Bucks
Tat Moyer’s Rowing Granddaughter
Dear Friends,
Good morning. Tat Moyer is the President of the Palisades School Board having been with the district for 45 years. A resident of Springfield Township, Tat began her teaching career at Palisades in 1962. Although she retired after 34 years, she didn’t sit on the sidelines for long. Eleven years ago, Tat successfully organized a write-in campaign for the school board against an incumbent, winning 2 to 1!
But that’s not why I’m writing this column. Last summer I heard that Tat’s granddaughter, Julie Moyer, had won a national gold medal as a high school rower. Tat’s hectic schedule delayed my follow up until now.
I thought about Julie Moyer as our quad put our shell on the rack after the six-mile row. Only ice or foul weather keeps us from the Schuylkill River. At six in the morning, it’s very cold and dark so we dress in layers. After a half-mile, we’re quite warm.
Julie has the advantage of rowing in Los Gatos, California where the winter temperature is a comfortable 60 degrees. She began her rowing career in a shell called a "Pair." It’s rigged for “sweep” rowing, meaning it’s a boat for two rowers, each with one oar. It’s the most difficult boat to row.
I’m a sculler. Scullers row with an oar in each hand. When my partner and I row a double, we have four oars in the water making it easier to avoid capsizing the 36 foot long, 12 inches wide boat. In a pair, the boat’s dimensions are identical except there are only two oars, each about 13 feet long. Those oars become the balance beams for stability. Because balance is so critical, pair rowers need to be matched perfectly for height, weight, and strength.
Julie Moyer is 16 and attends a very large high school. That’s very different from Palisades where the high school student body is 750. Most kids tell me that if you’re a varsity player in boys and girl sports, you have a definite advantage. That’s not so easy when there are 3,000 in the Los Gatos high school.
Last year, Julie’s family took in a foster child, Zoe Field. Tat told me that Zoe came home from school one day and suggested something novel. “Let’s join the Los Gatos Rowing Club and learn to row,” she said. The high school does not have a rowing program so the girls used the community facilities to learn the sport.
In their first year of competition, Julie and Zoe rowed as a “pair” and achieved extraordinary success. At just 15, they won the lightweight novice Pair event in the California state regatta. (A lightweight female rower’s weight limit is 135 pounds.)
Alas, that great beginning did not continue because Zoe left California to live with her mother in Vermont. But that didn’t stop Julie who has her grandmother’s spunk.
“Julie has Chutzpah,” Tat Moyer laughed.
At the rowing club, Julie joined the lightweight eight and rowed in the number four seat. An “eight” holds eight sweep rowers plus a coxswain who steers the boat. The seats are numbered from bow to stern. The number one seat is the “bow;” the eight seat is the “stroke.” The remaining seats are numbered two through seven. The middle four seats are known as the “engine room” because those four rowers are the strongest in the boat.
Last June, as a high school junior, Julie’s boat went to the California state lightweight finals and won first place. Because of that success, her boat was entered in the nationals in Cincinnati, Ohio. Facing a perennial winner, Julie’s crew rowed through the preliminary heats; made it to the championship race…and captured the gold medal! It was a major upset.
Julie is in her senior year at the high school and has become a star. Colleges with big time rowing traditions are wooing her, San Diego State and University of Massachusetts at Amherst among them. Her grandmother told me that Julie’s not a fan of cold weather so I suppose she’ll remain on the West Coast.
There are five teenagers in the family. Nicholas is a freshman at University of California, Santa Barbara. Camille, Charlie, and Max are triplets in the ninth grade. Holy smokes!
Like his older sister, Max has joined the Los Gatos Rowing Club. Max is more focused and has gained the respect of his classmates, thanks to rowing his grandmother says. And the siblings are closer. “Max is a much happier kid,” Tat added. Rowing has made quite a difference in their family.
Next week, I’ll tell you more about Tat’s life with Palisades school and how the district came to existence, 50 plus years ago.
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith