2008-09 Crew Blog - Week 1

by Elissa Center - September 19, 2008

After almost seven years of rowing, it amazes me that I can still wake up every morning and get excited (yes, actually excited at 5 am!) that I’m going to practice. That’s a pretty great thing to find. Our fall season officially started two weeks ago, and I can already tell that it’s going to be a good year. The kind of excitement I feel every morning is radiating from everyone, and I can tell that this team is ready to really work hard and have fun doing it. A lot of people are stepping up to take more of a leadership role, and we’re lucky to have Paige and Taylor as our enthusiastic and dedicated captains this year! We have a strong senior class, some awesome juniors (here and abroad) and a bunch of sophomores from last year’s novice team, who are proving to be some kick-butt new varsity members.

The fall is one of my favorite parts of the year, because we get to meet our new teammates! The novice crew team, comprised of those who have never rowed in college before, was just selected this past week. We haven’t gotten a chance to row with most of them yet, since they’re still learning the basics, but they seem like a great group. We have a tradition on the team of pairing varsity rowers up with novices as “big sisters,” and we just found out who our little sisters are. I think it’s nice to have that connection to someone on the team right away, and the big/little sister events we have throughout the year are always a ton of fun. I’m excited to get to know them better as the season goes on!

The fall is also nice because our coach, Jeanne, switches things up a lot. As we get into the middle of our racing season and especially into the spring, the line-ups start to become more set, and the focus is on flowing well with the boats we’re racing in...but...for now, we get a chance to row with everyone and move around a lot, as Jeanne figures out who rows best together. I can’t wait to start racing and get a chance to test our speed against other teams, but for now, practice is almost just as much fun!