Disciplined Training. Competitive Excellence.
A Program That Demands the Best
One club, girls and boys, built around hard training, real racing and the expectation that you show up for the people in your boat.
Rowing at Kent asks a lot, deliberately. It takes consistency and a willingness to work for something you cannot get on your own. Those expectations shape more than results, and the habits tend to stay with people.
It runs year round for both girls and boys, and it sits close to the center of athletic and residential life at Kent.
The Partridge Rowing Center
The Benjamin Waring Partridge Rowing Center provides an exceptional training environment: a spacious workout and ergometer room, men's and women's locker facilities, a large meeting and trophy room, and a six-person indoor rowing tank.
This facility complements the boathouse on the banks of the Housatonic River, a scenic 3.5-mile stretch with very little boat traffic, just minutes from the dormitories.
It is hard to imagine a better setup for a school program.
Results and program news go out in the KSBC newsletter through the season. Subscribe here, or see what is planned for the Henley centenary in 2027.
The Rhythm of the Season
The year has a clear shape to it.
Technical Development
The focus is boat skills, aerobic base and getting crews working together. Head races through the fall give everyone something to aim at and give the coaches a look at where people are.
Strength & Conditioning
Training moves indoors to the Partridge Center. Strength, conditioning and technique, with the spring season as the point of all of it.
Championship Racing
Spring is what the rest of the year is for. Crews race across New England and beyond, finishing at NEIRAs and at national-level competition.
The Coaches of KSBC
The same staff and the same standards across both programs.
Coach Eric Houston
Coach Houston runs the boys program, which he rowed in himself before he came back to coach it.
A fuller biography is on the way.
Full coaching biography coming soon.
Coach Melissa Holcombe ’87
Coach Holcombe leads the girls program as interim head coach. The program has eight NEIRA championships and national titles in 1986, 1987 and 2016.
She holds it to the same standard as the boys program, which is the whole point of running one club.
A search for a permanent head coach is underway.
Assistant Coaches, Boys Program
Assistant Coaches, Girls Program
A Century of Head Coaches
Four men have led the boys program in a hundred and four years. Father Sill coxed the first Kent boat on the Housatonic and coached it himself.
Swipe the table sideways to see both programs.
Girls rowing began at Kent in 1973. Hart Perry coached both programs from 1973 to 1982. Compiled from More Than Rowing: Kent School Boat Club, The First 100 Years by Peter Mallory.
Parents & Supporters
Parents and supporters matter to how this program runs. We try to be clear about what to expect and to keep families, coaches and the school talking to each other.
The year is built so that athletes are pushed hard without their schoolwork and their life in the dorms falling apart.
Resources for Families
Seasonal program updates and schedules
Regatta logistics and travel information
How to support a rower through the season
Ways to get involved with the wider KSBC community
Race Schedule
Results for both programs from the spring 2026 season. For the full schedule and results by boat, visit Kent School Athletics (opens in a new window).
Swipe the table sideways to see both programs.
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