Ram Fan: Rowing Edition

My sophomore year, I roomed with one of my best friends in O'Hare Hall. We had been pretty close before becoming roommates, but the experience made us almost like sisters. We spent the year together exchanging clothes, offering gym advice, and complaining about the little things that frustrated us during the day. Although we have very different interests and majors, we were incredibly compatible roommates, and she remains one of my closest friends to this day.

My roommate was, and still is, on the Women's Rowing team. She walked on freshman year, and worked her way up from the novice boat. She originally tried it out of mild interest and an outlet to stay active for a girl involved in high school sports, but she quickly grew to love it and devoted herself to the sport. She woke up almost every day at 6AM for practice, spent her weekends at regattas, her breaks at training trips, and worked out up to three times a day. She is one of the hardest workers I have ever encountered, with an aspiration for success and a passion for bettering herself that never ceases to amaze me. I would see her come home at night exhausted, with an aching body and hours of Multivariable Calculus homework to do, and still be ready to do it again tomorrow. I watched her work herself as hard as other recruited varsity athletes, and genuinely admired her dedication perpetual persistence.

A beautiful day on the Schuykill!

Last weekend, over spring break, I (finally) made it to one of her regattas. The Fordham Rowing team competed at the Murphy Cup on the Schuykill River in Philadelphia, not too far from my hometown. Having never been to a regatta before, I was unsure what to expect. I had listened to my roommate talk about the team, their boats, and their races for a year, but seeing it in person was entirely different. I made it just in time to watch her win her qualifying race, and was so excited by the energy and morale surrounding me. I recognized a couple of rowers from classes and activities around campus, so I made conversation about their spring training trip and how the other boats were doing throughout the day.

My view of her race from my snapchat

Once my roommate and the other members of her boat put their boat away after their race, they came over to the Fordham tent, where families and other team members were congregating. She immediately ran to me to give me a suffocating hug, and I was thrilled to see her so happy. We talked for a while about how the day was going, and she even snuck me some of the food that the supporting parents provide for the team. It was enjoyable to see her in her element and to recognize in person everything that she had told me about her sport. Seeing all of her hard work pay off made me proud to have her in my life as not only an inspiration, but a best friend as well.

The Novice Rowing Team



Fordham Crew Boats on the Harlem River

 

One of Fordham’s twenty-three division I sports is rowing. Girls are recruited to Fordham’s DI rowing team from all over the world- from Europe to the South Pacific. Yet, what has added great depth and record-breaking scores to the team are the girls who join the team as walk-ons.

Fordham offers a novice rowing team for men and women, respectively. The novice team teaches men and women how to row and helps them make the transition to either a DI level for women, or a competitive club level for men. Like the women’s DI and men’s club team, the novice team requires a great time commitment; the novice team can also be found practicing on the Harlem River at 6am with the varsity teams.

The novice team is great way to meet new people, work out, and add structure to your life.  I joined the novice team my freshman year not knowing exactly what to expect. Now three years later, I am the women’s varsity 8 coxswain and captain.

Fall Rowing

7:30 A.M. Harlem River. We wait for the coach’s command to commence. The brisk autumn wind softly stings our faces as our boat gently rocks along the gentle water. The morning sunshine seeps through the trees. It’s the welcoming fall sunshine that warms your face as you start to don your fall apparel. My teammates and I await the coach’s word, eager to begin gliding along the river and to feel the burn of strenuous yet rewarding activity. The coach calls out, “Ready, ROW!” and in a split-second, we’re off.

These small moments occur frequently during rowing practice on the Harlem River, yet often pass by unnoticed. Perhaps because we are all forced to awake at six A.M., we focus very little on these small yet significant instances. Only through reflection do we realize how these small moments help us to appreciate the fall season. Sure, many of the widely known facts about Fordham Rowing are true: we wake up extremely early almost every day to spend three hours practicing and spend many weekends during the fall and spring traveling hours to races. Yes, being a member of the team requires extreme dedication. However, there are so many aspects of rowing that no one can adequately express through words. There are the close friendships that develop from spending so much time around each other. There is the smirk that comes to your face when you realize that you’ve done more by 9 A.M. than what many college students will do all day. With the many hours that rowing takes from you, it gives you the unique time management skills that no other extracurricular activity can teach.

Between rowing and constantly striving to meet the academic expectations of Fordham, being a Fordham rower truly sets someone apart from others. Of course, with all of the commitments that we have to fulfill during our quotidian lives, us rowers don’t always consciously remind ourselves of all of these benefits. We only stop and realize them from time to time. Rowing for Fordham is an incredibly unique experience. Perhaps the next time I stop and bask in the autumn sunshine as we wait to dock our boat after a hard morning’s work, I will stop and appreciate all of the other benefits.

A Glimpse Into the Life of a Varsity Rower

Ever wondered what it is like to participate in a varsity sport in college? If you ask me, it's a once in a lifetime kind of experience. The Varsity Rowing Team here at Fordham is a great way to become active, develop life long friendships, get your work out fix, and have fun. I joined the team my freshman year and have been all over the country competing with the crew team, including races in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, California, New York, and Connecticut.

We are about to start our Fall racing season with a season opener in Connecticut at the Head of the Housatonic. From there we will compete at Head of the Connecticut, Head of the Charles in Boston, and Head of the Schuylkill in Philadelphia. The team has been practicing hard every morning at 6am on the Harlem River and we are ready to race! If you happen to be around, come out and support Fordham Rowing at any of these regattas! Hope to see y'all out on the river!