Early Season Report

While racing is a tangible way to track our progress and show off all of the hard work we are putting in at practice, it certainly isn’t the only way.  As I said yesterday, the entire coaching staff is impressed with the focus, grit, and enthusiasm that you each have demonstrated in our first few weeks of training. Below are some highlights from the season thus far, please share this with your fans (aka: the very supportive NDA Rowing parents)!

Novice Round Up

The whole rowing community has been battling the winter weather for what seems like an eternity, but the Notre Dame novices have had an especially trying start to the season. Nearly all of the novice winter practices fell on one of the many “snow days”, thus postponing the true start of the novice season to just three short weeks ago.  Notre Dame novices didn’t skip a beat. They jumped into the ever-changing chaos of Vesper, trying their first strokes on the erg while national team hopefuls trained intensely around them.  Most seasoned rowers would be intimidated in this situation, but our novices didn’t bat an eyelash. 

At last weekend’s Manny Flick#2, Reilly, Serena, Maura MacDonald, and Casey earned NDA’s first win of the 2014 season, crossing the line ahead of Penn Charter A & B in the Girls Novice 4x.  Despite the pre-race jitters, they rowed with the control and composure necessary for success in novice racing. 

While their teammates raced,  Sara, Emma, Maura Maguire, Caroline, Brenna, and Liv continued to work hard to refine their skills. On Monday and Tuesday, with the mercury hovering at 30 degrees, our mighty novices endured freezing fingers and blowing snow to ensure they were race-ready for Manny Flick#3. Their progress was astounding, and by Saturday morning’s practice all novice boats were rowing well and together. While we are disappointed not to defend last weekend’s win, we are confident that the girls will be even faster and hungrier for next week’s race! Great job novices!

Varsity Round Up

The Varsity group started training in the frozen days of late January. They juggled the admittedly complex logistics to get themselves to practice; erging several days a week and completing cardio and circuit workouts on their own. Though I’ve been told that winter training in years past had been a little lack luster, I never would have guessed this watching the girls in the first few days of erg practice.  Our winter workouts consisted of lots of steady state erg work sprinkled in with some harder 8’ pieces and technical drills, and everyone exceed expectations.

On the water we have been focused on refining our catches and ensuring a powerful, horizontal drive through the stroke. The entire varsity has demonstrated maturity, resourcefulness, and determination as they've welcomed the novices, pushed each other, and adjusted to an entirely new coaching staff. A new head coach couldn't hope for a better group of girls.

Seniors Maria, Kelly, Mackenzie Curry, Rachael, and Mackenzie Bonner have been instrumental in helping me, and the other coaches, get to know the ropes at Vesper. Where they could easily have dragged their feet with the many changes to their rowing experience, these NDA Rowing veterans have been nothing but positive, hard working, and steady. On the water, they lead underclassmen in making technical adjustments to their strokes; not an easy task when you’ve been doing something a certain way for 4 seasons. Despite being injured, Mary Rose made a great impact on the early season: everything from shuffling launches, to helping out with the novices. We are excited to have her back in the boat this week. 

As our biggest class, the juniors play an integral role in linking the foundation set by the seniors, to the energy and excitement of the underclassmen.  While everyone has made impressive gains on the ergometer, Gabby, Katie, and Jenny demonstrated natural power and athleticism early on in winter training with some of the fastest splits on the Varsity side. On the water, they continue to make technical gains each day as they learn to apply all of that power and translate it into fast boat.  Mickey, Jane, Lexi, and Taylor made great improvements on the erg this winter, and continue to impress me with their focus and ability to internalize the technical drills that we do at practice. With continued focus and grit, there is no doubt that the Juniors will develop into a strong backbone for Note Dame success, both this year and next.

Sophomore year is a tough one, not only in school, but also as a rower. Fresh off their novice season, they are thrown in with the varsity group and expected to keep up with the increased training volume and technical skills.  Notre Dame sophomores are clearly ready for the challenge. Brooke and Johanna show great potential on the erg, with continuously improving splits and the lighthearted attitude that often accompanies the “power house” of the boat. With her attention split between steering, calling drills, and rowing, Julia demonstrates the cool composure that marks a great bow seat.  As transfer athletes, Candace from Radnor and Abby from Holy Names Academy in Seattle, bring a valuable perspective to NDA Rowing. Candace translated her sweep experience to sculling with impressive quickness, and Abby continues to develop her naturally smooth stroke while also learning the rules of the river from bow seat. We couldn’t be more excited to have them on board. Last but certainly not least Emily has been instrumental in getting the novices ready for race day. Despite an early season injury, Emily has showed up at practice each day and with a smile on her face and helped out wherever need. Easing back into full health this week, we are excited to see Emily continue to improve!

And of course we can't forget the great efforts of the NDA Rowing assistant coaches. Their patience, commitment and creativity is inspiring and greatly appreciated.

With the bad weather predicted to break this weekend, things will only continue to improve for Notre Dame Crew.  Keep up the good work everyone!