It is a magnificently beautiful Sunday on the Charles River in mid-October. Thousands of people line the shores of the three-mile-long course as boats chug down the flat waters. The Belmont Hill boathouse is jam-packed with spectators ranging from Belmont Hill students to Olympians from the 2024 Paris Summer Games: there are so many fans that the edges of the dock dip beneath the water level. It is the Head of the Charles. The dense crowd of people begins to part as a shell travels toward the race course: the Belmont Hill boats are about to launch.
During this sunny and exciting Sunday, Belmont Hill raced two boats in different events. The first, the Men’s Youth 8+, started the intense 4.6-kilometer race at 11:17 AM. The boat fought to hold off crews rapidly approaching from behind, whilst also hunting the boats in front of it. The crew finished its piece with a swift 17:12, leaving a nine-second gap before the next boat. The second Belmont Hill crew, the Men’s Youth 4+, left a profound mark on Belmont Hill’s crew history. The boat’s coxswain, Samuel Flood ’26, and crew, Jack Kastner ’25, Alex White ’25, Vincent Mezzanote ’25, and William Walton ’25, rowed an incredible 16:58 time, landing it in eighth place, and just over fifteen seconds from first. This was the second-best performance by a Belmont Hill crew in the last 30+ years in the Head of the Charles, and, combined with the results of the 8+, Belmont Hill was awarded the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) Trophy: an award given to the top-finishing crews from Massachusetts.
The Head of the Charles was a very successful event for the Belmont Hill community. The transportation, food, articulate planning, and overall environment can all be attributed to the hard work of the maintenance crew, dining crew, Belmont Hill volunteers, and especially Mr. Richards. The behind-the-scenes work of these people is often forgotten. The event, not only for the Belmont Hill community but also for the entire race, would have not been able to run without the help of these volunteers.
Belmont Hill, aside from its role in racing crews and hosting spectators, provides a large portion of the materials needed for the 3-mile-long course. During the weeks leading up to the Head, the Belmont Hill students who took part in the race spent hours prepping buoys, launches, anchors, anchor lines, and more for the event. The boys filled more than three hundred buoys with air, sorted hundreds of cement anchors, and tested and prepared motor boats. This work provided the race with the materials it needed to set up the course. Even with all the work students put into the race, the event could not have run as smoothly as it did without the many hours of work Mr. Richards put in. Perhaps the most important member of the Belmont Hill community to the Head of the Charles, Mr. Richards navigated his duties as a Belmont Hill teacher and coach, while also attending to all Head of the Charles matters as one of the members on the Board of Directors. Spending over thirty-six hours on the course during the 3-day-long race, his work in preparation and during the event is nothing short of amazing. The Panel thanks Mr. Richards and all Belmont Hill volunteers for their immense work in making HOCR 2024 so successful and congratulates all members of the crew on the fast splits it put down on that fantastic Sunday afternoon.
