Colin Stewart, Ocean City High School’s National Champion coach, is bringing a unique rivalry to the screen with a new documentary that explores the nuanced rivalries and deep connections within the Philadelphia collegiate rowing scene.
Equipped with a keen eye for storytelling and a film production degree, Stewart has created a fascinating documentary exploring the rivalry between Drexel and LaSalle. He attended Ocean City High School and was once a Drexel University rower himself.
Stewart had initially conceived the documentary as a five-part series on college teams that compete at the Dad Vail Regatta in early May. He drew inspiration from his time as Drexel’s team videographer, where he had to fight for good shots of the fast-moving action.
After going out with the two crews and having a “really, really, really fun” couple of shoots with them, Stewart decided to narrow the focus of the documentary, titled “It’s a Philly Thing,” to the intense and personal rivalry between Drexel and LaSalle University.
However, only Drexel, Stewart’s alma mater, and LaSalle responded to Stewart’s inquiry. Ivo Krakic, Head Coach of LaSalle’s Men’s Rowing, had been Stewart’s teammate, both at Drexel and Undine Barge Rowing Club.
“The Drexel-LaSalle rivalry is big, and everyone knows about it, but they don’t understand the nuances of it,” Stewart said. “Instead of making this big documentary, we decided to focus on the details between these two teams, how interconnected they are, and how it [the rivalry] came to be.”
Another source of inspiration was the opportunity to give these relatively smaller rowing schools a bigger voice. In the collegiate rowing world, competitors like LaSalle and Drexel can often be overlooked by larger teams and their rivals, like Harvard and Yale, and University of Washington and University of California.
“There’s Harvard and Yale, and there’s Washington and Cal, but I think this rivalry is a lot more pure, because it isn’t about big recruiting numbers. It’s just a bunch of guys in college that row boats, and that have a really tight dynamic,” Stewart said.
For the residents of the South Jersey, the documentary is also about highlighting the grassroots talent from local high school programs, like St. Augustine and Mainland Regional.
Stewart added: “It’s not, ‘Oh, look at these guys, they’re recruits from overseas, and they’re huge ergos and world champions.’ It’s ‘This guy went to St Augustine Prep. And this guy over here went to St Peter’s. Or this guy came from Mainland.’ And it’s fun.”
One aspect of the rivalry that the documentary will explore is Krakic’s 2-year transformation of LaSalle’s team, which had been struggling in the competitive season. “Ivo, basically one of the best rowers to come out of Drexel, goes right down to Boathouse Row and takes a team that couldn’t make it out of the time trials of Dad Vails to kicking Drexel’s butt,” Stewart shared. This past season, the two crews duked it out, eventually resulting in a LaSalle win in the 2nd Varsity 8 category and a Drexel win in the 1st Varsity 8 category at the Dad Vail Regatta.
The documentary is also set against the backdrop of Drexel Men’s Rowing’s continued recovery from the “great kerfuffle” of 2018, “where we lost the whole team – completely collapsed,” according to Stewart. That year, the Varsity eight with Olympian gold medalist Justin Best got third in the B final at the Dad Vail Regatta – a shattering loss for Drexel.
Stewart’s own athletic journey at Drexel reflects the same spirit of perseverance embodied by both of these schools. After riding in the Freshman 8 and Second Varsity his first three years, winning the Freshman 8 category at the Dad Vail, he had finally gotten the chance to race in the 1st Varsity 8 his senior year when he had been injured.
After extensive winter recovery and training, during which he was hitting personal records on the erg rowing machine, he returned in the Spring of 2020 only for everything to be cancelled the very next day because of Covid-19.
Despite that, his love of rowing has only grown, having led him to become a recently-crowned national champion coach of Ocean City High School’s women’s Junior 8. This documentary is another proof of his passion for rowing – a passion project which he has got to see develop and evolve single-handedly.
While the film has already had a private screening for the LaSalle team, Stewart is hoping for a broader release soon. He is currently awaiting acceptance into the Philadelphia Film Festival, held in mid-October. He is also in talks with the owner of Ventnor Square Theater to do a local screening.
“The guy seems really excited to get it out there. We just have to figure out the date, times, and logistics of it,” Stewart said. Stay tuned for more information.
Contact the author, Luke Grippo, at Lgrippo@cmcherald.com – he is a news editor at Princeton University’s newspaper, The Daily Princetonian
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