What is ODBC?

Alexandria Crew Boosters (ACB) welcomes you to Old Dominion Boat Club (ODBC) Select Rowing!

The Old Dominion Boat Club, the birthplace of high school rowing in Alexandria, sponsors a select fall rowing program for elite high school rowers from across the area.  The ODBC crews train at the Dee Campbell Rowing Center, and compete in east coast head races, including the Head of the Schuylkill in Philadelphia and the Head of the Charles in Boston.

Since 1951, the Alexandria Crew Boosters (ACB) has served to promote and enable the great rowing tradition in Alexandria. To that end, we provide support, assistance, and encouragement, in cooperation with the public school officials of the City of Alexandria, for the benefit of the rowing crews of the secondary schools of Alexandria, Virginia.

ACB supports four high school student-athlete crew programs: Old Dominion Boat Club (ODBC) Rowing (Fall Season), ACB Fall Crew Program (for novice and intermediate rowers), Alexandria City High School Spring Crew, and the ACB Summer Crew Program.

ACB serves our coaches, student-athletes, parents, alumni, and interested citizens in our community by providing fund-raising, program promotions, advertising, student registration, parent support, membership management, logistics, equipment maintenance, food service, and awards.

Old Dominion Boat Club (ODBC) Select Rowing (Fall Season) is designed  for the rower who has completed one or more high school spring seasons of competition.  

Attendance at select races outside of the local area may require additional fees to the rower. 

(Registration Opens in July)

The history of Alexandria rowing began with the Old Dominion Boat Club (ODBC). Founded in 1880, the ODBC is the one of the oldest boat clubs in the United States. The Club was formed by a group of Alexandrians to promote recreational water activities on the Potomac. Rowing was the primary activity, and boats were available to members to row up and down the river.  The ODBC resides in a clubhouse built in 1923 at the foot of King Street, on the Potomac River in Old Town Alexandria.

In 1947, members Julian Whitestone and Jack Franklin began training young men from George Washington and Francis Hammond High Schools at the boat club, and scholastic rowing was underway. As more high schoolers caught the rowing bug, they decided they needed some help, and in 1951 started Alexandria Crew Boosters.

By 1960, the program had grown to the point that the school system and Crew Boosters took over prime responsibility from the Old Dominion Boat Club. This evolved into the TC Williams High School varsity rowing program.

In late 1998, ODBC President Steve Danzig and Rowing Committee chairman Jim Dooley (GWHS crew alumnus '67) approached Alexandria Crew Boosters with a proposal that ODBC again sponsor youth crews. ODBC Select Rowing was the result. Starting in 1999, rowers wore ODBC colors of orange & black for the first time in many years.

Since that first season, the ODBC crews have competed in regattas up and down the east coast, including the prestigious Head of the Charles in Boston and the Head of the Schuylkill in Philadelphia.