Women's Rowing: Novice Team Program
December 16, 2002 01:14 PM | General
December 16, 2002
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- For many high school students, their career as student athletes usually ends when they arrive at college; however, the West Virginia University women’s rowing team gives students the chance to further their athletic dreams with the help of its novice rowing program.
Each fall, the rowing team holds an open meeting for all women interested in the sport.
"No rowing experience is necessary to come to the meeting or to join the novice team," says Novice coach Jim Mitchell. "When the women decide to commit to the program, we (Mitchell and head coach rowing Nancy LaRocque) begin by teaching them the basics of the sport."
Many of the women who come out for the team were athletes in high school. Members of the varsity rowing team’s athletic resumes include lacrosse, swimming, softball, track, volleyball, tennis, cheerleading, rugby and even Tae Kwon Do.
While teaching them the basic skills, LaRocque and Mitchell simultaneously train the women for the sport. The team spends six days a week either on the water or in the training center on the ERG machines.
Because there are only two high school rowing teams in West Virginia, the team attracts a number of curious women from the state. The present novice roster has 15 athletes from West Virginia.
"We look for girls who are a certain size," says Mitchell. "It is good to have girls who are tall and fit, but work ethic is the most important thing. Rowing is a sport where you must work hard in order to win races."
Mitchell sees good rowing potential in many of the rowers including freshmen Robin Reed and Tausha Cassell. Both women are from West Virginia and played basketball in high school.
The hard work and determination of the young Mountaineer novice team proves to be paying off. In the fall, WVU raced three boats of eight and a four shell in the Navy Day Regatta and the Head of the Schuylkill. The novice eight "A" boat finished sixth out of 19 entries and was defeated only by teams whose boats contained women with pervious rowing experience.
"Novice races don’t necessarily mean that the boat is full of girls who never raced," says Mitchell. "Freshmen rowers with past experience are permitted to enter novice races."
At the Head of the Schuylkill, the novice women finished 10th, 27th and 37th our of 50 in the eight race. The novice four finished third out of 13 teams.
"Our goal is to develop a strong novice team so that they can move up to the varsity level," says Mitchell. "But before we think about moving girls up, this year we are concentrating on winning the BIG EAST and Dad Vails eight championships."
Although women need no prior crew or athletic experience to join the rowing team, the novice program at WVU is truly giving students the ability to compete at the Division I level in a highly competitive sport.
