Every day after school, senior Nielsen Euvrard makes his way to the Charles River for crew practice. He picks up his boat with his teammates and the group of boys lift it over their shoulders and carry it from the boathouse onto the dock. He settles into the boat, hands gripping the oars and ready to take on the current with his team.

Euvrard started rowing his freshman year, when his mother signed him up for the summer Learn-To-Row program at Community Rowing Inc. (CRI). He joined the high school’s rowing team in the beginning of his junior year and is currently captain along with seniors Phillip Forman and Ben Vyshedskiy. In December 2022, Euvrard committed to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to row for the men’s crew team at the Division I level.

Euvrard said that he always gravitated towards crew because of the sense of accomplishment it gave him outside of rowing.

“I’ve always stuck with rowing because it’s not a very technical sport. It’s more that the amount of work you put into it is what you get out of it. I like how direct it is,” Euvrard said. “And being on the high school crew team is a lot of fun. It’s a really competitive team and that can be really motivating.”

Forman said Euvrard is widely known as a kind and compassionate teammate, making him a great captain and example for other athletes on the team.

“He’s extremely supportive of the team, and he cares so much about every individual member,” Forman said. “He always minds the small details. He is super mindful of everything the other kids have going on and that makes him both a great leader and someone people feel like they can trust and talk to.”

Head coach for boys varsity crew Catie Szymanoski said Euvrard is extremely dedicated, always a team player and has incredible sportsmanship.

“He wants to achieve things for himself, but when it comes to everyone else, he also always wants the team to do better and be the best that they can be. He’s a really selfless person and teammate,” Szymanoski said.

Euvrard said being a part of the crew team has strengthened him not only physically, but mentally as well.

“Rowing is about whether or not you’re willing to practice to get fit and get the results that you want to see, which I think helped me apply that concept of hard work to my life outside of rowing as well,” Euvrard said.

According to Euvrard, the sports recruitment process for MIT took quite a bit of time and is a little different from other colleges.

“At other Division I schools, they typically have you sign a paper that essentially guarantees you admission to the school for your sport if the coach offers you a spot on the team,” Euvrard said. “But since MIT is such an academic school, the only thing that the coach can do is submit a letter of recommendation to the admissions office and kind of leave it up to them.”

According to Forman, MIT has always seemed like the perfect fit for Euvrard and has the exact balance of schoolwork and crew practice that he was looking for.

“He’s very academic. He didn’t want to be on a team where his whole life would be rowing only, which is the case for a lot of sports teams at schools like Harvard or Yale,” Forman said. “At MIT, rowing will be a big part of his life, but he’ll be able to prioritize school at the end of the day.”

Szymanoski said she was incredibly happy to hear about Euvrard’s commitment and proud to see that all his hard work had paid off.

“College rowing is something that he and I have talked about for a couple years now. He has gone back and forth about what he wanted in his collegiate life, both athletically and academically, and I’m just so glad he got to achieve what he wanted,” Szymanoski said.

Euvrard said he’s looking forward to this new chapter of life and being in an environment where everyone has a similar mindset for the sport.

“I’ll definitely miss the whole high school team,” Euvard said. “I love the guys I row with right now, but I’m also really excited to start rowing in college.”