History and Mission

VASRA is an association of Boosters from 39 High Schools and is organized for the express purpose of fostering interscholastic rowing competition between the high school rowing teams in Virginia. The each booster organization actively supports a public or private high school rowing team. The Association provides an organized means of member communication and coordination for the purpose of staging regular season and championship regattas. The Association meets regularly and representatives from each member booster organization have an opportunity to discuss and arrange schedules, divide assignment of responsibility for equipment and personnel, share information of local and regional interest, and promulgate information provided by US Rowing, the national governing body for rowing in the United States.

VASRA functions as an athletic conference since rowing is considered a club sport in many of the participating high schools and, therefore, is not officially administered by those schools. As such, all activities directly sponsor and support scholastic competitive rowing and provide the venue to 1) stage competitive rowing events, 2) ensure regatta structure, safety, fairness, and consistency, 3) ensure overall program oversight, and 4) facilitate communication among member crew booster support organizations.

VASRA and NCASRA

On July 1, 2008 the National Capital Scholastic Rowing Association ("NCASRA") became VASRA. The change reflected the decreased number of member schools outside of Virginia participating in scholastic rowing while the number of Virginia schools had increased.  There are also differences in the state governance of scholastic sports and VASRA abides by Virginia High School League regulations. This is the fourth name for the association and signals a return to the in-state emphasis of the charter established by the original five schools in 1979. (The original name was the "Northern Virginia Rowing Association." “Scholastic” was added in 1986.)