Although the Cascadilla School has not practised rowing so long as St. Paul's, of which this Department spoke last week, it has made rapid strides ever since the sport was introduced there two years ago, and now boasts of a well-equipped navy. Owing to the school's location on Cayuga Lake, aquatics will become the distinctive form of athletics there in the future, although, as a member of the New York State Interscholastic League, football and baseball teams are also put into the field. But it is a good thing to have rowing developed in some of the preparatory institutions, and I shall not regret to see some of the vast amount of energy that now appears to be running riot in track athletics turned into this new channel. Every large school situated near a watercourse or a lake ought to add rowing to its list of sports, if it is possible to do so.
THE CASCADILLA CREW AND BOAT-HOUSE.
The principal difficulty in the way of such progress at present lies in the fact that so few schools have crews, that interscholastic contests are hard to arrange. The Cascadilla oarsmen are fortunate in having the Cornell crews to row against, and each year they get races with the Freshmen and 'Varsity eights. Thus far they have secured no victories over either of these rivals, but as the sport grows older with them they should make a better showing from year to year. The Cascadilla commodore is now negotiating with a school near Philadelphia that has taken steps toward the organization of a crew, and it is possible that next summer will witness the first of a series of interscholastic regattas between these progressive institutions.
The same lack of a scholastic rival hampers rowing at St. John's Academy, Delafield, Wisconsin, where the school eight have to seek as their opponents the crews of Madison University. Last spring they defeated the '97 crew by three lengths in an exciting race over the Nagawicka course in the excellent time of 8 min. 3 sec. This victory was all the more creditable from the fact that several of the Madison 'Varsity men had seats in the '97 boat. I have spoken of the rowing which is done in the several schools mentioned to show that it is possible for young men not yet in college to approximate the work performed by older athletes. The Department has devoted space to the description of the crews and their methods in the hope of encouraging other institutions to take up the sport during the coming winter and next spring. It is an excellent exercise, and a seat in the 'Varsity boat is looked upon as the greatest athletic honor a college man may attain, excepting, of course, a captaincy. It must be the same in every school where rowing is practised, and the school that has a crew in the spring is bound to have a better football team in the fall, for the training done in the winter and the rowing done later develop new material, and strengthen the older men.
The proposition to organize a National Interscholastic Athletic Association, modelled upon the Inter-collegiate Association, made in these columns in the early part of last spring, is looked upon favorably not only by the schools and associations in this part of the country, but also by the schools on the Pacific coast. In fact, the Westerners have shown a much greater spirit of enterprise and sportsmanship in the matter than have the managers of scholastic athletic interests in the East. It is probable, however, that the apparent stagnation in this quarter has been due to the summer vacation, and the consequent cessation of school sports, and the absence from town of those who could take hold of the scheme and put it through. Now that the fall term is about to open, this matter promises to be taken up with the energy required for such an undertaking, and all we need is the hearty co-operation of the many interscholastic associations from every State in the Union. On October 8th there will be a meeting of the New York I.S.A.A., and I am assured that at that meeting the first steps towards the formation of the National Interscholastic League will be taken.
Steps have already been taken in California toward joining the League as soon as it shall be started, and the San Francisco newspapers are already talking of it as though it were an accomplished fact. This is all due to those lively young sportsmen of the Oakland High-School, who are not only eager to enter a general association, but are anxious to send a team of athletes to the Berkeley Oval to threaten the supremacy of the Eastern schools in track and field sports. Here is what the San Francisco Call of September 4th says on the subject: