, no, this is everybody’s regatta,” head coach John Ruscitti said. “There is a lot of very good racing here.
“People come from all over Canada and parts of the U.S., it’s very high-quality racing, so it’s not ‘Crossley’s regatta,’ it’s everybody’s regatta.”
After winning efficiency trophies in both the boys and girls divisions in 2017, the Cyclone didn’t come into this year’s national championship feeling extra pressure.
“No, every year is different, kids are different,” Ruscitti said. “We come out and race hard, and we try to take our best strokes and just let the results fall where they fall.”
While some crews use regattas leading up to CSSRA to finalize seat selection, the process of putting boats together can be more fluid than that at Crossley.
“Every day is selection at E.L. Crossley rowing,” the veteran coach said. “Some selection happens early, some selection happens late. The joke we have at Crossley is ‘You don’t know you’re racing in that boat until you’re in the starting gates.’”
“We try and make it as early as we can, but some years that’s easier than others, but the athletes are also aware that there could be changes in that they have to be prepared to adapt.
“They have to be prepared for changes, and they have to stay on their toes.”
High schools race at 2,000 metres in Canada, while it’s 1,500 metres from start to finish in the U.S. Ruscitti said Crossley doesn’t factor the extra distance into race plans when competing against U.S. schools at this weekend’s CSSRA championships or at the South Niagara Invitational two weeks ago in Welland.
“Not really,” the coach said. “Most of the U.S. boats that are coming up here know it’s two K and they’re a lot programs that traditionally come up here.
“I think their training has probably accommodated the extra 500.”
At the finish line, it all comes down to the quality of the crews.
“The good-quality crews, whether they’re from Canada or the U.S., manage the two K as well as anybody.”