A few local Jewish teens are making waves, literally, after a successful start to their rowing careers, with two of them following up a regional rowing championship with an impressive performance at nationals.
Fifteen-year-olds John Walish and David Bauml won gold at the Mid-Atlantic Youth Championships in the U17 2x event in May and then proceeded to earn a tenth-place finish at the U.S. Rowing Youth National Championships in Sarasota earlier this month.
Craig Hoffman, a member of the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and the executive director of the Conshohocken Rowing Center, where the boys race, has spent much of his life dedicated to athletics and is proud to say that Walish and Bauml are performing at the top of their games. While the rowers and Hoffman are, of course, proud Jews, Hoffman emphasized that rowing is not a place in which factors like that matter.
“In our sport of rowing, it really doesn’t matter what religion you are, what color you are, it’s really the time and the commitment and your willingness to put yourself out there when it really counts that gains the respect of rowers,” he said. “He or she gains the respect of his or her teammates by really learning to row well and pull hard and learn the level of competition it takes to win.”
This was Walish’s third straight year winning a gold medal at the Mid-Atlantic Youth Championships. He also won medals at the U.S. Rowing Youth National Championships in 2023 and 2024. Bauml qualified for nationals last year in his first year of racing as a 14-year-old, finishing 14th in the country.
Walish’s mother, Fran Walish, said that her son’s success in the boat, as well as in the classroom, where he is an honors student, has her beaming with pride.
“It makes me kvell,” she said.
Hoffman said that these regional and national accomplishments mean even more because of the intense commitment that rowing requires. These athletes spend around 20 hours a week working out, six days a week, all year round.
“It is exciting to watch kids that are also Jewish aspire in our sport. Rowing isn’t for everyone. It takes a certain work ethic to make it through the year,” he said.
One regatta fell at the same time as Passover this year, and the CRC rowers made sure to fit a Seder into their regular weekend racing routines.
Hoffman said that regardless of what is going on elsewhere, rowing, and youth sports in general, reveal a powerful internal drive in young people.
“My own thought is, the world has problems, but kids are still the same,” he said. “They want to grow, and they want to win.”
Both athletes are driven on and off the water. Walish is a student at the University Scholars Program and Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School, while Bauml attends Harriton High School. Walish said that watching her son develop into the young man he is has been a wonderful experience.
“He’s been rowing now for two and half years, and his identity is very much [that] he’s a rower who happens to be smart, so seeing him take to it and put in the kind of hours that he does … when they excel, you love to see their passion pay off,” she said.
Hoffman said that Walish and Bauml have set a standard for themselves, and he has no doubt they will continue to meet it as they get older — in rowing and in life.
“I have a philosophy that what you do in high school is the way you’ll do in life, and these kids have learned that if they have the competitiveness and the chemistry to work within a team, that travels with you. In college, if they decide to row, I think they’ll be successful,” he said. “These are just hard-working kids. I have nothing but good things to say, and it’s not easy with the commitment and the work level that they have to do to be successful. YThese kids are willing to do whatever it takes, whether on the water or off the water, to be the best that they can.”