Riverside Boat Club

Dear family, friends, and all supporters:

After a years worth of hard work, oatmeal, blood, sweat, tears, friendship, Gatorade powder, and a dedication to the grind™ from our individual athletes, our efforts have paid off after coming together and successfully winning US Trials to qualify for the 2023 Senior World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia. The image shown at the top of the screen is of the trials winning boat, which includes the four members of this year's USA Lightweight Men's Quadruple Sculls boat. Please see below for a little more about each member of the crew.

Government Name: Casey Paul Howshall

Casey is a Philly boy at heart, born and raised (Go Birds). He took all the best things about Philadelphia with him to Boston: an eternal flame fueled by rage, Rocky Balboa, and cheese wiz. Casey spends most of his time outside of rowing working on his PhD at Boston College. Somehow Casey is still able to balance being a full-time athlete, with 60-80 hours a week of straight-up chemistry mainlined to his veins. Casey is not new to the World Rowing scene (though this is his first senior team), he is a 2x U23 national team athlete in the lwt 4x. You must be thinking, “Casey really likes rowing in quads huh? This is true. Casey is an assassin in the 4x. This is all thanks to his Philly based rowing upbringing. Casey grew up rowing for Crescent boat club (shoutout!) where he learned the ways of the force (4x). From there he moved on to rowing for UPenn competing on the lightweight team for 4 years. Casey won’t be talking much over the next month so that you will be able to hear his famous “BOOM” call over the livestream at Worlds.

Government Name: Ian Michael Richardson

Ian, the tallest and most handsome guy in the boat is a Massachusetts native. Ian rowed for the University of Connecticut in college, which is really where he found his love for the sport. Men's rowing at UConn is a club sport, which requires members to run their program with minimal university support, in addition to training and competing in their sport. Ian is proud to have been part of a club program, like many of the other current national team athletes, because you are able to maintain the drive, and passion to compete far after your collegiate rowing career is over. Ian was in the 2022 lightweight men’s quad that competed at the World Championships, and is stoked to be able to represent both the boat class, and USA again this year. Outside of rowing, Ian likes to eat (rip), and spend time up in the mountains where he can find some peace and quiet (Ian is not peaceful or quiet). What the other countries forgot to account for in their international competition preparation this year was that Ian went from vegetarian in 2022, to omnivore in 2023. Meat is more impactful on performance than steady state, speed work, or weight lifting and he is ready to prove that at Worlds (he still does all of those training modalities fear not).

Government Name: Bernard Raul Aparicio

Bernie came to us from sunny San Diego (specifically SDRC rowing club). He rowed at San Diego State University (SDSU) from 2011 to 2015 where he found his passion for the grind. He is a civil engineer by trade, working on drainage and hydrology (dude is wicked smart). If you want to get Bernie really excited, start talking to him about how to solve Government funded problems for DARPA, and IARPA (Google it). Away from rowing, Bernie loves to catch some gnarly waves on his surfboard on the coast of California. We are psyched to have Bernie in the boat, as he brings a relentless source of power to every stroke he takes. Bernie is making his National Team debut in 2023 with 2 things on his mind: win a medal, and win a medal.

Government Name: Jamie Edmund Copus

Jamie Copus, the man, the myth, the legend. Jamie was born in Chicago and is a die hard Cubs fan. Unfortunately this means Jamie hasn’t been happy since 2016. If you have ever seen Oppenheimer and Barbie in the same day, then you know exactly what kind of energy that Jamie brings. Jamie went to Cornell, and started as a lightweight, before they noticed how much juice he could squeeze out and moved him to the openweights. From there he transitioned to Oxford Brookes University in the UK where he has been part of some of the most dominant Henley crews in recent memory. Most recently, he sat bow seat in the Ladies Challenge Plate winning boat. They beat Leander by half a canvas in the most thrilling race of the regatta. Jamie spent most of his national team career rowing for Great Britain. He has been to multiple World Championships for GB (most recently in the Lwt 2x in 2019) and is fired up to compete for some hardware in Serbia wearing the stars and stripes. Outside of rowing, Jamie LOVES music, he attends as many music festivals as he can. Currently Fred Again is who he listens to most. We are still trying to sift through some of his British "twang", but he and his 6:06 2k are doing just fine up in stroke seat.

We are coached by Dave Lefebvre [Lë-fee-vúrr], a former Olympian from 1996, and National team member from 93’ - 97’. His real claim to fame is a coveted 4th place finish at this year's Pan Mass Challenge. Dave has been a coach at Boston University, and Merrimack College before Riverside. In his free time he enjoys riding his bike, spending time with his family, and playing with his dog. Dave has one goal for this year's World Championships, bring home the biscuits.

This year USRowing changed its policy and introduced time standards for each crew to be offered the opportunity to represent the USA in Serbia on top of just winning the event outright. Our crew smashed this time by over 5 seconds, putting us in good contention for the Podium at Worlds.

As a non-Olympic event, USRowing does not fund any part of our training for, or competition at, the World Championships. We rely on support from Riverside Boat Club, a 501(c)(3) organization, for coaching and training facilities, and on both Riverside and generous supporters like you to help offset the cost of representing the United States at the World Championships. Your generous donation would help us to pay for flights to and from Europe, hotel stay in Belgrade, food (a key aspect to making weight while staying ready to perform), sports medicine support and trainers through USRowing.

Donations to this page go directly to the Riverside Worlds Fund, and are distributed amongst all qualified athletes from Riverside (not limited to those highlighted above).

Please consider contributing to our fundraiser as we complete the final preparations to represent our clubs and country overseas!

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Best,

The USA LM4x

Dear friends, family and supporters:

It's a dream come true for us to represent the United States at the 2022 World Rowing Championships in the Czech Republic this year. We'll be racing as Team USA in the men's lightweight quad event, where we'll have the opportunity to measure ourselves against the fastest crews in the world.

Many of you have been on this journey with us since the early days of our rowing careers, and we're so thankful for everyone who believed in our crazy missions to become US National Team rowers.

We do have one more ask to make of the communities that helped us get to this point. In the United States, direct funding from our sport's National Governing Body is very limited, particularly in non-Olympic years and especially for non-Olympic boat classes.

Subsequently, our home boat club (Riverside Boat Club) incurs significant costs to send us to Račice. Costs of equipment, airfare, lodging, and food add up quickly (even for us lightweights).

We'll compete against other nations that invest significantly more in elite athletics, and we'd be greatly appreciative if you would help us level the playing field and help defray the costs being incurred by Riverside.

Riverside Boat Club is an entirely volunteer-run 501(c)(3) organization and is our home on the Charles River. We each contribute to the club's mission in our own ways, from helping host the club's regattas to organizing river clean-ups on Earth Day. The club is not flush with cash and primarily relies on member dues and determination to operate.

Donations to this page go directly to the club's Worlds Fund, and are distributed amongst all qualified athletes from Riverside.

Please consider contributing to our fundraiser as we complete the final preparations to represent our club and country overseas!

Best,

RBC High Performance Group