McLean’s crew team hosted their annual banquet on May 29 in the school cafeteria. During the banquet, coaches and students were able to share their successes and failures of the year while sharing food.

“The crew banquet is about reflecting upon the year and your race, bonding with your teammates for one last hyped evening,” junior Kalyna Mazal said.

At the beginning of the banquet, both the girls and boys crew teams met at the cafeteria at 6:30 p.m. and ate dinner together. For dinner, each grade was assigned a specific type of food to bring for dinner. Freshmen brought snacks, sophomores brought drinks, juniors brought dessert and seniors brought salad.

“You kind of sit down right, you eat first and then the girls crew team and the boys’ crew team go in separate ways and sit down,” Mazal said.

After dinner, the team captains of the girls and boys teams gave students paper plate awards for their participation in the crew teams during the school year.

“We give paper plate awards which are student-led and each person gets their own little award made for them,” Mazal said. “Then, [we] looked at the end of the year slideshow [to] talk about fundraising [events].”

Later, in the evening, crew coaches also gave special awards to team members that stood out during the school year for their skills and great contributions to the team.

Both crew teams come together at the end of the year to commemorate the bonds they have made and all the effort that goes into crew. They also get the chance to remember not only their success, but even the failures that create unique memories for them in addition to an opportunity for growth.

“Crew is a sport that takes place off site and takes up so much time, it really is a sport that really bonds everyone together,” freshman girls crew coach Pamela Roberts said. “We all have to work together as a team and it takes a lot of time; I think that makes it a unique sport as it bonds people to it.”