Scholastic rowing in the United States

U.S. high school crews have been successful internationally, with winners of the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup in 14 of the 73 years it has been awarded.

Rowing was one of the earliest sports to be popular in the United States,[1] practiced as early as 1860 at Phillips Exeter Academy, along with baseball, football, and cricket, largely on the initiative of the students rather than the school administration.

[7] The expense of the sport caused it to fail to gain wide popularity in high schools in the nineteenth century.

[9] The American Henley Regatta added an eight-oared schoolboy event in 1904, and this was considered the national championships for secondary schools.

In 1935, the newly formed Schoolboy Rowing Association of America also offered a national championship regatta in Worcester, Massachusetts.