Brown, Long Ready For Annual Rowing Competition

They actually met through Facebook and shared a common passion—rowing. The tandem of Corey Brown and Spencer Long have been together a short while, but they’ve accomplished some long feats in that small amount of time.

Rowing out of the Fairmount Rowing Association, representing Haverford High School and coached by Wil Weaver, Brown and Long have captured the Cooper Cup and the Philadelphia city junior varsity championships, winning the latter in the fastest time (5-minutes, 2-seconds) in eight years.

They’re loading up and getting ready for a bigger step next weekend, when they compete in the 85th Annual Stotesbury Cup Regatta, held on the Schuylkill River and considered the world’s largest high school rowing event in the world.

It’s been a quick and interesting climb for Brown, a junior, and Long, a sophomore. The two had slightly divergent paths that have dovetailed. Brown, a Havertown resident, transferred to Haverford his junior year from La Salle, where he rowed varsity lightweight eight. Long used to scull as a single before teaming with Brown.

The difference between sculling and sweeping is easy. Brown used to sweep at La Salle, meaning he rowed with one ore. Sculling is rowing with two ores, one on each side of the boat, which are much shorter than the longer rows in sweeping.

“It is an adjustment,” Brown said. “The first week was hard, but I quickly picked it up. I didn't have to change much, just a different with balance. Sculling doubles is a lot more disciplined and there are more technical things you have to concern yourself with. You still have to put in the same time. It's just the technique you have to learn; the same physical exertion is there. I don't think you can compare rowing with any other sport.”

Because it isn’t. Long and Brown train every day, Monday through Saturday, arriving at the Schuylkill at around 4 p.m. each weekday after school, and training until 6:30 p.m. They get roughly nine-to-12 miles of work in every day. It’s exhaustive, it puts a nice burn on the lungs, and can be mentally challenging, they said.

“To do well in rowing, I like to say you need to do three things well, aerobic capacity, mental discipline, and technical efficiency,” Weaver said. “Corey and Spencer work very well together, and they were able to do something in their first race that I liked. They were losing and they came from behind and won the race. They understand that they’re racing the clock, and they both have a great sense of pacing. There are a lot of boats that can’t pace themselves. They’re two kids that have done this in a short time together. It’s not unheard of, but it’s also uncommon.”

Brown reached out to Long through Facebook, but the spark came from mutual friends that rowed with them both.

“A lot of the La Salle guys rowed in the Fairmount program and through them, they knew Corey, and knowing he was going to transfer to Haverford, they got him in touch with me,” said Long, who was introduced to the sport through his father, a former U.S. Marine.

“When we had our first practice, it was awesome. We were both the same weight and the same height. In a double, you have to have the boat set right. There wasn't a big change from the bow seat (where Corey sits, and steers the boat, kind of like the captain) and the stroke seat (where Spencer sits). I thought we could do well.”