Coach stokes rowers' intensity

Photo by Mike Morones / The Free Lance-Star Members of the St. Margaret's School junior varsity crew team wait, floating in the Rappahannock River, for their coach's instructions during a May practice. Photo by Mike Morones / The Free Lance-Star ABOVE: Varsity crew team members carry their scull out of the water after practice. A crew team consists of four rowers and one coxswain, who steers the scull and calls out rhythm for the crew.

St. Margaret's School in Tappahannock uses rowing program to teach students about relationship between winning and excellence

ROB HEDELT   Rob Hedelt's archive   E-mail Rob Hedelt

TAPPAHANNOCK--There's no shortage of motivation for the St. Margaret's School rowing team when it hears the cheers at a regatta as the long, narrow four-seat shell flies through the water to a top finish.

The hard part, the thing that's making the team a successful, up-and-coming force in the growing sport of high-school rowing, is the work put in when fans and races seem a world away.

Moments like the cold, gray days in March when the dozen-or-so members of the rowing team heft the 44-foot, 120-pound boat on their shoulders and launch it in the choppy Rappahannock in front of the all-girls school on the Middle Peninsula, about 40 miles south of Fredericksburg.

For hours each day when the weather permits, the young women--layered in clothes to stay warm--strain legs, arms and psyches to become a unified force of oars pulling against the water.

In the boats and on rowing machines ashore, the rhythm and intensity of strokes may change.

But the challenge never does. The real measure of a competitive rower, as it is for a long-distance runner or swimmer, is the true grit that kicks in when fatigue puts pain in the mix.

"It's all about the discipline, the work you put in to prepare," said Laura Caton of Charlottesville, a senior who's been on the crew team for the five years since its start.

Caton and others on the team said there's a strange thing about this sport.

Oddly enough, it's at the toughest part of workouts and conditioning, when muscles are screaming and patience is just about shot, that a unity--one team member dubbed it "a oneness"--develops.

"There's a special feeling you get out on the water when you're all working hard to move the boat," said Brooke Shafer, a freshman from Spotsylvania County. "It's a sense of unity that you don't really feel in other sports. It helps to make us a close-knit group."

That and a special kind of a coach.

Before Skye Elliot arrived at St. Margaret's two years ago with years of experience from competitive rowing in Northern Virginia, the crew team hadn't won a race.

Last year, Elliot's first as coach, the four girls in the beginners, "novice class" had an undefeated season, with the top boat (the varsity 4) and middle boat (the JV 4) posting winning seasons.

This spring, the JV boat had an undefeated season, with the varsity again posting a winning season.

There was more. In those two years, there were at least two regattas in which St. Margaret's swept all the events it entered. And when the St. Margaret's JV boat won its category at the Eastern Virginia Scholastic Rowing Association Championships, it was the first time any St. Margaret's boat had won there.

Elliot's explanation of that success is simple.

"I try to teach them that excellence is not a result of winning, but rather, winning is a result of excellence," he said.

He said the team sets out, through tough workouts and extensive physical training, to reach it's potential.

"In doing so, we find out where our physical and mental boundaries are, and then we work to extend them," he said. "In striving for that experience, many results may occur, one of which is winning."

Not bad for a 23-year-old who calls his experience as a rower at Wilson High School in Washington the defining moment of his young life.

Elliot bounced from college to coaching school and private rowing teams in the D.C. area before ending up at St. Margaret's as a coach and fill-in teacher.

Slowly, he's built a program that students want to be part of.

Palmer Ware, a 10th-grader from Dunnsville who's a captain of this year's successful squad, said that there's a special bond between teammates that has made students want to join the team.

"It's tough when you first get started," she said. "After the first time I tried it, my whole body hurt."

But, like others, Ware bought into Elliot's approach and found out what really hard work was about.

Patti Webb, a senior from Springfield who's a coxswain (a nonrowing steerer and pace keeper) on the first 4 boat, said the challenge is always improving.

"My biggest problem is trying to stay calm during races, helping the rowers stay motivated," she said of her on-the-water coaching duties. "At one early race, I was screaming so loud I was afraid I'd burst a blood vessel."

School officials say another interesting thing has come out of the rowing team's success. The discipline has spilled over to classes and schoolwork, and given members of the team a confidence that some didn't have before.

"My dad says that, that I'm much more confident and outgoing now than before I started rowing," said Caton.

Elliot, who can be found on practice days in a small chase boat calling out various combinations of strokes, speeds and other commands, says the purchase of newer shells and the addition of a fall rowing season should continue to reap good things for the program.

I tend to agree, especially given Shafer's answer about her favorite part of rowing.

"This is going to sound crazy, but I love the way I feel when I wake up at 4:30 on a Saturday morning when we're heading off to a regatta," she said. "I know we're all going to have a great time together."

Any coach who can get a 14-year-old excited about 4:30 in the morning must be doing something right.

ROB HEDELT can be reached at The Free Lance-Star, 616 Amelia St., Fredericksburg, Va. 22401; by fax at 373-8455; by phone at 374-5415; or by e-mail at rhedelt@freelance star.com.

Date published: Wednesday, 5/28/2003