The program resurfaced in 1989 as the Cambridge Rindge & Latin Crew Club (Cambridge Latin and Rindge Tech merged in 1978) and began rowing with the Community Rowing program in Boston. While the club often fielded complete eights, the team rowed under the name and colors of Community Rowing. Driven to practice by teachers /coaches Linda Lipkin, Phyllis Bretholtz, and Tobe Korsgren the Club was enthusiastically supported by Athletic Director Bill Bates and it was their combined efforts that led to the inclusion of a CRLS boat bay in the remodeled Cambridge Boat Club in 1999.

Thus, Spring 2000 was the first official season of the CRLS crew under its own name and colors. The season began that January as a part-time, non-racing program with 12 students with little rowing experience and no equipment. By March, it had exploded into a six-day-a-week varsity style monster with 50 kids, five boats, five races, two new coaches and the steepest learning curve this side of the Rockies. If it could be done wrong on the Charles River... well, let's just say we took pride in succeeding at something. If it could be broken, well...you know. But the magic happened, as students became athletes, who then became rowers, who finally developed into crews.

At first we lost badly; unable to see the other crews crossing the finish line because of the curvature of the Earth. Then it was by a few boat lengths. And finally, it was time for the Charles River to welcome a CRLS coxswain into its storied waters. As a team we vanquished 11 crews while conceding victory to 28 others.

Thank you's go first to the Cambridge Boat Club and its supportive members who made us feel welcomed and to the many folks whose efforts gave us a home. The Head of the Charles organizers deserve a badge of honor for putting up with the noise and confusion of our first season and for their unending support. To all of those who contributed time, stuff, and of course money, 'thank you' seems too small because none of this would have happened without you.