Rowing's rewards on show at Head of Christina

• More than 900 people participated in regatta on Sunday
• Participants drawn by scenic views, physical benefits of rowing

WILMINGTON – The finish line beckoned as the long, slender sweep boat glided forward, its eight rowers pulling their oars with beautiful precision as the coxswain urged them on. "One! Two! Three!" she barked. "This is a sprint. Almost there!"

The team wasn't alone. More than 900 rowers, masters, collegians and high schoolers alike, fought the current and the tide Sunday along the 2.75-mile Head of Christina Regatta, racing not each other but themselves, the time earned its own reward.

It was a splendid day to be out on the water. Fall has arrived and the day was breezy and cool, but the sun glistened off the Christina River throughout the day.

It wasn't a day for winning trophies. Those come with springtime's sprint races. As Evan Noble, head coach of the Concord High team and the Wilmington Rowing Center masters, put it, "You want to develop in the fall, and speed in the spring."

Yet there are non-competitive benefits. For instance, the great feeling of fitness participants say they enjoy.

"It's low impact," said Sam Chamberlain of Newark, who began rowing with the Wilmington Rowing Center masters three years ago. "Your knees don't bother you, or things like that. It's core, and legs. So it's a wonderful exercise. And you don't have to race."

"I started out as, like, a blob of nothing," said Joe Weeks, 15, a Concord High School sophomore who began rowing after he learned that rowers can earn college scholarships. "And I started working out here, and started to actually build muscle. I got more physically fit."

Whether rowing singly, in doubles, a "quad" or in eights, there's strong social aspect, as well, he said.

"It helped me make more friends when I got to high school," Weeks said. "There was a lot of people I really didn't know the first day. And it helps build friendships, because a lot of good people do this sport."

For many younger participants, it's also a confidence builder.

"We work mostly with non-athletes," said Noble. "A lot of our kids when they join, they haven't done a sport before, or they were outcasts from other sports. So what we do is we hone them into athletes and develop them ourselves."

One of his crews – he coaches about 33 teens – had the day's best time in a "quad" event. "Three of them never really were a star at a sport," Noble said. "One of them was a football player, but he eventually converted over because he liked the competitiveness of our program."

There's also the simple enjoyment of being out on the water and sightseeing along the river, said Barbara Chamberlain, Sam's wife, who also rows.

"It's a wonderful way to be outside," she said.

So, trophies as well as intangibles. No monetary rewards, however – no matter what the age group.

"There's no money at all in rowing," said Fred Guaraldo, the Wilmington Rowing Center's president.

"Well, there's money going out," laughed Mike Teichman, president of the Concord Rowing Club, and also a rower. "There's no money coming in."

Contact William H. McMichael at (302) 324-2812 or bmcmichael@delawareonline.com. On Twitter: @billmcmichael