Eastern Michigan University has a bunch of athletes walking around campus on a daily basis. Most of them were recruited in high school by their current coaches. Lauren Foley, however, is an athlete who wasn’t recruited by a teammate instead.
“I was wearing a rowing T-shirt from high school when a varsity rower saw my shirt and stopped me,” Foley said. “She asked me why I had a rowing shirt and introduced me to the idea of joining the women’s rowing team here at EMU.”
Allison Pecaut, a transfer from Jacksonville University, wasn’t recruited, but still joined the team this year.
Pecaut said, “I came here for summer school, my roommate told me about the team, I met with the coach and went from there.”
This is not out of the ordinary for the rowing team. Coach Brandon Holdren encourages this type of recruiting.
“We are always looking for people to try out,” Holdren said. “If we get a good amount of people to join the sport, the better off we will be as a team and as a program.”
Holdren encourages anyone to join and train with the team.
“Any beginners willing to train can turn themselves in,” Holdren said. “We don’t cut anyone. People often wean themselves out because they can’t take the sport.”
“Try it,” Assistant coach Kemp Savage said. “You are either going to love it or hate it. The stuff you hate makes that stuff you love ten-times better. It’s an amazing feeling.”
Holdren said the philosophy of the sport is understood by the coaches and athletes. So, if you are looking to stand out in this sport, you will be sorely disappointed.
“Standing out is not a good thing in this sport,” Holdren said. “Being invisible is a good thing; this is a team-oriented sport.”
It is even understood in the mindset of the athletes.
Pecaut said, “Everyone has to work as a team. Each person has to step up, do their part, do their share, and work to make the team better. Everyone has to be a leader.”
Rowing for women at a collegiate level is considered an NCAA Division I sport. However, it is not an NCAA sport for men at the collegiate level. EMU currently does not have a men’s rowing team, nor a club team, so you could say these women rowers are in a sport of their own.
The sport is cut into two different seasons, fall and spring.
In the fall, 5K regattas are usually raced and in the spring season 2K regattas are raced.
“The fall season, you can compare it to track and cross country,” Holdren said. “It’s long- distance running, a steady pace at a certain speed and less than the maximum. For the spring season, it’s a sprinters’ race. The intensity picks up; it is at an interval base. Our athletes are really tired physically and mentally at this point of the season. It is a tough time to be coaching.”
Foley is a junior, majoring in electronic media and film studies. She said she enjoys every minute of rowing.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Foley said. “It keeps you out of trouble and you make the best friends ever. It is also a lot of hard work.”
Holdren said the upcoming season is one of the program’s most important.
“The school has helped us with equipment for future recruiting this year,” Holdren said. “We are also on the brink of doing some real good racing.”
Last season, the Eagles were ranked in the bottom half nationally, but Holdren is expecting his team to jump to the top half of rankings this year. Savage said the team is one of the youngest teams in the NCAA.
“The rowing program started about 10, maybe 11 years ago,” Savage said. “It started before I was here. Other rowing schools have been around for over 40 years.”
Though the program is young the expectations have risen this year. The team is looking to be faster treading water come Nov. 5 when it travels to Chattanooga, Tenn., The Head of the Hooch regatta is the second largest in the country and hosts more than 1,600 teams every year.
