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.