Sagamore Rowing Association started over 25 years ago and is still going strong. It currently has over 500 members. With two boathouses, located at Huntington Harbor and at Beekman Beach, Sagamore offers a wide variety of programs for both teenagers and adults.

This summer Sagamore had a Junior Competitive program for junior (high school) rowers who wanted to race during the summer. The program was coached by Troy Smith and met mostly at 7:30 a.m. and had practice for two hours. The most active participants were Julie Solar, Elizabeth Koenig, Hilary Armstrong, Ashleigh Tate, Angela Batista, Katrina McCaffery, Taemi Izumi, Jaime Dicke and Andrew Cheesman. All of the junior rowers came from various high schools such as Friends Academy, St. Anthony's, Huntington High School and Oyster Bay High School. With only nine rowers it was an extremely small team.

The team traveled to The Independence Day Regatta in Philadelphia, placing a close fourth in the Junior Women's Quad and second in the Women's Junior Single. The next race was Philly Youth, also in Philadelphia, with the Girls Junior 18 Single finishing second, the Girls Junior 18 Double finishing third, the Boys Junior 18 Single finishing fourth and the Girls Junior 18 Quad winning strong by almost 20 seconds.

The team next traveled to New Jersey for the 2003 US Rowing National Championships. The Junior Women's single made it to semifinals, The Junior Women's B single raced well in heats, The Junior Men's Single made it to semifinals, all three of the Junior Women's Doubles were very close to making semifinals. One of the Junior Women's Quads made it to semi finals and the other got first in their heat with a time that put them third overall, second in the semifinals with a time that made them second overall and a very close fourth in finals. On the day of the finals it was very windy and the water conditions were tough, the Girls Quad knew that they could have gotten second and definitely third if the conditions were better, but they were very happy with being fourth in the Nation.

The Quad was basically put together as a back-up boat and proved themselves to be champions. After their races tons of spectators, coaches and rowers wanted to know where they were from and complimented them on their rowing. They were an extremely good boat and all very good friends. They are all a spirited group and made green and white tie-dyes as their uniforms.

By the time Nationals came, the Girls Quad was feared competition. They raced against World Champions and proved themselves worthy. Even though Sagamore has had numerous Olympians, World, National Team members and medalists, the Junior Team never got much attention, until now. The Girls Quad truly put Sagamore back on the map as a respected boathouse. And of course they couldn't have gone as far as they did without the help of their amazing coach, Troy Smith.

The Stoke of the Quad Elizabeth Koenig, is going to the University of Rhode Island to continue her rowing career; Ashleigh Tate, who rows in 3 seat, is going into her senior year at Oyster Bay High School; Julie Solar, 2 seat, will be a Junior at St. Anthony's High School; and the Bow of the Boat, Hilary Armstrong, is going into her senior year at Friends Academy. Although the girls have to go their separate ways during the year, they will keep in touch as friends and hope to row together again next summer and go to Worlds ... next, Olympics?