Over 2,400 Local High School Competitors and 66 High School Rowing Teams Expected This Sunday, May 8 as the 2011 Philadelphia Classic Regatta Series Continues with the PSRA City Championships on the Historic Schuylkill River

Philadelphia, PA – May 5, 2011 – The debut season of the Philadelphia Classic Regatta Series, the first-ever regatta series in the United States, continues this Sunday, May 8th with the Philadelphia Scholastic Rowing Association (PSRA) City Championships on Philadelphia’s historic home to rowing, the Schuylkill River.

Sunday’s City Championship Regatta will feature approximately 2,455 boys and girls representing 66 high school rowing teams in 485 boats from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and New York competing in the one-day event.

Races begin at approximately 8 a.m. with the boys’ and girls’ novice singles and continue through approximately 5 p.m. with the final of the boys’ varsity eight.

The PSRA City Championship began with a handful of local Philadelphia boys’ schools in the 1970s and has grown into one of the largest high school rowing competitions in the country.

“The City Championship is the penultimate event of the season for the PSRA,” said Leslie Pfeil, PSRA president. “Not only are gold, silver and bronze medals awarded in all events that day, but we also award points trophies to the boys’ and girls’ teams that have accumulated the most points during our series of the five earlier regattas this spring. Sunday is a true celebration of high school rowing.”

The PRSA City Championship also serves as a qualifier for the Scholastic Rowing Association of America Regatta as well as for the 2011 USRowing Youth National Championships.

This is the debut season for the Philadelphia Classic Regatta Series, which brings together for the first time 20 previously independent events in the first organized year-long series of rowing events of its kind in any major U.S. city.

The Philadelphia Classic Regatta Series is organized by the Schuylkill Navy, which is the oldest amateur athletic governing body in the country, representing the 12 rowing clubs based on Philadelphia’s landmark Boathouse Row.

With three of the largest regattas in the Mid-Atlantic region on the schedule, as well as two of the nation’s oldest regattas, the Philadelphia Classic Regatta Series connects the rowing competitors of today to the historic home of the international rowing elite.

It is built upon a tradition that launched November 12, 1835 with the first organized regatta on the Schuylkill (a full eight years before the start of the rowing program at Harvard).

The Schuylkill River hosts more regattas annually than any other river in the nation, as well as two of the country’s oldest continuing regattas, The Schuylkill Navy Regatta (dating back to before 1860) and the Independence Day Regatta (initiated in 1880).

Those two historic events are a significant part of the 2011 schedule for the Philadelphia Classic Regatta Series, which also includes the second largest regatta in the nation, the Stotesbury Cup Regatta. In addition, the Stotesbury Cup Regatta is also the oldest and largest high school rowing event in the world.

The Philadelphia Classic Regatta Series schedule runs through late October, and features over 35,000 competitors in over 7,700 boats representing not only high schools but colleges, clubs, masters and open programs from around the country. The remaining 12 regattas on the schedule include:

• Sunday, May 8: Philadelphia Scholastic Rowing Assoc. Championships
• Fri., May 20 & Sat., May 21: Stotesbury Cup Regatta (high school)
• Saturday, June 18: Schuylkill Navy Regatta (clubs/open)
• Fri., July 1 to Sun., July 3: Independence Day Regatta (clubs/open)
• Saturday, July 16: Philadelphia Youth Regatta (clubs/juniors)
• Saturday, July 30: Quaker City Masters Regatta (clubs/masters)
• Saturday, September 17: Philadelphia Turn & Burn Regatta (clubs)
• Saturday, September 24: Hutchinson Cup Regatta (high school/masters)
• Saturday, October 8: Navy Day Regatta (clubs/high school/collegiate/masters)
• Sunday, October 9: Row for the Cure (clubs/high school/college)
• Sunday, October 23: Philadelphia Children’s Foundation Regatta (h.s./coll.)
• Sat., Oct. 29 & Sun. Oct. 30: Head of the Schuylkill Regatta (h.s./coll./clubs/open)

Sponsorship opportunities are now available for national, regional and local companies seeking access to this grand sport and its powerful demographic.

Additional information is available at http://www.boathouserow.org.

Contact:
Jim DeLorenzo
Jim DeLorenzo Public Relations
215-266-5943
jim@jhdenterprises.com