West Virginia’s Rowing Squad Gives Back
October 01, 2014 03:32 PM | General
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| The WVU rowing squad taught the Girl Scouts how to use an erg machine, which is a machine that the WVU rowing squad uses for training purposes. |
| WVU Athletic Communications |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University rowing team, along with coach Jimmy King and assistant coaches Mandy Merritt and Stacey Van Order, broke away from training on the Monongahela River to meet with a dozen Girl Scout members at the WVU Shell Building this past weekend for an afternoon filled with games and laughter.
“This event was awesome because we were able to volunteer as a team and really give back to the community. The Girl Scouts were exposed to the sport of rowing. It was really fun to do it with our teammates and teach younger girls the opportunities that are available for them in the future,” Kelly Kramer, a senior from Lakewood, Ohio, said.
Highlights included four stations that taught the scouts the basics of rowing. Before the activities began, the Girl Scouts participated in warm-ups that the rowers partake in before every practice. At the first station, the Girl Scouts were able to go inside the boat and sit in the coxswain’s and rower’s seat. The scouts also learned how to use an erg machine, which is a machine that simulates the action of watercraft rowing for the purpose of exercise or training for rowing.
At the next station, the Girl Scouts learned the Hail WV fight song along with team cheers, and then moved on to the international station where they listened to stories from three of the squad’s international student-athletes. Freshman Estee Browne and sophomore Louisa Morgan are natives of New Zealand, and freshman Colleen Giesbrecht is a native of St. Catharines, Ontario.
“We had a lot of fun with the Girl Scouts, and we taught them about rowing as a collegiate sport. Some people do not even know about rowing until college,” Morgan said. “Growing up in New Zealand, I enjoyed rowing as a sport. It was just so natural, and it’s nice to involve the Girl Scouts at a young age, so they are able to think about the opportunities it entails later on in high school or college.”
After a healthy snack break, the Mountaineers worked together with the Girl Scouts in a team building exercise, breaking off into four different groups and creating a human knot. The rowers and scouts had to communicate with one another in order to unknot themselves.
The final event was an erg race, where a Girl Scout paired up with a member on the squad to compete for 300 meters. The Girl Scouts rowed for the first 100 meters while the WVU rowers finished the last 200. The scouts were able to use the rowing techniques that they learned throughout the afternoon and incorporate them into this last station. In the end, the scouts were able to cox their teammate through the last 200 meters to finish the race.
“It sparks your own love within the sport. They were all so excited, and it was fun to be able to give back to the community and be around all the happy, smiling faces,” Sadie Kalathunkal, a senior from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said.
Although rowing is not a widely known sport in college athletics, the WVU rowing coaches are working together to make the sport more visible around the Morgantown community with their inaugural Girl Scout event.
“Rowing is a sport that allows an opportunity for women that never rowed before to be a part of Division I team, and if we can put that in the minds of younger kids early, then they can take advantage of those opportunities later on in life,” Merritt said. “We were excited to have the turn out that we did for our first year, and we look forward to having a better turn out in the future.”
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