Dancing on water

Few high school sports programs boast a tradition of success matching that of Exeter girls crew. Over the last 30 years, its athletes have powered through the waters and have become synonymous with excellence in New England and nationally. This spring, Exeter bid farewell to Sally Morris and Becky Moore, two coaches who helped build and guide the program for decades. Morris, who arrived at Exeter in 2005, stepped down as the girls varsity coach after 18 outstanding seasons. Moore, who joined the program in 1990, retired from coaching and teaching English.

The bond

The coaches excelled, in part, because their relationship started well before joining forces at Exeter. They first connected on the campus of Brooks School, where partnering on 5 a.m. workouts and bonding over starting families and careers were the foundation of their close friendship.

“Our relationship is really seamless,” Morris says. “We are two tough women who have the highest level of respect for each other. Our connection at Brooks tied us as friends before coaching together, but our relationship allowed us to really dive in and focus on doing what we love to do: work with and develop young people and really build this program.”

On paper, they might not seem like a perfect match. Morris was a high school athlete who excelled in field hockey, basketball and softball, and she thrived in the physicality of those sports. Moore excelled as a dancer and sang in the choir throughout her childhood.

“Crew is like dancing on the water,” Morris says. “Once you are in the boat, all of your connection is spiritual. There is a grace, beauty, physicality and connectivity to the whole thing. You have to have incredible strength, balance and rhythm to make it work.”

An accomplished whitewater canoeist and kayaker, Morris might never have stepped into a crew shell if not for a broken toe that interrupted her freshman field hockey season at Trinity College. Moore, too, found rowing in college, joining the team at Radcliffe College to fill open time in her schedule, then fell in love with the sport.

“Sally and Becky are best friends and they worked well together,” says Albert Léger, chair of the Science Department and boys varsity crew coach since 2012. “Sally is a masterful technician who helped her crews use their bodies effectively and powerfully. Becky is methodical, patient and goal-oriented. She transformed students and knew how to empower girls into believing in themselves as confident athletes.”

Although the goals for the varsity and junior varsity boats might differ, Morris and Moore complemented each other to reach a balance and rhythm for the program.

“Sally has an unwavering focus on everything that goes into speed,” Moore says. “She would look for these small, but major, adjustments on the varsity boats, finding the perfect combination of rowers to jell in a boat — she could always find that.”

“Becky really prepared our students to be athletes,” Morris says. “By the time they were ‘graduating’ to a varsity boat, it was the foundation of her teaching that allowed me to focus on the technical proficiency.”

The early-morning workouts that began at Brooks continued when the two reunited at Exeter, and coaching and teaching prep naturally became part of their exercise routine.

“We would build the workouts for the team and then go through them ourselves so we could know what the kids were going through,” Morris says. “We’d hop on the erg and mimic technical mistakes we were seeing and workshop strategies and verbiage on how we could help fix it. It was fun, and it helped us prepare both ourselves and our students better.”

The legacy

Morris and Moore welcomed hundreds of students into the William G. Saltonstall Boathouse and prepared them for competition on the water that often extended well beyond Exeter.

“The boathouse and the team were my home away from home and a place where I felt encouraged to be unapologetically myself,” Molly Reckford ’11 says. She learned to row on New Hampshire’s Squamscott River, enjoyed a decorated career at Dartmouth College and is preparing for her second Olympics, the Paris Games this summer. “Coach Morris and Coach Moore held us all to a very high standard of integrity and self-management,” Reckford says, “and made it clear that diligent and consistent effort would pay off.”

While this spring season was one of change — new varsity coach, Peter Cathey, led the top two boats — the team’s successful results were familiar as they etched yet another mark of history into the record books.

The girls top eight boat (Ava Cathey ’25, Evie Gaylord ’25, Sophia Turner ’25, Ellie Ana Sperantsas ’24, Sophia Slosek ’25, Chloe Bosma ’26, Edie Fisher ’24, Amelia Post ’26, and cox Jane Park ’24) raced to a New England title and a top-10 finish at the U.S. Rowing Youth National Championships.

Big Red finished first in the grand final of the New England Interscholastic Rowing Association (NEIRA) Championships on Lake Quinsigamond in Massachusetts. The winning time, 5 minutes, 14.02 seconds, topped second-place finisher Deerfield Academy by three seconds. This was the 12th New England title for Exeter’s top boat since 1994, three more than any other school over the last three decades.

The victory at NEIRAs gave Big Red an automatic bid to the U.S. Rowing Youth National Championships in Sarasota, Florida. After a strong performance through time trials and the semifinal round, Exeter finished second overall in the B Final with a time of 6:53.27 to claim tenth overall and was the second fastest high school eight in the nation.

“Sally certainly created an expectation of success for the program and I am fortunate that the girls love to row and want to go fast,” Cathey says.

Another tradition that was carried forth was the annual team celebration on the eve of the NEIRA championships. “The results were going to be the results,” Moore says. “This was a true celebration of team and everything that goes into building one. Each athlete would draw a name and toast that person about what made them special. Over the years there were poems and songs written, even some sculptures from time to time. Those nights hold a lot of proud memories.”

“I remember those pre-NEIRA dinners with a lot of fondness,” Reckford says. “We would all get dressed up and it was a night that was about encouraging and celebrating each other.”

“Coaches Moore and Morris are Exeter Girls Crew,” Ellie Ana Sperantsas ’24 says. “When I think about the program, from the time I started as a prep until the day I graduated, no one embodies the spirit as much as they do. EGC is a sisterhood I feel honored to have been a part of and help lead as a captain. The bond is truly special and connects from the top boat down, across generations of rowers who understand each other.”