These Days It Seems I Spend a Lot of Time Dreaming...
I spend a lot of time thinking what we can do better as a nation to make this amazing sport more successful, more appealing, more popular, and continue its path of growth through the next 8 years. I look at a sport often mired in archaic tradition, solidified in a fascination of what was. Club rowing, collegiate rowing, and yes, even scholastic rowing needs an enema. A culture change, an identity change, a face lift that offers more opportunities to more people. A system that devotes resources to those that need it the most. I will be the first to tell you that, frankly, I'm not sure how to accomplish these things. I am only here to tell you about my dream.
I dream of a transparent collegiate rowing system with a men's and women's consolidated National Championship gentrified only by speed. All arbitrary divisions, and convoluted qualification systems thrown out the window. The only thing that your region dictates is which qualifier you will go to in an attempt to earn a spot at this prestigious regatta. In my dreams this regatta hosts every Olympic event in addition to the light women's four, and the light men's and women's eights. It is a regatta where half filled men's trailers don't travel in opposite directions to half filled women's trailers, both half way across the country.
I dream of a new vision for pre elite and elite athletes, whose life cycles in four year increments. An athlete centered system where clubs pool their resources to provide the best opportunities. In my dream this revolution begins in Philadelphia with a Schuylkill Navy Racing Team. A composite group that works hand in hand with USRowing and is the product of everything that boathouse row has to offer. Athletes will develop at Vesper, Undine, Penn AC, Fairmount, and Bachelors at U23, club summer, and year round developmental programs and will eventually graduate to an elite group of Olympic Caliber athlete, who are guided by the best rowing minds in Philadelphia. Not only will this team exist, but in my dream they will row out of a new home below the dam with money donated to them from Penn University and the city of Philadelphia. Penn has donated money because they have been permitted to use this new grand facility that has every modern instrument and rowing tool imaginable. The city has decided to lend a hand because this new "Super Boathouse" will also host one of the largest and most successful urban youth rowing programs in the world. This program offers children from disadvantaged high schools the opportunity to learn the sport of rowing and be a member of a team that eventually competes at and wins the Youth National Championship in Cincinnati.
As my dream lingers on I see a more effective national coach’s education initiative. A program that offers coaches in depth courses on boat repair, rigging, physiology, leadership, program management, and fundraising strategies.
These are the things I fantasize about when I see athletes stuck in every corner of the country that are limited by an inadequate system. I worry there are potential Olympic superstars in smaller collegiate programs that our system is allowing to fall through the cracks, I worry about the High School kids who are being coached by someone that is under qualified to coach or lead, and I worry often about elite athletes that have limitless potential and big dreams but are too rarely offered a helping hand.
I dream of a transparent collegiate rowing system with a men's and women's consolidated National Championship gentrified only by speed. All arbitrary divisions, and convoluted qualification systems thrown out the window. The only thing that your region dictates is which qualifier you will go to in an attempt to earn a spot at this prestigious regatta. In my dreams this regatta hosts every Olympic event in addition to the light women's four, and the light men's and women's eights. It is a regatta where half filled men's trailers don't travel in opposite directions to half filled women's trailers, both half way across the country.
I dream of a new vision for pre elite and elite athletes, whose life cycles in four year increments. An athlete centered system where clubs pool their resources to provide the best opportunities. In my dream this revolution begins in Philadelphia with a Schuylkill Navy Racing Team. A composite group that works hand in hand with USRowing and is the product of everything that boathouse row has to offer. Athletes will develop at Vesper, Undine, Penn AC, Fairmount, and Bachelors at U23, club summer, and year round developmental programs and will eventually graduate to an elite group of Olympic Caliber athlete, who are guided by the best rowing minds in Philadelphia. Not only will this team exist, but in my dream they will row out of a new home below the dam with money donated to them from Penn University and the city of Philadelphia. Penn has donated money because they have been permitted to use this new grand facility that has every modern instrument and rowing tool imaginable. The city has decided to lend a hand because this new "Super Boathouse" will also host one of the largest and most successful urban youth rowing programs in the world. This program offers children from disadvantaged high schools the opportunity to learn the sport of rowing and be a member of a team that eventually competes at and wins the Youth National Championship in Cincinnati.
As my dream lingers on I see a more effective national coach’s education initiative. A program that offers coaches in depth courses on boat repair, rigging, physiology, leadership, program management, and fundraising strategies.
These are the things I fantasize about when I see athletes stuck in every corner of the country that are limited by an inadequate system. I worry there are potential Olympic superstars in smaller collegiate programs that our system is allowing to fall through the cracks, I worry about the High School kids who are being coached by someone that is under qualified to coach or lead, and I worry often about elite athletes that have limitless potential and big dreams but are too rarely offered a helping hand.
