Bantam Bars Born

We're solidly into a New England fall that has featured a beautiful turn of the seasons. In between raking leaves yesterday I did a home gym project making our version of canned weights (The Bantam Bar). A little bit of a dirty process but nevertheless 15 new bars are coming home to roost in the Ferris Athletic Center.

The fall was a big shift for Trinity Women's Rowing as we fielded a large team than we have ever done before. With 4 full eights racing we raced at the Housatonic, Charles, and Schuylkill and came away with medals at all three with some excellent performances by our younger athletes and some growth with our varsity athletes. I've been particularly pleased with how positive our athletes are responding to one another and how that has laid the foundation to really make a run at earning a 9th straight bid to the NCAA Championships to be held in Sacramento this year.

It's all hands on deck from here on out...

First Day in the Books

Awesome first day! Completed our fitness evaluation and saw that the majority of athletes prepared themselves well for the rigors of training but also saw areas that we can have continued improvement. There were white cap conditions so we were able to use our BRAND NEW DOCK to launch two eights and have 5 athletes do a combination of erging and running. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality on the first day and a huge compliment to our coxswains who ran an efficient and competitive practice in tough conditions. Hands in felt pretty strong too...along with some extra little wrinkles that we've added to practice.

Recruit visits are heating up - we'll have four in the next four days or so and the classes they'll see are already looking fascinating.

Ready to Launch

A quick message for the 2010-2011 edition of Trinity Women's Rowing - starting it up on Tuesday.

Four Days and Counting

Until freshmen arrive on campus I mean...It's that awesome time of year again when coaches get to finalize race entries for fall head race competitions and make sure that our athletes are compliant with both our medical training staff and the NCAA.

Recruits and athletes please don't be surprised by the amount of paperwork you need to complete in order to be an intercollegiate varsity athlete. This list is by no means exhaustive but you need to complete the following items:

1. Medical history questionnaire
2. Cardiac screening with Dr. Carl Nissen who works with Trinity athletes (www.elitesportsmedecine.com)
3. Trinity Health Center physical completed
4. imPact concussion testing for all varsity athletes
5. NCAA waiver, compliance, and drug-testing forms
6. Regattacentral waiver (Head of the Housatonic, Head of the Schuykill)
7. Ronin Racing waiver (Head of the Riverfront, Head of the Charles)
8. Trinity Women's Rowing information card

Surprising isn't it? And when you consider that it can be a challenge to have 45+ athletes cooperate there is always somebody who needs to be chased down to do it. The consequences are large as you are not eligible to practice if you don't complete these requirements. First and foremost, we want you to have a safe and healthy experience participating and competing in Trinity Athletics.

Summer Recap

Have been purposely not blogging so that I can attempt to be more consistent throughout the season and give our alumnae, friends, families, athletes, and recruits some more to think about it, look at, and read about our team. This has been a turbulent summer for me personally in both good and bad ways and it's good to know that the mission and goal of our team is one of the rocks to which I can always return. As a quick summary I coached a series of camps that helped me redefine some of the parts of the rowing stroke that are critical and challenged the way that I approached the teaching process. I got to spend a wonderful week in Prince Edward Island with my family and reconnected to my first cousins that I haven't seen in years - it's easy to say it when we're together as a team but family truly does come first. I moved into a new house in West Hartford and have spent a good portion of the summer getting to know the place, fixing things up, and truly making it my own. I am really looking forward to having the squad here for breakfast (after a run from campus of course).
The other major highlight has been reconnecting with the erg and enjoying being athletic again. The group I rowed with in 2009 at the Henley Royal Regatta in the Thames Cup is aiming for a return in 2011 with higher expectations for training and racing. That has provided all the incentive I need to put training as one of the priorities in my life again and I'm truly loving the process. However, the work has been being done behind the scenes for much of the summer to be ready for this year's campaign and I am so eager to push, pry, pull, teach, cajole, support, challenge, correct, praise, criticize, explain, observe, analyze, synthesize, and most of all -  COACH the Trinity women for 2010-2011.

Individual Awards

It's really odd to recognize individuals within a rowing shell - team results are what really matters but nevertheless Trinity earned a fair share of recognition for performance in the classroom and on the water this year. Here is a quick list:

NESCAC All-Sportsmanship Team: Stephanie Apstein '10 (Captain)
NESCAC All-Academic Team: Jamie Callahan '11, Brianna Dix '11, Sarah Keller '11, Hannah Smith '10, and Tracey Suter '11
NESCAC All-Conference First Team: Deede Dixon '10, Robin Neschke '13, Sarah Keller '11
NESCAC All-Conference Second Team: Ellie Wierzbowski '10 (Captain), Courteney Coyne '10


National Invitational Rowing Championships Stewards All-Academic Team: Jamie Callahan '11, Sarah Keller '11, Kate Pool '11, Tracey Suter '11, Sophie Hollingsworth '12, Hannah Smith '10

CRCA All-Academic Awards: Sarah Keller '11, Kate Pool '12, Hannah Smith '10, Tracey Suter '11
CRCA First Team All-American: Deede Dixon '10

Season Complete - Boats back on the rack

My updates from the NCAA were clearly not up to par as we were continuing to try and make improvements all the way up to the warm up for the grand and petite final. It was one heck of season for its myriad challenges, successes, failures, and learning opportunities and it certainly taught me a ton as a coach. This year's varsity squad had 4 freshman, 3 sophomores, 6 juniors, and 5 seniors and they all made huge strides as we changed the guard so-to-speak.

To recap, there were seven teams invited to compete for the NCAA team championship: Bates, Trinity, Williams, and Wellesley from New England; Ithaca and St. Lawrence from the New York region, and the University of Puget Sound from the Pacific region. William Smith and Mary Washington were the two at-large varsity eights invited to compete. Given our results during the season and our progress post-ECACs the goal on Friday was to make the Grand Final with the 1V and the Petite Final with the 2V. After racing in the morning heats where only the heat winner advanced directly to the final both boats were faced with the prospect of racing through the qualifiers in the afternoon. The 2V sat 5th for the majority of the petite qualifier while the 1V was passed for qualifying at the 1500m mark. Both crews roared back with really inspired technical rowing in the 2nd 1000m and were able to secure positions in both the grand and petite finals making it likely that we could earn a 4th place NCAA team trophy. Looking back at the New Englands where the 1V was 6th in the grand final and the 2V 5th it was really exciting to see Friday's racing when I really saw the grit and determination of our squad come out. Split times for the 2V race can be found here and for the 1V race here.

Saturday we raced after the 1V semifinals and the 2V spent themselves early in an attempt to gain valuable team points and rowed a courageous race eventually finishing 6th - three hard races in two days took its toll and that's something we can address for next season. The 1V, a very young crew found the early going of the grand final pretty hot and sat in 5th place going through the 1000m and made a huge mid-course to move up to 4th position. By finishing 4th in the grand final it tied us with Ithaca for the 3rd place team trophy - the tie was broken by the higher finish of our varsity boat thus earning the squad a 3rd place NCAA trophy and 6th team trophy in a row.

More to come on individual awards, our new captain, and summer plans.

NCAA Thursday

Morning row on the course is complete and we're waiting to go to the coach's meeting at noon and then a coxswain's meeting at 1:00 PM. I think the crews are in a good place as they have made some improvements in practice since getting to California. The crews look sharp out there and I find it entirely fascinating that some crews are entirely body-oriented while others are very blade-oriented. I'm always impressed by the physicality of the top crews in the country and it certainly leaves something for us to strive for in the future.

The 2V will race in the first heat with Williams I, UPS, William Smith, and Ithaca II. While the 1V should be in a barnburner of heat number 3 with Bates, Mary Washington, and Williams II.

Took some good video today including wild turkeys, some funny luggage-moving, and some good boat-moving. I'll try to post those soon!

NESCAC All-Conference Teams Announced - Trinity puts FIVE on the team!

Based on ECAC performances 5 five members of the Trinity Women's Rowing team were awarded All-Conference Honors - Deede Dixon '10, Sarah Keller '11, and Robin Neschke '13 were awarded first-team honors while Courteney Coyne '10 and Ellie Wierzbowski '10 were awarded second team honors. Neschke was the only freshman woman to make the All-Conference squad.

NCAA Wednesday #1 - Mozart Woods

Woke up a couple of hours ago still clearly on east coast time...Am very glad that we were able to make our way out on Tuesday and have a chance to sleep in today. The hotel is excellent and so far the staff at both Southwest, Holiday Inn, and Enterprise have made everything very smooth and easy. I love it when customer service runs smoothly and the system works! Also read a good book on the plane entitled Talent is Overrated that has a pretty controversial thesis that there is little evidence to point out that humans possess innate talents for certain tasks - they might be genetically predisposed to being more successful at certain activities (height for a basketball player and height for a gymnast) but that the key factor in success may very well be how early we start and what do we do. Great comparisons of Mozart and Tiger Woods along with German violinists and chess masters. There is even an example of the Army men's rowing team...The argument is that even though Mozart and Tiger Woods have been considered child prodigies capable of producing world class work incredibly early they did so AFTER 10 years of intense, focused, and directed work that helped develop them into something world class. I also thought the picture of them side-by-side is particularly funny.

We'll likely head to a local shopping mall to hang out in the mid-morning before heading to the course to rig and register. The weather looks pretty un-California-like if you ask me...

Off to Sacramento

Deja vu all over again...After our trip to the San Diego Crew Classic in March, a dress rehearsal of sorts, we're now on the way to Sacramento for the NCAA Rowing Championships. We have a very exciting opportunity to keep improving and I believe we've uncovered some good areas to focus upon...

I'll try and keep the updates coming from California for all of you who are following at home.

Fast boats...

Dixon named to ECAC All Conference Team

2010 ECAC National Invitational Rowing Championships All-Conference Teams were announced yesterday and senior Deede Dixon was named to the All-Conference squad. Details of the award can be found here.

Trinity Earns its Eight Straight Bid to the NCAAs

Yesterday at 3:00 PM the NCAA selection committee made it official that Trinity is one of seven Division III teams that will compete for the National Championship in Sacramento on May 28th and 29th. It was a pretty huge thrill to know that the team's progress from a very slow start could be rewarded with the opportunity to compete at the national level.

For parents and friends of the program, the team will be staying at the Holiday Inn Rancho Cordova and will be training through exams and graduation to try and earn the highest position possible.

We're expecting the absolute hardest racing of the year and will look to continue making improvements to what we do during practice in this next two week block.

Great stuff! If you would like to watch the selection show on NCAA.com please click here. You may need to search for women's rowing and then click on the Division III selection show.

What a moment on the water today

It was 12...now it looks like 15.

Could it really be 15 recruits for the Class of 2014? I'll provide some information later but needless to say I'm incredibly excited by the prospect of having such a deep class coming to help raise the standard of rowing at Trinity!

12

First one in the books...

The 1V finished third in a heat of seven boats to qualify for tomorrow's petite final. One of the newest D 1 programs, the University of Oklahoma finished 1st while St. Joe's finished about 4 seconds up on us. There were some positives from the piece and it was the first collegiate race for two of our 8 rowers...always good to get six boat racing experience. And perhaps most importantly, we learned a lot about what we can improve upon and how to spend our energy more effectively.

The 2V is coming up in about 2.5 hours...They'll have a challenging time as there was a late addition to our heat of Villanova. That will mean a heat of six boats with 2 to go through to tomorrow's grand final. Thank you to all of you who are watching live online and have sent awesome messages of support for the athletes!

San Diego Crew Classic Day 1

Heading to the course now with the 1V - they're finishing up breakfast and then we'll go over our prerace checklist. California radio stations are really excellent...a ton of variety.

Heats Tomorrow - It's finally here!

We returned to the hotel after a great dinner at the Fashion Valley mall - beautiful area and a great atmosphere. Some of the athletes who have family in the area or who traveled out to watch the races went out to dinner with them - I was really happy that they get to spend some time together. Chicken piccata for dinner...great flavor, tender chicken, but a little on the cool side. Very fast service...

The practices this afternoon were solid and both crews felt like they gained some familiarity with their new shells and the conditions. In my mind, it's really important for us to remain focused on the mechanics of what we do and not get too caught up in evaluating our results as they happen. We have a lot to learn on both the 1V and 2V levels and so I hope we can use this race experience to identify some of our reactions, strengths, and weaknesses. Good luck to all of the competitors racing tomorrow!

In Between Rows...

What are the quintessential California trip stops? The 2V rowed this morning right away and had a solid practice where they began to feel the length that should serve them well as we get into racing. They were smart about bringing their own shoes and were logistically very quick to get things finished. We had a little bit of trouble getting the rigging correct on the 1V shell and so they didn't launch until quite a bit later but many thanks to John Tytus of Pocock Racing Shells for helping get everything in order. The conditions (stiff crosswind) are a little bit challenging but aren't anything that we should be surprised by tomorrow. A quick lunch from In N Out and back to the hotel for a little rest before this afternoon's paddle...Even though everyone knows about the secret menu at In N Out I thought I would link to it here just so you have it when you want customized food. Check out the Five Guys versus In N Out discussion thread on chowhound.com - people REALLY care about their burgers.

Sunset Pizza

It turns out that we had a very short stopover in Baltimore and flew right out to San Diego arriving nearly 20 minutes early! Fantastic because it did allow us to get our gear and over to the ZLAC boathouse (the oldest women's rowing club originally founded in 1892 www.zlac.org)

We did a trip of Mission Bay just to get sorted out in our new shells and we have a few adjustments to make for tomorrow but that's to be totally expected. In one of those "this is really awesome I can't believe it's true" moments, the team ended up having a bonfire hosted by the Pool family on Kellogg Beach in La Jolla and enjoyed the sunset, pizza, and a whole lot of digital photography.

Regular start time today to let the bodies rest a little more and then we'll do two short rows to get reacclimitized for tomorrow's racing. The venue looks well set up with enclosures, organized boat areas, and it will likely be packed by midday today.

Flying to San Diego

Through security and about ready to board our flight to San Diego with two eights of athletes ready to race it up for the first time in 2010. The selection process was long and I thought the group handled the pressure well...and while we've been able to get a fair amount of water time the conditions on the river have made gauging speed challenging. We've tried to give the athletes a nice mix of consistency and variety and the mechanics of the stroke have been steadily improving.

The varsity will be racing in the Women's Varsity Cal Cup and they are in heat 3 at 8:20 AM on Saturday morning while the second varsity will be racing in the Open 8+ event and will be in heat 1 at 1:30 PM in the afternoon.

It's particularly exciting because the team has a great mix of youth and experience. Six of the nine current varsity eight athletes have been to the NCAAs on multiple occasions while seven of the nine second varsity eight athletes have raced or been spares at the NCAAs. And from a youth standpoint we will have two seniors coxswains and three senior rowers in between the two hulls...

More to come from Baltimore and hopefully I'll be able to upload pictures from my Blackberry.

Top 5 sports stories right now...

Congratulations to all of the competitors at the CRASH Bs and I hope that every rower from junior to masters is looking forward to getting back out on the water as soon as possible.

So many things in sports are happening right now...Vancouver Winter Olympics (amazing mogul run by Canadian Alexander Bilodeau), pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training soon, along with college and pro hoops.

My top five interesting sport stories RIGHT NOW:
5. UConn Women's Basketball currently on an amazing winning streak and simply crushing their opponents.
4. Trinity Men's Squash sweeps Princeton to go undefeated in the regular season and readies themselves to go for their 12th! straight National Championship this weekend.
3. Short track speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno tying the record for most decorated winter Olympic athlete with a couple of events to go...
2. Alexandre Bilodeau winning Canada's 1st home gold medal with a stunning display of speed and aerial confidence.

AND NUMBER ONE!
1. Trinity Women's Rowing gearing up to go in-season and getting excited and prepared for the San Diego Crew Classic on March 28th

Need some work...and an amazingly generous gift

Worked on dead lifting today (you would be amazed at the number of different images there are of people dead lifting...) - Maxed out at 310 which isn't too bad considering what type of training I've been able to do. Felt good to go after some heavier weights though. Short term goal would be to do at least twice my body weight (definitely within striking distance given the previous day's workouts) and then to hit 400 lbs by the end of the season. I think it's simply going to take regular practice. Go figure.

On another fantastic note - a phenomenal gift has been pledged towards the naming of an eight in our fleet. It's really fantastic to know that our alumnae are supporting the program and the College

Great workouts

Have done a couple of solid workouts in the past couple of days - yesterday I played around with side press and some dumbbell snatches as well as some kettlebell work with some new moves introduced by Coach MacDermott - today we did three rounds of 2' of box jumps, wall ball, and ring push ups with 2' of ergometer work. I found it pretty interesting to catalog the different ways I tried to improve over each round and how I would change my approach if I was to do the workout again.

Taking the approach of "figuring out" the workout may not be the most competitive or intense but it definitely made the time go quicker and made the work manageable. For early fitness preparation I think that focusing on the 'how' rather than the 'how many' made it easier...but I can see how it will be fun to compete VERY soon.

Here are a couple of videos I found online of ridiculous athleticism and hand eye coordination... and then an athlete who gets simply worn down by his opponent. Fitness anyone?