Light shimmers off the choppy surface of the Connecticut River. Despite the warm early spring sun, the wind is still cold and penetrating as it blows in off the water and over the perfectly manicured Riverfront Park in Springfield. The ribbon was cut only five months ago and the shine hasn’t worn off. The pavilion is snow white, the cobblestones unweathered. The park is tucked neatly behind a large white boathouse, the Pioneer Valley Riverfront Club, below the North End Bridge. The scene is strangely at odds with the car horns and sirens of the urban landscape and giant radio antennae looming just over the hill. A long, razor thin boat slices across the water. It looks like some giant aquatic insect as the eight rowers, and the sole coxswain facing forward in the stern, maneuver their long oars back and forth in precise unison.

— Peter Vancini,

pvancini@valleyadvocate.com