Awarded for the Boys Varsity 8+. Honoring Coach Robert J
Valerian, past coach of Cleveland's Saint Ignatius High School and past member
of the MSRA Executive Committee. 
Thirteen years ago, Bob Valerian met with an old college friend, Ron
DeGrandis for lunch. The two had
rowed together twenty-five years before at Georgetown and kept in touch since
that time. They exchanged the
normal pleasantries, and the conversation shifted over to Ron’s son Brad, who
was a St. Ignatius student. “Ya
know Bob, Brad and a few guys have been trying to start a crew down there. They have a coach, but he’s not showing up very much.
Why don’t you go down there and lend a hand.”
Bob refers to this event as “The lunch that changed his life.” Indeed it did. The next day Bob went down to location of the old boathouse on Columbus Road. There he found ten St. Ignatius students that could barely put the boats in the water, much less row or even think about racing. There were even days when Bob did not have a launch, he would just coach from the shore as the crews rowed by in two old wooden fours.
Since those days in the fall of 1990, Saint Ignatius Crew from Cleveland has evolved from a fledgling startup program into the Premier High School Rowing Program in the Midwest. This evolution has taken place through the hard work and vision of Head Coach Bob Valerian. I believe everyone here has an appreciation for the time and effort that Bob has committed to the St. Ignatius Crew. However, Brad and I thought it would be appropriate to share with you some statistics on Bob’s thirteen years (1990-2003) here as Head Coach. Some of these statistics are estimates – if anything, they are on underestimates.
356 rowers who have 742 years of HS rowing experience as a result of Bob’s instruction
Run over 2,000 practice sessions for a total of over 3,500 hours or 150 days of practices.
Under Bob’s supervision, St. Ignatius Crews have rowed over 8,000 miles. That would be about the same distance as rowing from Cleveland to San Francisco and back…..TWICE.
Crews have rowed over 500 races at over 60 regattas in 8 states.
According to the records we have, Wildcat crews have won 127 gold medals, 96 silver medals, and 63 bronze medals – including a 1995 Scholastic Rowing Association Championship in the J4 and 1997 Silver Medal in the Freshman 8.
The Crew earned overall points trophies at least 11 times, including 2 Midwest Scholastic Championships
That translated into St. Ignatius boats finishing in the Top 3 over 60% of the time.
S.I. boats finished first over 25% of time
Since 1994, St. Ignatius has finished in the Top 5 for Overall Men’s Point at the Midwest Scholastic Championships – winning in 2000 and 2002.
There are many other statistics that I could share with you, but those facts would not emphasize the true impact that Coach V. has had on the lives of the men he has worked with. Coach V. showed awkward boys the value of discipline, hard work, and dedication as they developed into young men. He served as a guide and role model during their teenage years, helping them steer a course through the winding, turbulent times of adolescence. Most importantly, Coach V. brought out the champion in the every rower he coached. He was able to find the strengths in every oarsman and harness them for the betterment of the team. For the team was always most important. Bob installed in every rower the belief that the Glory was not in the individual, but the Glory is in Team.