For some athletes, the Olympics is the pinnacle. For the Northampton Community Rowing teams, it’s the Head of the Charles Regatta.

The race attracts more than 11,000 rowers from around the world for a weekend of racing on the Charles River in Boston. It’s incredibly difficult to compete, and rowers either need to qualify with specific times or have their names pulled out of a lottery. 

NCR isn’t a stranger to the Head of the Charles Regatta, but for the last four years, the club has been rebuilding because of the COVID-19 pandemic and hasn’t attended. For a while, the club wasn’t able to row, and the last few years have been focused on rebuilding. Now, at last, the team is back; two junior squads earned coveted lottery slots and two boats of four racers – one girls’ boat, one boys’ boat – will travel to the Charles River to compete on Sunday.

The Women’s Youth Fours boat will be led by coxswain Grey Roessler, and it includes Harper Matthews, Ella Hendricks, Alya Mourad and Tess Ventola. The Men’s Youth Fours boat will be led by coxswain Ruby Corriveau-Roche and will also include John Cleary, Kai Anderson-Flynn, Noah Friedman-Krantz and Curtis Casey. The men’s boat will compete first at 8:22 a.m., and the women’s boat will race at 10:43 a.m. 

Mother-daughter duo Nancy Stekl and Ada Stekl also earned a spot in the Para Mixed Inclusion Doubles race, and will compete at 4:02 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. They also competed in last year’s Head of the Charles.

“It's one of those races that every rower wants to go to,” NCR head coach Michael Foley said of the Head of the Charles. “It’s the biggest race in New England, it's the biggest race in the United States. People from across the country and the world are coming to it to race… we haven't been in about four years. Covid and all that kind of knocked us out for a bit. We're just getting back up to steam. They're feeling confident enough to go.”

Foley has been to the Regatta before, and has even raced in it himself. But all the athletes in his boats this year have never been to a race like this before – the athletes who were old enough and skilled enough to compete four years ago have since graduated. 

Grey Roessler and Ruby Corriveau-Roche will serve as the boats’ coxswains. The coxswain is the leader of the boat – they won’t be one of the rowers, but they will be directing the four rowers inside their boats, setting the pace, motivating their team and making sure they safely and quickly find the quickest line to get from start to finish. 

“We're (both) quite nervous,” Corriveau-Roche said. “We've been preparing for it for a while since we’ve known we were going. But the stress just builds coming up, so this week has been really intense, but we’re excited.”

Both Corriveau-Roche and Roessler joined the program after it restarted following the pandemic, about three years ago. They’ve seen first-hand how small the numbers were just a couple years ago, and how interest and numbers have grown to where it is now. 

“Building the team back up, getting the word out and then also having people realize that we could be going to these races if really they're putting in the work – because the Head of Charles, you do have to get to a certain level to get a better chance in the lottery to get in,” Roessler said. “I think just having people commit to it (has helped) build back up what ’Hamp crew was pre-pandemic.”

Qualifying for the Head of the Charles has also sparked a fire in the team. Once both boats knew they were going, competition for a seat in each boat ramped up. The team has seat races, where athletes will compete for times to earn spots in the top boats, and many athletes have set personal bests as they competed for one of those all-important spots. Their goals: finish in the top half of their race to earn a qualifying spot for next year’s event. 

“I think this event is really helping the team recommit to working hard, especially since if we get in the top half of either of our races, we’ll be guaranteed entry for next year,” Roessler said. “So I think that those seats will be open again next year to whoever is fastest.”

Just qualifying for the race this season has also set up the team for success in the future. Foley said that they’re a younger than average team this year, but those newer to rowing have been able to watch the older athletes compete and improve, serving as role models to help encourage the next group of rowers who might one day qualify for the Head of the Charles themselves. 

“All the new novice rowers are incoming eighth and ninth graders who maybe don't know anything about crew. It's watching higher level boats really commit themselves to going fast that’s kind of showing them what crew culture is and how to be competitive,” Corriveau-Roche said. 

And beyond all the nerves and anticipation leading up to the race on Sunday, Corriveau-Roche and Roessler both agreed that working toward a big race like the Head of the Charles has just been a good time. 

“I think it just makes it more fun,” Roessler said simply. “We’re really working for something, we’ve been working for something this whole season and I think it really is fun. And also through the work we're putting in to do Head of the Charles, we've also started placing a lot better at some of the smaller races. We medaled at a few races this season, and it's fun to be doing well and to be pushing ourselves way harder.”

Hannah Bevis can be reached at hbevis@gazettenet.com. Follow her on Twitter @Hannah_Bevis1.