Coaching Changes at MIT

MIT novice lightweight coach Aaron Benson has moved over to the heavyweight team and will coach the heavy novices this year. Although coaching "differently weighted" women now, Coach Benson has been an enthusiastic supporter of lightweight women's rowing and I have no doubt he will continue to be a supporter in his new role.

Coach Benson has been replaced by Philadelphia and Vesper Boat Club fixture Claire Kostrzewski. Coach K (that's inevitable, isn't it?) rowed at Georgetown and has been competing on the elite lightweight circuit. She'll be a great addition to the MIT staff.

More Weekend Racing

On a sunny, warm fall day, with a light breeze, Lawrence University defeated Marquette and Northern Michigan at the Tail of the Fox in Wisconsin. The victory came in the light four and all three boats were within 30 seconds.

At the Textile River Regatta, MIT finished second in the light fours event, but first among college boats (first place CRI was crewed at least in part by graduated rowers). UMass, MIT B, and Brandeis followed, with a rather large spread among the boats. As a reader noted, thanks to the new NCAA rule which doesn't allow college and junior rowers to row in the same race (I'll hit that one later), MIT and other college crews were unable to race in the light eight event.

On a beautiful day in Skokie, Northwestern and Washington University raced light fours in the North Shore Channel Challenge. Northwestern beat Wash U. by 41 seconds (and a Wash U. 2V boat by more).

Good Start for Tulsa

Tulsa won the light four at the Head of the Oklahoma, besting Creighton and Oklahoma City by substantial margins. This win apparently put Tulsa into the nighttime 500m sprints, but I haven't seen results for that event.

It's interesting that night racing comes to us from Oklahoma. Oklahoma is hardly considered a hotbed of rowing, yet this regatta has garnered quite a bit of attention, nationally as well as locally. Tradition is one of the strengths of rowing, but innovations like this, that respect tradition, will keep the sport growing and vibrant. With new teams, programs, athletes, and coaches will come new ideas. Coaches and rowers outside traditional rowing areas recognize that they need to try new things to stir up interest. I expect this is where we'll see more innovations in the future.

[Update: Tulsa also won the sprint under the lights. See comments for more.]

Head Games on the Potomac?

Is September too early to play head games for the spring 2007 season? Georgetown doesn't think so. The scuttleButt among the Georgetown faithful at Saturday's Head of the Potomac was that Princeton made a special trip to Washington to play some head games with the Hoyas. Typically more of an intramural race for Georgetown, the presence of the Tigers added some spice to this year's Charlie Butt Scullers' Head of the Potomac. Georgetown kept to the theme of years past by entering an eight and several fours, mixing things up and getting in a good start-of-season shakedown cruise. Apparently the Hoyas hadn't even rowed in eights until Tuesday of last week. Princeton, meanwhile, entered what one would assume was an A boat in the open eight race and B and C boats in the Club eight event.

Continuing a theme from last season, the Princeton A boat favored power over technique but came away with a victory in the open eight event, besting four other crews. Both Hoya boats, heavy and light, finished with similar times, quite a bit back from Princeton. The first Hoya boat on the course was the heavyweight eight and it caught a serious crab shortly after the start, at least partially accounting for its slow time. The Tigers also won the club eight, beating 11 other crews.

All the usual early race caveats apply to these results. The only thing that is certain is that the athletes that made up the crews of these eights, will not be the same athletes racing at IRAs in June, and will most likely not be the same athletes racing in Boston in three weeks. One piece of information that might be worthy of note, however, is the fact that the Princeton B boat beat the Georgetown eight's time as well. Times between races are not comparable, but in this case conditions were worse for the club eight event with wind, a little rain, and some major league boat traffic. (I wonder how the race looked from that party barge churning down the course?)

While the Hoyas may have made a bit too much out of Princeton's presence, somehow I doubt that after arriving at the racecourse the Tigers were shocked to discover that Georgetown was in their race. In any case, it was a fun way to kick off the season.

Sometimes It's Just Not Fair

Today's article about Wisconsin's national championship coaches includes heavyweight coach Bebe Bryans as the head coach of the national champion Wisconsin lightweights. Nothing against Coach Bryans, but as we all know, Mary Shofner coached that crew to the championship. It would have been interesting to know if Bryans could even name the eight Wisco rowers. In fairness to the coach, however, Shofner is no longer at Wisconsin and I'm sure she would've had Coach Shofner represent the lights if she were still at the school. In fact, Coach Bryans has pointed to the lightweights as examples of the excellence for which her heavyweight teams strive. Nonetheless, it is a bit galling to see a heavyweight coach represent a championship lightweight crew when heavyweight coaches' support for lightweights is so questionable.

Bryans (who does note Mary Shofner's departure) points out that the squad lost six seniors last year.

[Update: See comments for an excellent point I forgot to make.]

More Racing This Weekend

The Head of the Oklahoma Centennial Regatta is running a light four event and Creighton, Oklahoma City University, and Tulsa are all entered. These schools also have eights entered so there could be some undesignated light eights racing as well. As we know, Tulsa is developing a lightweight program so it's great to see them with competition. Creighton and OCU frequently race lightweights so perhaps a competitive lightweight community will begin forming in the mid-south. This regatta is growing and is beginning to make a name for itself in the rowing community. With an unusual format of head racing combined with 500 meter sprints, plus night racing, it should be a lot of fun to race. It's great to see rowing building where it hasn't been before (and holding lightweight races!).

The Textile River Regatta is also running a light four event with Brandeis, UMass, and two MIT boats entered (along with a CRI boat). There is also a light eight event but it looks like all the entries are juniors so, with MIT attending, it's likely that there is at least one light eight in an open event.

There is also a light four event at the Tail of the Fox, with Lawrence, Marquette, and Northern Michigan entered (along with a club crew).

Head of the Potomac

The Head of the Potomac is coming up this Saturday and it looks like both Georgetown and Princeton will be in action.

I'm really guessing about Georgetown because they have two eights and three fours entered, all as simply "Georgetown." Given that this is a home race for the Hoyas I would assume that the lightweights will be there, probably with at least an eight and a four. Princeton, meanwhile, has two eights entered as "Princeton Women's Lightweight Crew," so the lights are definitely there. Often these early regattas are raced by even boats but since Princeton has one boat in the Open event and one in the Club event it's unlikely they are even. With only two Georgetown boats in the Open race, they are probably one heavy and one light eight, so it looks like Georgetown isn't racing even boats either. Granted, coaches are just beginning to sort out their crews, but no one wants to get blown out. This means we should have a fun early season match-up between the two schools.

Lay of the Lightweight Land

I often get emails from readers who are wondering just which schools row lightweight and how serious they are. This is always a difficult question to answer because the landscape shifts constantly. Nonetheless, there are some categories of programs and some schools in those categories that can serve as examples. I thought it might be useful to briefly lay out how I see these lightweight categories so that you can add your comments and we can see if we have a common view.

I see four types of programs:

1) Dedicated Programs
Schools with these programs have coaches and equipment dedicated to lightweights and recruit lightweight rowers. They race lightweight schedules when possible and the coaches actively support the growth of lightweight rowing. The rowers rarely, if ever, move between the lightweight and heavyweight squads. The lightweight squads are separate from the heavyweights and the coaches are considered varsity head coaches. Examples of dedicated programs are Wisconsin, Georgetown, Radcliffe, Princeton, MIT, and Stanford.

2) Focus Programs
Lightweights train separately and have their own coach, but rowers move back and forth between the lightweight and heavyweight squads. Sometimes rowers are recruited specifically as lightweights. The lightweight squad is considered an extension of the heavyweight squad and the coaches are considered assistant coaches. Examples of focus programs are UCF, Bucknell, and URI (at least last season).

3) Competitive Clubs
These programs are not varsity sports but are very competitive student run clubs. Usually the heavyweight women at these schools are varsity and the club is mostly, if not completely, lightweights. Examples of competitive clubs are Ohio State and California.

4) Boats of Opportunity
Boats of opportunity are not programs, but boats that are formed when a mostly heavyweight program finds that it happens to have some lightweight rowers who can form a reasonably competitive lightweight boat. These boats can come from almost any school except the large DI heavyweight programs which would almost never recruit a lightweight or find a lightweight walk-on who would be competitive in the program. Even when these schools do find themselves with a lightweight, there would never be enough for a boat.


I think any lightweight boat you would find in a four or eight race would fall into one of these categories. As you would expect, these are also generally ordered by speed, with dedicated programs the fastest and boats of opportunity the slowest (there are exceptions every year, but they tend to prove the rule).

Comments? Have I missed some obvious examples? Where do Dayton and Lehigh fall?

Another Reason to be Glad You're a Lightweight

Researchers from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City will publish a study in the November issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease which suggests that cutting calories may halt or even reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer's.

Say, maybe that's why there's not a lightweight event at NCAAs - the heavyweights forgot!

Rowing Gymnasts

While looking through some of last season's race pictures, I was reminded of one of the key signs that a boat isn't going as fast as it could - the rowing gymnast. The rowing gymnast contorts her body each stroke as if she's begging for the intervention of an exorcist. Gymnasts and "the face" usually go hand-in-hand. The face is seen when a rower grits her teeth, sticks out her tongue, or otherwise grimaces mightily, all of which is frequently accompanied by a tossing of the head usually seen on rodeo bulls.

Nine times out of ten these rowers are in the boat because they have the best erg score on the team. A score so good that a coach thinks she has to put up with that flailing body to get the power inside of it. The power has to outweigh the lack of technique, right? Not necessarily. There are plenty of examples every year where the biggest erg is not in the V8. Just as there are plenty of examples where lightweight boats beat heavyweight boats with bigger ergs. You never know until you seat race. The disruption to a crew caused by a flailing body can be serious and can easily outweigh a ten second faster erg score. On top of that, the rower is wasting energy. Every unnecessary movement wastes energy that could be better used on the oar. The same thing with faces. Even a silly face on a steady head wastes energy. It may feel better to think that your gritting teeth show the world just how hard you're pulling, but it just shows the world you could be pulling harder. As a lightweight, every loss in efficiency is big.

The goal in rowing is to have everyone rowing the proper technique exactly the same way at exactly the same time. A mediocre boat rowing together will beat a good boat rowing separately. Look at winning boats and then look at the rest. You'll see where the rowing gymnasts are.

HOCR Poll

We're one month from the Head of the Charles. So far only Wisconsin has raced so every crew is an unknown. It's the perfect time to vote on who the HOCR women's lightweight eight collegiate winner will be! All of the collegiate entries are listed in the poll to the right (URI seems to have dropped out) so use your best judgment, vote, and let's see how prescient FITD readers are.

F&M Going Varsity

Franklin & Marshall, which entered a lightweight women's four in the Knecht Cup as recently as 2004, will go varsity in the spring of 2007. The Football Theorem suggests that going varsity shouldn't mean an end for F&M lightweights. They raced lightweight boats of opportunity at various times during their 22 year history as a club sport and I expect they will continue to do so. Interestingly, the men have been "elevated to club/varsity status, meaning that it will also have access to a full time coach and the use of the equipment." I'm not sure how that is different from the women, but it may be a way to give the men some benefit from the women's varsity status without having to count them as varsity for Title IX purposes.

Coaches' Thoughts on Lightweight Rowing (final)

The final set of questions deals with the depth of women's lightweight rowing and its future:

4) Observers frequently decry the limited depth of women’s lightweight rowing. In fact, in the last ten years, four different schools have won the men’s heavyweight championship, five different schools have won the women’s heavyweight championship, and four different schools have won the lightweight women’s national championship. While I wouldn’t claim parity in lightweight rowing just yet, there are more schools coming on the scene with varsity or dedicated programs – Georgetown and Stanford of course, and now UCF and URI among others. As a final catch-all question, where do you see lightweight women’s rowing going in the future and how can more schools be encouraged to start dedicated programs?

This last set of questions allowed the coaches to make a variety of points, and they did just that. The tone was generally quite optimistic. Let me try to group the responses around common themes.

One theme was the idea that the overall growth in rowing will result in growth in lightweight women's rowing. At the same time, the growth dampening effect of the NCAA championship format was noted. As long as the 2V counts toward the team championship, heavyweight coaches will always feel as if they are hurting themselves by allowing good lightweights to row on a lightweight squad. This thinking leads one to look to schools with little chance of competing at NCAAs for growth in lightweight rowing.

Another theme was the idea that as more programs successfully race lightweights, and show that at well run programs weight problems are a figment of someone's imagination, the sport will grow. Parents and administrators will stop believing the apocalyptic stories of anorexic rowers and start encouraging their lightweight daughters and athletes to row lightweight.

One coach took the depth criticism head on by comparing the number of girls who play soccer to the number of heavyweight men who row, and using that to illustrate the relative lack of depth in all of rowing. While quick to say that this doesn't invalidate the sport, and acknowledging that it still takes incredible talent and dedication to be a rowing champion, this coach goes on to say that the very top of every category is not particularly deep. In one of the more telling comments to these questions, this coach notes that 10 or 15 years ago lightweight men's rowing was not very deep yet it had been around for 70 years or so. Women's lightweight rowing is growing at a faster rate and with time and support should soon be just as exciting as the light men.

A very interesting response came from a coach who said that lightweight women's rowing needs a hero, someone like Mia Hamm or Tiger Woods. (At Eastern Sprints I had a conversation with a coach who ran a summer developmental lightweight program who said the same thing.) This coach noted that recent female sports heros such as Mia Hamm and Michelle Wie have been "the youngest to ever..." Recently China's Fan Xuefei became the youngest world champion ever, racing in the lightweight quad. Will she inspire more lightweights? The coach doesn't know, but still makes a great point. The problem is that in a society that loves heros and celebrities, rowing is the ultimate team sport. Maybe lightweight rowing can trump the other categories by being the first to create a hero.

I should note that one coach mentioned the hard work done by Cecile Tucker of Radcliffe who heads the CRCA lightweight committee.


Overall, it's great to see optimism from these coaches. Even better, is to realize these are the coaches who will support this sport as it grows. The coaches who are collecting data to dispel the health concerns, coaches who are working to integrate lightweights into more regattas, and coaches who are developing lightweight heros. Given the track record of the mainstream sports and rowing media, it's clear that lightweight heros or celebrities (I'm thinking of crews as much as individuals) won't come out of traditional channels. The sport itself will have to take responsibility for its own publicity. There's no shame in tooting your own horn and lightweights shouldn't shy away from doing that. There are plenty of great stories to tell, if only we could get them out (recall how Rowing News almost totally ignored the category in its 2006 season preview).

Most distressing once again is the way heavyweight programs and the NCAA cast a shadow over lightweight rowing. One of, if not the, biggest challenge in lightweight rowing is how to turn heavyweight coaches and the NCAA from opponents into supporters. Even just removing them as obstacles would be progress. The size of heavyweight rowing versus lightweight rowing allows the heavyweight coaches to simply ignore lightweights while claiming they support the category. As one coach pointed out, these coaches and the NCAA need to open their eyes and look at Radcliffe, Harvard, Princeton men and women, Yale men, and Wisconsin women to see examples of programs that do both well. In fact, it could be argued that these programs are the cream of the crop and they all have one thing in common - lightweight AND heavyweight programs.

Coaches' Thoughts on Lightweight Rowing (cont.)

The third set of questions dealt with team trophy points calculations:

3) Women’s lightweights are usually, if not always, ignored in regatta team trophy points calculations. While I don’t really understand the desirability of the team win vs. the V8 win, I seem to be in the minority. Changing this seems to be the quickest way to grow lightweight rowing. Can this be changed?

This was a pretty simple question and it resulted in some pretty different answers. One coach said that all the regattas raced by that team include lightweights in the points calculations (looking at the regattas, I don't think that's quite correct). A few coaches sang the praises of the A-10 championship which does include lightweights in the calculation. The A-10 also received some kudos for including sculling events and the pair. A few coaches felt that heavyweight coaches will always be an obstacle to the inclusion of lightweight events in the team trophy because there are simply a lot more heavyweight programs without lightweights than with. One coach echoed my email exchange with the CRCA president, Andy Teitelbaum, and noted heavyweight coaches' general opposition to lightweight rowing out of fear that it will rob their programs of good 2V (an NCAA championship event) and 3V athletes. This coach noted that heavyweight men's coaches have been using this same excuse for years. The coach goes on to say that this argument can be invalidated by looking at the women in the boathouses of Radcliffe, Wisconsin, and Princeton, and the men at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.


Although not my intention with this question, the responses revealed the dirty little secret of women's rowing - heavyweight coaches oppose the growth of lightweight rowing. This attitude was also revealed in my email exchange with the CRCA's president. They don't oppose it for health reasons, but for a fear of losing resources (rowers, equipment, and funding). While I certainly understand a heavyweight coach pulling a lightweight rower into the heavyweight 1V, I find it unconscionable that a coach would deny an athlete the opportunity to race as a lightweight 1V, and possibly win a national championship, because he wants a faster heavyweight 2V. This, however, is where the NCAA championship format has helped drive us. If heavyweight coaches were to read this there would no doubt be some huffing and puffing about how they don't really oppose lightweights and actually would like to see the category grow. Really? Prove it - add lightweights to the team trophy calculation at Eastern Sprints.

At Georgetown, Success Breeds...

a novice lightweight coach! Sarah Trowbridge is joining the Hoyas as the novice lightweight coach. It sounds like Coach Trowbridge had an excellent career at the University of Michigan and is currently training with Potomac Boat Club with a goal of making the national team. If you remember the Football Theorem (average size of female rowers is proportional to prominence of football team), you'll understand why the new coach may have a bit of an adjustment. No doubt the deal was sealed when Trowbridge's alma mater trounced Notre Dame in football last weekend.

Seriously though, this hiring shows that Georgetown is very serious about women's lightweight rowing. A novice coach will mean more novices which will mean more varsity rowers, which will mean even faster boats. Quite honestly, a few years ago I thought that Georgetown could decide to drop lightweights any given season. That time is now long past. Not only are the Hoyas here to stay, but they're not going to rest on last season's laurels. This year, they're looking for gold.

Coaches' Thoughts on Lightweight Rowing (cont.)

The second set of questions I asked dealt with weight concerns:

2) There seems to be some hysteria about women participating in any sport with weight limits. Will this ever be overcome and do you think it accounts for lightweight women's status as rowing’s red headed stepchildren? How will the USRowing Medical Commission on Lightweights affect collegiate lightweight rowing? Why is there no women’s lightweight coach on the commission? Why is the NCAA involved?

All of the coaches recognized that there is a general concern about "weight restricted" sports, particularly among women. While recognizing the danger of uninformed weight loss, the coaches also evinced their belief that intelligent weight management poses no danger to an athlete. Most also expressed the need to educate concerned officials and administrators on how weight is managed at top programs.

Particularly distressing was the fact that no coach seemed to be at all informed about the USRowing Medical Commission on Lightweights. One speculated that NCAA involvement might mean the NCAA is considering bringing lightweights into the fold.

The coaches used these questions to discuss some other aspects of the weight issue. One noted her surprise that few coaches seem to have competed as lightweight women. She felt that the experience would provide a unique perspective to understanding and managing weight control. One coach speculated that there may have been a drop-off in lightweights rowing (men and women) as a result of the growing stature of the US population over the last fifty years. This coach went on to say that more lightweights rowing should translate into more opportunities for lightweights to row.

The most interesting answer came from the coach of a dedicated lightweight crew who noted that the program, in conjunction with the school medical staff, is collecting data that will demonstrate the safety of lightweight rowing. This coach believes that the program's lightweight rowers are measurably more healthy than the student population at large and hopes to collect the data to prove it. The coach believes that hard data will create irrefutable evidence to use against critics of the sport.


A few points on these answers. Without specifically agreeing that there is some hysteria about lightweight rowing, the coaches did see weight restriction as ammunition for critics of the sport. One coach did say that my characterization of women's lightweight rowers as "rowing's red-headed step children" was a bit harsh. I was particularly disappointed to learn that no coaches were involved in, or even knew about, the USRowing Medical Commission on Lightweights. How can there be such a body without the involvement of lightweight coaches? I applaud the efforts of the coach who discussed his program's efforts to collect health data. I agree that this is exactly what needs to be done to show how healthy lightweights are, both in body and mind.

As I mentioned in my last post, I think the weight issue is a red herring. Unlike other sports in which low weight is seen as a benefit (running, gymnastics, etc.), rowers have every incentive to be as close to their weight limit as possible while not risking going over. This simple fact makes a huge difference. There is never any pressure to drop below 130 pounds (minus a small cushion) and even coxswains are limited in how much weight they can lose. It's hypocritical for the NCAA or college administrators to be concerned about anorexia in weight restricted sports and not concern themselves with obesity in other women's sports. Obesity is more prevalent in society today and weight gain is encouraged, or at least tolerated, in many women's NCAA sports, including heavyweight rowing. I hope that at least one coach will soon have the data to show how healthy current lightweight rowers are and I would love to see data comparing the health and general fitness of former lightweight rowers to other former female athletes.

More to come.

Coaches' Thoughts on Lightweight Rowing

A few months ago I sent four sets of questions to the coaches of crews competing in the IRA Regatta. I hoped to use these questions as a way to get a feel for how the coaches, the drivers of the category, think about the sport. To avoid receiving "public relations" type of responses, I promised anonymity to those willing to share their thoughts. Just under half responded.

The first set of questions I asked dealt with the NCAA:

1) Do you think an NCAA championship has been good for women’s heavyweight rowing? Do you think the lightweight eight will ever become an event at the NCAA national championship regatta or will there ever be a lightweight NCAA championship? If there were either, would it be good for lightweight rowing? What would a men’s heavyweight NCAA national championship mean to women’s lightweight rowing?


Every respondant believes that the NCAA championship has been good for women's heavyweight rowing. The coaches pointed out the growth of heavyweights both in participants as well as funding. About half, however, also noted that while the benefits for heavies is a net postitive, that isn't necessarily so for the rest of rowing, with those programs without an NCAA championship becoming somewhat marginalized in the eyes of athletic directors. One coach pointed to the recent termination of the Rutgers mens' crew as an example.

The coaches were far more pessimistic on the possibility of a women's lightweight NCAA championship. Reasons ranged from inertia (the heavies have settled into a format and it would be difficult to change that format) to NCAA discomfort with weight requirements for women. Most thought that such a championship would be good for lightweights, although one coach thought that for now women's lightweights are best "kept out of the NCAA and in the hands of a small few who know what it is like to coach lightweight women."

The most interesting answers in this set of questions were those dealing with a men's heavyweight NCAA championship. The responses ranged from "wouldn't harm," to "marginalize...further," to "we would make it work," to "could help get LW women into the NCAA." With the exception of one coach, the responses all suggested that the coaches recognized a danger to lightweight women in a heavyweight men's NCAA championship as the responses tended to center around a belief that lightweight coaches wouldn't let the category die. One coach thought it unlikely that men's rowing would be brought into the NCAA.


My summary of responses to this first set of questions is that the coaches feel that the NCAA championship has been good for women's heavyweights, but a mixed bag for the rest of rowing; a NCAA championship for women's lightweights would be good for the category but is unlikely to happen; the effect on lightweight women of a NCAA championship for heavy men is probably negative, but wouldn't mean the end of the sport. This generally tracks with my own thoughts on the subject, although I was disheartened to learn that the coaches also thought it unlikely that lightweights would have a NCAA championship, and I think a heavy men's championship would be very, very bad for lightweights. The coaches responded to my question asking if they thought there would be a lightweight championship, not if they are working for one. Perhaps although they think it unlikely, they are still working to bring lightweights into the NCAA championship system. As much as I criticize the NCAA, once the devil was let into the dance, I'm coming to believe you have to dance with him. I also tend to believe the coach who said the NCAA has a problem with women and weight restricted sports. As I've said before I think this is a red herring, but another set of questions deals with weight issues, so more on that later.

One thing I noticed was that coaches who coach both heavyweights and lightweights were much more sanguine about the prospects for lightweight rowing.

In the coming days I'll post the rest of the responses.

Wisconsin Enjoys River Challenge

Enjoy is a funny word to use for a head race, but I'm pretty sure it's appropriate for this race. Wisconsin faced no lightweight rivals and, other than the Wisconsin heavyweights, faced only heavyweight club programs. The lightweights finished fourth (behind three Wisco heavy boats) and tenth in the fours and fourth (behind two Wisco heavies and a Purdue heavy boat) and fifth in the eights. No pressure, no hype - a nice way to open the season.

Lehigh didn't race in Milwaukee and has revised their schedule since my last post. Looks like they'll get in six races this fall, including all of the Philadelphia regattas. Next week for Lehigh is a race against Delaware, which will probably only boat heavyweight crews.

New UCF Coach

A reader previously commented that UCF hired Andy Derrick as the new lightweight coach. After a bit of snooping I located a bio, but I wasn't positive it was the same person, mainly because I thought he'd be in the Air Force right now. Now, a reader (the same one?) has confirmed this as Coach Derrick's bio from his days at Washington. [Update: See the UCF announcement here.] I must say, given how dorky most of us rowers look, he did a great job of looking like one of Ty Willingham's linebackers (maybe because he played football in high school?). He won at least three medals at IRAs, including a gold as a freshman, and won the Ladies Challenge Plate at Henley. Clearly he knows what it takes to go fast. Corrie McGrath had coached the lightweights so I wonder if she's left UCF or if Coach Derrick is an additional coach. Either way, UCF is maintaining an emphasis on lightweight rowing. As I've said before, I think this program can serve as a model for other schools that want to develop lightweights. UCF has shown that with some focus, talent, and hard work, you can find yourself in the upper echelon of lightweight rowing. For many schools, the toughest thing to find of the three is focus.

Early Start for Wisconsin

I've often talked about Wisconsin's weather-forced late start in the spring, but I haven't noted that they get an early start in the fall. Well, they're off! This weekend Wisconsin races at the Milwaukee River Challenge. It's an odd race - two 2.2 mile pieces ten minutes apart - but most importantly, it's a race. Most crews aren't racing until October, and then usually get in about three races. If you count Class Day, Wisconsin races five times in the fall. The queen of fall racing, though, is fellow Milwaukee River Challenge competitor, Lehigh. Lehigh races nine times in the fall! I don't know if the lightweights race every time, but the opportunity is there.

HOCR Weight Limit

I was surprised to notice that the weight limit for lightweight fours and eights at the HOCR is listed as: "Women: rowers’ weights average not over 130 lbs., none over 138 lbs." One hundred thirty eight pounds! That's quite a bit above the sprint season average of 130. Just as an example, if you have four rowers at 125 (not uncommon), you can have three at 138 and one at just under 130. That's really quite a different boat than one you'll see in the spring. Some of the crews racing here may never appear as a lightweight boat during the sprint season for just that reason. I suspect, however, that most of the serious lightweight programs will ask their rowers to be at 130. Rowing at 138 doesn't give you much of a feel for how you can row in the spring.

Head of the Charles - Fours

The lightweight four at this year's HOCR has 15 entries with 6 US colleges and another 3 Canadian college crews. Georgia State, Pacific Lutheran, Princeton, Pitt, Cal and Tulsa will race, with only Cal and Princeton returning from last year. Competing club crews are Argonaut, Bubbly Creek Rowing Foundation, Minnesota Boat Club, NYAC, Quinte, and Undine. Argonaut and Quinte are Canadian, Bubbly Creek seems to be mostly Northwestern Alumni, and Minnesota, NYAC, and Undine are traditionally quite strong in this event. The Canadian college crews are Brock University Rowing Club, Univ. of British Columbia, and Univ. of Victoria.

The top four crews from last year return - U. Vic, Undine, Brock, and Minnesota, in that order. Princeton was the top US college crew, followed by Cal and CMU. Villanova, NC State, Radcliffe, Fairfield, and MIT also raced last year. I'm surprised that Radcliffe and MIT have decided to forgo this year's race since they have the home field advantage. Last year U. Vic and Undine pretty much hammered the field, with second place Undine finishing 39 seconds ahead of third place Brock. As the first US collegiate crew, Princeton showed the speed that would carry them to the top in the spring season.

Pitt comes to Boston to see if they can keep some momentum from a good 2006 sprint season. They were a bit inconsistent but still had a season worth building upon. Pacific Lutheran is a name we didn't see last year but which raced lightweights in both 2005 and 2004. Georgia State raced a four last spring, although infrequently. A HOCR appearance will give them a feel for where they stand among some of the better crews in the country. It's good to see Tulsa with an entry, as they are beginning to develop a full lightweight program. HOCR is a great place to start the build.

Head of the Charles Draw

The Head of the Charles draw is out for the light eight and light four. Last year there were 14 entries in the eight, 6 of whom were US collegiate crews (plus U. of British Columbia). This year 16 eights are entered including 9 US college crews. The 6 crews from last year are entered again (Wisconsin, Princeton, Radcliffe, Georgetown, URI, and MIT) plus Holy Cross, Marist, and Cal. Other entrants are Atlanta Rowing Club, which often puts out a boat largely made up of Georgia Tech alums, Havergal College which looks to be a youth eight, Quinte Rowing Club from Canada, and Rudergesellshaft Munchen 1972. I don't know much about the last two. Also entered is Picnic Point Rowing Club a pleasantly named club comprised primarily of Wisconsin alumni. Given that heritage it should have the potential to surprise. The final two entrants are last year's first and second place finishers - London Training Center and Riverside Boat Club. Both crews will contain women training for their respective national teams.

It's good to see both URI and Cal in this field. URI's presence suggests that the new staff will continue building the lightweight program, which started to receive some attention last year. [Update: URI is no longer listed.] Cal makes the trip east after missing 2005's race (in the eight, they did race the four). Although they did race last spring, Cal seemed to be missing in action, perhaps because they raced in few lightweight events and those they did race were really only against Stanford. Speaking of Stanford, the Cardinal skips another year. Stanford raced in 2003 and 2004, but missed last year. I guess it's a pretty long trip from California. Marist's entry may mean that they'll have an eight to race in the spring, something they do fairly frequently. Holy Cross made some half-hearted attempts at boating a light eight last year, but an entry here may mean that they finally feel like they've the personnel to make a run.

Interestingly enough, since 1998, only last year did the HOCR collegiate winner (Wisconsin) ultimately become the national champion the following spring. Perhaps the squirreliest year was 2001 when Wisconsin, Radcliffe, and MIT all beat eventual champ Princeton. Despite that record, it would be really nice to have a Charles gold medal.

Next, the fours.

New Coaches at URI

URI lightweight coach Tina Paniel has left the school to coach a high school program in Seattle. In their first season as a permanent part of the program, the URI lightweights turned in a respectable performance, beating all non-IRA crews they faced during the season, as well as a pre-IRA MIT crew. At IRAs URI was ninth, beating Lehigh, Ohio State, and Stanford in the petite final.

Last October I noted that head coach Julia Chilicki-Beasley pointed to Paniel's appointment as a sign that the lightweight program has become a permanent fixture. I should note that Chilicki-Beasley has also left URI, replaced by Shelagh Donohoe. Donohoe is an Olympic medalist and former coach at BU and Northeastern. Assistant coach Jessica Lizzi also coached at BU and Northeastern and assistant Bridgid Myers coached at Northeastern. There are lightweight events on the 2006-07 schedule so hopefully URI's lightweights continue to be a "permanent fixture," coached by either Lizzi or Myers. Myers rowed heavyweight at Wisconsin so she knows how a good lightweight crew operates.

New Lightweight Coach at UCF

A reader posted a comment saying that UCF has just hired a new lightweight coach, Andy Derrick. I'll post more when the announcement comes out (i.e. when I know I'm thinking of the right person).

Fun With Numbers

The posting about ErgScores.com got me thinking about... erg scores. I started to wonder about lightweight erg scores vs. heavyweight scores. I wrote about this once before in a post about the Dad Vail regatta, but I thought I'd briefly revisit it.

A look at the world record for heavy and light men and women, as well as the record for both in the 19 to 29 age group, shows that lightweights are roughly 7.5% slower than heavies. The 19 to 29 age group is pretty wide and includes much more than just college rowers, but it will have to do for now. A look at water world record times, however, tells a bit of a different story.

The LM2x and the LW2x are 1.9% and 2.8% slower respectively than the heavy 2x. The LW4x, however, is 5.1% slower than the heavy 4x while the LM4x is only 2.1% slower than the heavy 4x. I would guess that the difference in the light women's times is because of the emphasis placed on the 2x since it is an Olympic boat. Of course, the LM4x is not an Olympic boat either, but the light men have been around longer than the women and we would expect them to be generally closer to their heavy counterparts. It's really pretty amazing that the light women are almost up to the light men's standard in the 2x in such a short time. It shows what emphasis and focus can do.

One other interesting statistic is the median of 2006 CRASH-B scores. The median score of LM is 5.5% slower than the heavies, while the median score of LW is only 3% slower than the heavies. Both lightweight fields contained 121 rowers, while there were 99 more heavy women (333) than men (Title IX effect?). It's silly to read too much into this, but it suggests that the light women's field was higher quality than the light men. By the way, because we've been talking about weight limits lately, I should note that the CRASH-Bs apply their own weight limit - 135 pounds for women.

Shofner at Stanford

A reader left a comment saying that Mary Shofner is now an assistant at Stanford under new head coach Yasmin Farooq. Farooq coxed at Wisconsin as an undergraduate and certainly would have followed the Badger lightweights' progress over the past three years. [Update: Mary Shofner is listed as the women's coach for Stanford recruits.]

Winning the Ones That Matter

Matthew Pinsent had an article in The Times last week in which he talked about the Searle Brothers. According to Pinsent, the Searles "used to race for a full season, which entailed half a dozen regattas each summer in the build-up to the World Championships or, once every four years, the Olympic Games, and yet their sum total of medals and victories from these build-up races is outnumbered by their world and Olympic medals almost two to one." They won when it mattered.

We all want to win every race we enter, but not all races are created equal. Early season races are less important than late season, and as prestigious as it would be to win the Head of the Charles, I'd rather win IRAs. The Searle Brothers understood that and, more recently, so have the notoriously slow starting Wisconsin Badgers. In fact, a quick look at recent history shows that rarely has the eventual national champion been a dominant force throughout the season.

There's been a pretty strong correlation between Sprints winners and IRA winners as in the nine years since 1998 the Sprints champion has won IRAs six times. If we go earlier in the season to the Knecht Cup, however, the relationship isn't as strong. The fast IRA boats have been racing at Knecht since 2001 so if we look at the six years since 2001, the Knecht champion has won IRAs only twice. In those six years only one crew (Princeton) has won all three regattas. In fact, only that one crew has won both Knecht and Sprints. In it's three national championship seasons, Wisconsin has been third at Knecht twice, and second once. Knecht seems to be a particularly bad predictor of the eventual national champion.

Tufts Looking for Lightweights?

The team overview for Tufts crew says "the program also focuses on attracting women under 130 pounds for the lightweight squad." I can't remember seeing Tufts race a lightweight boat recently. I suspect this is an evergreen overview and hasn't been updated in a while. Still, I wonder if Coach Gary Caldwell has any plans to build a lightweight team?

Wisconsin Schedule

Wisconsin's 2006-07 schedule is out and the fall looks much as it did last year - Milwaukee River Challenge, Head of the Rock, Head of the Charles, and Head of the Iowa. The Badgers are the defending collegiate lightweight eight champion at the Head of the Charles. Interestingly, the heavyweights skip the HOCR but make an East Coast trip by sending some of the team to the Princeton Chase.

There were six collegiate lightweight eights racing at the Charles last year. It would be nice to beat that number this year. Crew applications are due September 1st, so the draw should be out in a few weeks.

New Erg Score Tracking Service

I recently received an email from the developer of a new erg score tracking service called Ergscores.com. I haven't actually used this service and features are still being added, but it's free and has a team component that should make it useful to coaches. Of particular interest to lightweights is a built in weight adjustment feature. If your team is all lightweights this doesn't matter too much, but if you're being compared to heavyweights it does. It's not a "pity adjustment" made to take into account some vague notion of efficiency. Rather, it uses the Concept II formula (more choices are coming) which attempts to adjust for a lightweight rower pulling less body weight down the course while still pulling the same boat and coxswain weight. It purports to show you how fast a boat of your clones would go compared to a boat of your teammate's clones. It also has a feature which allows high school rowers to release scores to college coaches. Seems like it's worth a try (unless, like me, you do your best never to record an erg score so it can't be used against you later).

You can read more about the site and an interview with the developer on The Daily Erg.

Weigh-In Differences

A few days ago a reader asked why collegiate weigh-ins are different from USRowing (e.g. USRowing nationals) weigh-ins. Collegiate weigh-ins are typically the day before a race, with a certification requirement at IRAs. USRowing requires an athlete to weigh-in not more than two hours prior to each race (heat, semi, and final). In an attempt to get an answer to this question, I went to the font of all knowledge on such matters (collegiate, anyway), the lightweight committee of the CRCA.

As with many rowing practices, the true reason for the difference is a bit murky, but probably results largely from tradition. In addition, the collegiate practice was developed to help protect the health of the athlete as a single weigh-in prior to the regatta helps avoid race day dehydration issues. There is also the convenience factor of one weigh-in for regatta officials, coaches and rowers. (With a goal of growing the sport, convenience does play a part.) While not a USRowing practice, FISA (international) sets a single rower weight limit of about 130lbs, and a boat average limit of about 125 lbs. This kind of boat average weight limit is not used in college rowing because of the inherent danger of forcing a boat average five pounds below the individual average. This typically results in all members of a boat losing weight, even those well under 130 pounds, to allow athletes near 130 to compete.

It's tempting to want athletes to weigh in every day and let those near-weight rowers row dehydrated. If they are that close to the limit either they shouldn't be rowing lightweight or they should pay a price for not managing their weight as well as everyone else. If the penalty for dehydration was simply fatigue or a loss of strength, that might work. Unfortunately the penalty could be injury, or worse. The certification requirement at IRAs, however, is an attempt to weed out those rowers who really aren't lightweights by forcing them to weigh-in during the season.

There is one USRowing weight practice that I find to be particularly egregious. Elite lightweight rowers are allowed to weigh 140 pounds when they submit their April erg score. That is 15 pounds heavier than the boat average. Elite level lightweights actually have weight management plans that have them bulking up to 140 in the off season so they can max out the erg test, and then dropping weight for the racing season. This is obviously unhealthy and I don't understand why USRowing encourages it. Why not require lightweights to be at weight whenever testing, racing, or seat racing?

[Update: See comments - I get slapped around a bit on this one.]

URI Lightweight to Coach at Rutgers

Kate McKeown, a 2006 graduate of URI and a member of the URI lightweight eight that raced at IRAs, has been named an assistant coach at Rutgers.

Bucknell Media Guide

Bucknell's media guide is out and there are some good things happening there. There is an exception, which I've discussed before, and it rears it's head in the guide. Assistant coach Sera Coppolino is lauded for bringing the Second Varsity Eight to new heights last season. Second Varsity is Bucknell speak for varsity lightweights. In one paragraph we go, without explanation, from reading about the 2V heavy(?) eight racing the Princeton lights to the lightweight eight turning in its best ever performance at IRAs. Later in the guide we learn that the 2V "transitioned from its regular-season status to the lightweight eight in order to compete at the IRA National Championship." I guess there are no regular season lightweights? You'd have to read FITD to know what the heck they're talking about. Well, I had my rant about that last season so let's move on to the good stuff, because there's plenty. Bucknell did have a great season last year and Coach Coppolino gets some well deserved kudos.

The Guide also tells us that Bucknell began sculling last year and will do so again this year. They added 10 sculling boats last fall! This is a great move for Bucknell, as it would be for any program because it is so beneficial for technique development. It's particularly good for lightweights since any post-collegiate rowing will be sculling. There are actually regattas to race sculling boats in the fall so it's a great time to break them out.

The Guide also includes an athlete journal which is written by Caitlin Doolin, last year's stroke of the light eight. Oops, sorry. The journal is about Dad Vails so that would be pre-transition and she would have only been in the 2V.

Bucknell has seven lightweight recruits entering this fall and they are expected to have "an immediate impact on the Varsity Lightweight Eight." (I guess these rowers were recruited for the lightweight 1V, not the heavyweight 2V?)

Bucknell's lightweights are coming off a great 2006 season and are the most successful program in the Bucknell boathouse. They've got good recruits coming in who will add speed to last year's young V8. One thing this Guide tells us is that the Bison aren't standing still.

Yo, Philadelphia! How About It?

FITD was fortunate to get a mention in the latest issue of the Schuylkill Navy newsletter, so some of you are Philadelphians coming here for the first time. I have a question for you: Where are all of your lightweight programs? Philadelphia, arguably the center of rowing in the United States, does not have one dedicated lightweight women's rowing program. Villanova (which now rows outside of the city) won the national championship in 1998 but now only rows lightweight boats of opportunity. St. Joseph's occasionally puts out lightweight boats, which can be quite competitive, but doesn't race the category consistently. Think of all the college programs on the Schuylkill - Bryn Mawr, LaSalle, Drexel, Penn, Temple, and Haverford, in addition to Villanova and St. Joe's - and not one lightweight program.

Lightweights do row in Philadelphia, as evidenced by the current national team LW2x out of Penn AC and last year's national team LW4x out of Vesper, not to mention the lightweights at Undine Barge. Lightweights row there in high school too - Archbishop Prendergast and Mount St. Joseph's are two examples. Boston, though, has the MIT and Radcliffe lights and Washington DC has the Georgetown lights. Even San Francisco has lightweight women - Stanford and Cal. Why aren't there any in Phialdelphia?

Penn seems to be the prime school to start a lightweight women's program. They have lightweight men so they understand the value of lightweight rowing, and those lightweight men are the most successful program in the boathouse. Why not lightweight women? They would have plenty of nearby competition, including Ivy League competition. Penn is one of largest Ivies so they have a great recruiting base. Everything is in place for the launch of a successful program, even a new coach who just may be bringing some new thinking to the team.

Maybe the city is still scarred from being named the nation's most obese a year or two ago. Maybe in Philadelphia there are no lightweights because, well, there are no lightweights.

Naaah. C'mon Philadelphia, just do it!

Colleges Advocate Disordered Eating?

Longtime readers of FITD know that one of my pet peeves is the unfounded claim that an inordinate number of female lightweight rowers have eating disorders. None of the studies I've seen on the subject (not an exhaustive survey by any means) have offered real evidence of this claim. Typically, after the authors fail to find evidence of eating disorders, they find evidence of "disordered eating" and wrap up their study by saying that it makes intuitive sense for female lightweight rowers to be at risk so they must be. The catch is the definition of disordered eating which includes limiting caloric intake or limiting certain foods. Don't all college age women exhibit disordered eating then?

With the arrival of the "Back to School" season comes the first of many "Freshman 15" articles. The author begins by talking to students and nutritionists who worry about overeating as they begin college. Then an odd thing happens. By the time the article ends, we're told we need to worry that "students have more opportunity to compare themselves with each other because they spend so much time together" and that "super-fit bodies that saturate TV shows and commercials can exacerbate such problems." The first link given at the end of the article is to Duke's Eating Disorders Program. It turns out that the real problem isn't gaining 15 pounds, but trying to lose it later. At the University of Missouri, we're told, "students are trained to make presentations to their peers ... on eating healthy, handling stress, exercising and generally leading a healthy lifestyle." Gee, that sounds like they want to turn everyone into a lightweight rower, doesn't it?

The more "experts" make it seem like everyone has an eating disorder, the less likely it is that the appropriate resources will be focused on those who actually need help. This does a disservice to all concerned.

(Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor and this isn't medical advice. I can, however, read.)

Ohio State - The New Place to Be For Lightweights?

I recently heard from Coach Hugh Dodd, the new head coach at Ohio State. In addition to correcting my erroneous belief that he and Wisco's new coach, Erik Miller, were teammates at Washington (they were not; I corrected my earlier post), he also told me that he intends to revive men's lightweight rowing at OSU. This is good news for the women lights because it means that they have a coach who cares about lightweights and that they will have fellow travelers in the OSU boathouse. Success by one team will encourage and raise the standards for the other. With the huge recruiting base at Ohio State, a little rise in the popularity of the lightweight programs could mean a huge rise in the number of recruits and the speed of V8s.

While at Washington, Coach Dodd weighed around 170 pounds, making him essentially a lightweight competing for a seat on one of the nation's premier heavyweight teams. Only someone with fire in the belly (aka lightweight attitude) survives in that kind of environment. This may go a long way toward explaining his favorable attitude toward lightweights. I think that over the next couple of years the OSU light women will be a crew to watch as they try to break into the top five. Whether they get there or not, I'm pretty sure their journey won't be uneventful.

UCF Coach Re-Ups

UCF head coach Leeanne Crain signed a new three year contract last week. I don't know how directly involved she is with the UCF lightweights, but they've certainly made a name for themselves since she arrived in 2003. There's no mention in the announcement of an intent to hire an assistant (lightweight?) coach, as has been rumored. We'll have to wait and see on that one. There was mention, however, of plans for a new boathouse and practice facility. UCF continues to show that it's serious about women's rowing.

Another sign of the impending fall racing season - Radcliffe announced that it will hold it's crew information meeting on September 13th.

Only 9 weeks until the Head of the Charles.

A Suggestion

In championship regattas, team points trophies are a desirable piece of hardware. Although I'm not a big fan, coaches want them, athletic directors want them, and the NCAA's rule over women's heavyweight rowing as a "team sport" has made them more important than ever. The only championship regatta I'm aware of, however, in which the results of the light eight counts toward such a trophy is the A10's. It seems to me then, that one way to grow lightweight rowing would be to make it count toward a major championship team trophy. I suggest we start with the Willing Trophy at EAWRC Sprints.

There are probably easier championships with which to start, but none with more tradition or prestige. Sprints are the place to have the biggest impact. If the Sprints schools began to develop lightweight programs, that would represent some real progress in growing the sport. Of the 16 schools entered in the V8 competition last season, 10 have lightweight men's programs so they are no strangers to lightweight rowing. The points at stake for the LV8 event need to be substantial as well. They need to reflect the fact that the light eight is a varsity eight race. One point down from the V8 points seems about right (actually that would be similar to the 2V8 and N8). If there were 17 or 18 points at stake in the LV8 race it might make some schools think about a program.

Of course, if this were implemented there would be a hue and cry from those schools without women's lightweights. No problem, announce it two or three years in advance. Give each school a chance to develop a lightweight program before the points count.

Clearly this is no panacea, but it can't hurt. It would give the heavyweight coaches in the CRCA an opportunity to truly represent lightweights to the ECAC when they support this move. It would broaden the growth of women's rowing. The major heavyweight programs have more scholarships than they can possibly give to big high school girls with rowing experience, yet many high school rowers don't row in college but would like to. They are lightweights. This is how the women's side of the sport will continue to grow and a role in the Willing Trophy is a place to start.

Lightweights and the CRCA - Comments

The most obvious point to make about Coach Teitelbaum's answer is that he does not say that the CRCA supports the continued growth of women's lightweight rowing. This was my first question and it goes unanswered. I find that curious because that question was clearly a softball, an icebreaker meant to get us both on the same page so we could ease into more difficult areas.

In fact, none of my questions were answered as the coach simply said that the CRCA considers only those issues raised by the lightweight committee. This suggests that he is unfamiliar with the lightweight issues I raised and is reluctant to say that the organization supports the category. By comparison, I would ask if the Executive Director of USRowing would be able to answer questions about lightweights in the Olympics and state USRowing's position on the growth of lightweight events. I'm quite sure he would. (Coach Teitelbaum implied he was reluctant to answer my questions because he couldn't possibly know what all heavyweight coaches think. I replied that I was looking for an organizational response and that I was writing to him as the head of the organization.)

As Coach Teitelbaum himself implies, the fact that the head of an organization of heavyweight coaches is unfamiliar with lightweight issues is not surprising. What is surprising, however, is that the organization purports to represent lightweights to USRowing, the NCAA, and other legislative arenas.

Although I asked, Coach Teitelbaum did not name any specific measures the CRCA has taken to support lightweight rowing. Again, for a heavyweight organization this would be perfectly understandable, but that is not what the CRCA claims to be.

Finally, for all of the reliance Coach Teitelbaum puts on the lightweight committee, until this past year it was headed by a heavyweight coach who happens to have lightweights racing in his program.

Coach Teitelbaum's comments make me continue to believe that the CRCA sees lightweights and the lightweight committee as an unwanted step-child for whom they've been forced to care. With new leadership I think the committee will play a larger role in CRCA activities. This committee structure may actually prove to be useful for lightweights, but it's impossible to tell until it raises some difficult issues to the full membership. Until it becomes an unruly step-child.

There is a problem, however, with the unruly step-child model. The lightweight coaches on the committee will have to be unruly to their bosses and future bosses. In many cases, but not all, lightweight coaches report to the women's heavyweight coach (see the recent Wisconsin coaching announcement). In many more cases, for reasons of pay and authority, those lightweight coaches someday hope to be heavyweight coaches (men's or women's) at the more prominent heavyweight powerhouses. All that makes it awfully tough to be unruly.

Nonetheless, I do believe that the current committee, building on the momentum of the best lightweight season ever, will be able to make some major inroads in the CRCA. It will require a deft political hand and an ability to uncover latent lightweight support. There are many heavyweight coaches who support lightweight rowing, and the lightweight committee needs to mobilize that support.

The obvious question, of course, is mobilize that support to what end? I'm not privy to the committee's agenda and I'm sure it doesn't need my help to set it, but...
I have a suggestion that would help grow lightweight rowing, but would be perceived to cause some pain for heavyweights. A suggestion that could only become reality with the support of the heavyweight coaches. A suggestion that would probably be dismissed out of hand but shouldn't be. I'll explain it in a coming post.

Lightweights and the CRCA

A few months ago a reader took me to task for criticizing the CRCA (Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association) without really understanding what the CRCA does. I thought that this was a fair criticism so I decided to write to Andy Teitelbaum, the president of the CRCA, to ask what that organization's attitude is toward women's lightweight rowing and how they have supported the category. I began by noting the existence of the CRCA lightweight committee and said that I was interested in how the organization as a whole, not the committee, views lightweight rowing. My questions were as follows:

One of the missions of the CRCA is to "Promote women's rowing as a collegiate sport." Given that mission:

- Does the CRCA support the continued growth of women's lightweight rowing?

- If so, what actions has and will the CRCA take to support that growth? If not, why not?

- Does the CRCA support a NCAA National Championship for women's lightweights?

- If so, what actions has and will the CRCA take to support that championship? If not, why not?

- What is the CRCA's involvement with the IRA Regatta, the National Championship regatta for women's lightweights?

- What does the CRCA believe is the most pressing issue in women's collegiate lightweight rowing today? What has the CRCA done to address that issue?

The pertinent part of Coach Teitelbaum's response was as follows:

The CRCA is a membership run organization. The activities and emphasis of the association are driven by its members. We have a Lightweight Committee. It is an opportunity for any coach (lightweight or otherwise) or CRCA member to be involved with issues and agenda items that specifically involve lightweight women's rowing. As President of the CRCA I entrust that committee to be the mechanism which brings issues pertaining to lightweight rowing to the rest of the membership.

Of course I wrote again and raised a few specific issues such as the inherent conflict of interest in the CRCA's sponsorship of a lightweight committee when most heavyweight coaches (as I've been told by a few) see lightweights as a drain on heavyweight resources. I also noted some more symbolic issues such as the ineligibility of lightweights for All-America honors and of lightweight coaches for coach of the year honors. I think a few quotes from Coach Teitelbaum's response will accurately convey his meaning.

There are many conflicting interests that reside within the CRCA. While it may be true that coaches have told you that lightweight rowing may cause a reallocation of resources at their school, there is still a place for a lightweight voice within the organization. As for the All America awards, perhaps the lightweight committee should bring up this issue to be considered by the awards committee or directly to the board. It doesn't seem fair to criticize the CRCA members or the Board for neglecting to address lightweight issues which the lightweight committee has never identified as a priority.

The CRCA is looking out for the interest of lightweight rowing exactly to the extent that the active members which represent that segment of the rowing population have expressed.

You are correct that lightweight rowing represents a minority interest in the overall membership of the CRCA. As such, much of the membership is not actively working on lightweight issues. It is for this reason that we created a special committee for lightweights in the first place.

The idea that the CRCA membership as a whole should be paying more attention to lightweight issues is unrealistic. The people who should be moving the lightweight agenda within the organization are the people who are most affected by it.

Chew on this for a day or two and I'll next post my thoughts.

Lightweight Entries at Worlds

I like to look at lightweight entries at Worlds every year as another check on the health of women's lightweight rowing. There are three events for lightweight women - the 2x (the Olympic event), the 1x, and the 4x. This year both the 2x and the 1x have more entries than last, while the 4x has one fewer. Only four events have more entries than the LW2x (22, the same as the heavy women's 1x and LM4-), and they are all mens'. The LW1x has 21 entries, seventh in popularity. The LW4x is farther down the list with only six entries, although the LM4x has five and the heavy women's 4x has eight highlighting the lower popularity of that boat class (the heavy men have fifteen). It's interesting to note that the light women and light men both have a slightly higher percentage of entries than events, while the heavy men and women are the opposite. I don't know how meaningful that is but I'll take it as a sign that demand for lightweight events is relatively strong.

I think this kind of indicator is important because if demand remains high internationally, FISA will look favorably on lightweight events. If FISA looks favorably on lightweight events they stay in the Olympics and remain a medal winning opportunity for the US. If they remain a medal winning opportunity for the US, USOC and therefore USRowing will see lightweight rowing as worth developing. That can only be good for collegiate lightweights. As the USOC and USRowing continue to emphasize number of medals, a WL2x gold is just as valuable as a M8+. This kind of thinking has resulted in the mens' priority boat being the 4- this year, not the eight (i.e. let's see if we can win in a smaller boat and then spread around those 8+ rowers). It's kind of like a team championship, isn't it? The country with the most medals wins, except there are no extra points for eights. Hmmm, the LW2x just as valuable as the M8+? That's not very NCAA like, but that might be where the USOC is headed.

Lightweight 1x Trial

There's a great story on row2k about the last race of the lightweight 1x trial which concluded last Saturday. It's just so, well, "lightweight." Early morning weigh-in followed by a launch from an empty dock. Almost no one was there except the two rowers and the officials. The trials for the other boat classes had already concluded as the lightweight 1x went to three races. "...in the single on a morning like this, after the starter calls 'Attention, go,' the competitors will row side by side for over a mile without hearing another human voice."

At the end of this race one athlete was on the national team and the other went home. They wished each other good luck at the start and shook hands over the gunwhales at the finish. Unlike so many crews these days who stand in boats, hold up oars, and jump into the water or each other's arms, these two lightweight women won and lost with dignity. They showed respect for each other and for the sport. I have yet to see a winning women's lightweight crew make fools of themselves when they win and I hope I never do. Let others hug and salute themselves and act like they've never won before, while lightweight women win with class. That is what rowing is all about.

USRowing Nationals

USRowing Nationals took place July 19th through the 23rd and a quick look at the competitors in the intermediate lightweight events shows that college lightweights didn't stop going after one another when IRAs ended. I'm sure I missed an athlete or two, but there were several women in Indianapolis who looked across the lane markers to see a familiar face.

In the Elite/Open Lightweight 4x, '06 Harvard grad and NYAC rower Sara Bates met up with Pocock rower and '05 Wisconsin grad Katie Sweet. In a three boat race the Pocock 4x finished first over NYAC, which finished third. Despite the dearth of entries in this event it was incredibly competitive as Sweet's winning Pocock 4x later won trials and will represent the US at Worlds in Eton. Marist rower (they put out some lightweight boats) Lisa Daniello also rowed in the NYAC 4x. Bates went on to win a national championship in the senior lightweight 2x, beating five other boats.

UCF rower Melissa Kroll competed for the Chicago Rowing Center in the intermediate lightweight 4x, finishing third of four boats. Kroll won a national championship in the senior lightweight 2-, finishing first of two. UCF teammate Lauren Schueler, rowing for Steel City, raced the intermediate lightweight 2-, finishing second out of two boats. Kroll also raced the senior lightweight 4+, finishing second out of five boats.

The intermedaite lightweight 2x and 1x saw the most collegiate foes face off. Rowing for the Boston Development Camp, an all Radcliffe 2x of Mariah Evarts and Naomi Ford went out in the heats. UCF's Lauren Schueler's 2x finished fifth in the nine boat field. Under the heading of mixed marriages, the fourth place intermediate lightweight 2x from Undine Barge Club was comprised of Bucknell's Caitlin Doolin and Princeton's Madeline Davis.

Three of the 2x competitors also faced off in the intermediate lightweight 1x. In a sixteen boat field, Radcliffe's Ford went out in the semi, as did UCF's Schueler. Princeton's Davis made it through to finals and finished fifth of sixteen. Although not a lightweight event, Davis also raced the Elite/Open 1x Dash, finishing fifth out of eight.

Both Radcliffe and UCF had at least two returning rowers competing at nationals and who will come back to their college programs with great racing experience. Summer racing isn't for everyone and is best avoided for those worried about burn out. For those enthusiastic about maintaining a high level of training through the summer months, however, it provides great racing experience, exposure to new coaches, and, as is the case with at least one 2x, the opportunity to train and compete with women you previously only knew as rivals.

If you look at the number of entries in these events, you'll notice that the sculling events, and particularly the single, have the largest fields. (The elite events are a special case because there aren't many rowers at that level and this year trials started just one week after nationals.) Not only does sculling help you become a better sweep rower, but if you want to row as a lightweight outside of college, you must scull. The only Olympic event for lightweights is the 2x and the only event at Worlds for lightweights are the 1x, 2x, and 4x. You'll notice that each of the rowers I mentioned above competed in at least one sculling event.

Canadian Henley begins this week and no doubt some of these same rowers will compete there. The competition there is from all over North America and the fields will be much larger. Many of the larger events will run heats with only two to advance to semis (no reps). This method of progression certainly finds the very top boats, but it does result in some fast crews getting knocked out early. By Sunday evening Eastern Daylight Time, the summer rowing season will officially be over (unless you're off to Worlds!). Then it's time to pack the unis and the Coolmax shirts and head back to school for the head season.

Badger Makes National Team

Despite what I said below about how few national team members come from the top lightweight teams, Katie Sweet, who graduated from Wisconsin in 2005, made the national team in the lightweight quad this morning. (A reader beat me to this post with a comment a few minutes ago.) Needless to say, this is a tremendous achievement and given how we've seen the quality of lightweight rowing rise in the past year, I hope Katie is in the vanguard of an assault on the national team by rowers who rowed lightweight in college.

UCF Rumor

A reader posted a comment that said, "UCF is looking for a new coach." I have no confirmation of this and I don't know anything more than that, including whether this might be a lightweight coach or a coach for the entire program (heavies and lights). If it's the latter, I happen to know of a former Wisconsin lightweight coach who attended UCF as an undergraduate and is available...

As a sign of how close the season is, UCF has already announced their informational meeting.

[Update: See comments for the latest.]

Dodd to Lead Buckeyes

The Ohio State Lightweights also have a new head coach after Peter Steenstra moved on to coach at Cornell. Hugh Dodd, takes over a lightweight women's program that has worked its way onto the national scene and has won the ECAC title. There is a lot of upside for Coach Dodd to exploit. Dodd, formerly the men's freshmen coach, will be head coach for both the men and lightweight women.

Interestingly enough, Coach Dodd rowed at the University of Washington, the same alma mater as Wisconsin's new coach, Erik Miller. [Update: I originally thought that the two coaches were teammates but as a result of some paperwork requirements and other red tape Coach Dodd's official graduation date is out of kilter with his actual rowing dates. They missed being teammates by three years or so.]

Miller to Lead Badgers

Erik Miller has been named head coach at Wisconsin. Miller will have the difficult task of following three-time national championship winner Mary Shofner. Miller has a sparkling rowing resume, having spent eight years as a member of the US national team. He spent those years as a lightweight so he should be in tune with the unique peculiarities of lightweight rowing. He served as an assistant coach for the Wisco men and for the Wisco summer collegiate women's camp so he was a known quantity for Bebe Bryans. One thing seems certain, he knows what it takes to compete at the highest level so we'll see how he brings that knowledge to his athletes.

Under the heading of old web pages never die, check out Coach Miller's old site. [Update: Well, they do die when the owner realizes it's been linked to and replaces the content.] You can get an idea of some of the workouts he went through while on the national team as well as few other things about him (the accompanying picture, for example). Stand by for a lot of "rusties," Badgers. It also turns out that cooking and BBQ are hobbies of Coach Miller, so I guess the Wisco women can expect a lot of cookouts at his house (turkey burgers, of course).

Coach Miller went to the University of Washington which doesn't have a lightweight men's program, yet he raced for the US as a lightweight. This is something I've noticed among lightweight national team women as well - it seems as though most national team lightweights come from heavyweight programs. Where are the Wisco, Radcliffe, Georgetown, and Princeton national team lightweights? A few theories come to mind, but they're for another time.

Coach Miller walks into the best of situations and the worst of situations at Wisconsin. The best because he will be coaching the three time national champions. The worst because he will be coaching the three time national champions. They can't win forever (can they?), and with the improvement we saw in the field last season, there are plenty of worthy successors. I don't know how much you'll need, but good luck, coach and take care of the top lightweight program in the country!




[The news about Coach Miller's hiring was posted in the comments section of FITD by a Wisco lightweight while I was on "hiatus." Thank you for that posting and please keep them coming. Thanks to a reader, FITD was first with the scoop. As you may have guessed, this post means that FITD will be back for at least another year. (Some of you are smiling, some of you are cursing; just so you're not yawning!) Even though it's the summer, I've missed a lot. I'm getting my head back in the boat and should be up to speed soon. As always, please send me your news, comments, and suggestions. I pay attention to them all and because you all know much more about lightweight rowing than me, you're the best source of information I have.]

One Year

Today marks one year since the first post on Fight in the Dog. Since that time we’ve seen the best racing women’s lightweight rowing has to give as more dedicated programs have come on the scene and parity looks achievable. Unfortunately, the sport has also faced one of the largest threats ever to its existence.

FITD began like most blogs, read only by its author. It slowly grew until by the end of the spring season it had readers from teams around the country, including all of the top 10 programs. The first reader who ever contacted me was a former Georgia Tech rower who began to spread the word with a link from her own blog. The first team I knew to read FITD was UCF. Rowers, coaches, parents, and regatta officials have all contacted me about women’s lightweight rowing at some point over the life of FITD. Those who have read and commented on this site are simply proof that women’s lightweight rowing is alive and vibrant in the US. True, there are those involved with women’s rowing who couldn’t be bothered enough to answer my questions about lightweights, and there are those who desperately wish this blog didn’t exist. In the end, though, rowers of all weights and sexes recognize that we all share a love of the same sport, we all take the same strokes, over the same distance, and experience the same pain in the pursuit of perfection. We are all the same.

Not too long ago, a reader posted a comment in which she said that there was nothing on FITD that you couldn’t find on row2k. I have to admit that stung a bit, probably because I had just finished a series of posts that mostly consisted of race results. It did get me wondering, however, just what I might have written about that was new and informative to lightweights. Here are some things I could think of:

- FITD was the first to report to a wide audience (outside of the conference) that the Pac 10 was pushing for a NCAA championship for heavyweight men.

- FITD was the first to publish a Q&A with the NCAA on women’s lightweights

- FITD was the first to report on the 2006 IRA weigh-in requirements

- FITD was the first to do a study of the number of lightweight programs

- FITD is the only place you’ll see eating disorders and lightweight rowing discussed without a politically correct bias

- FITD is the only place to find an ongoing discussion of how the NCAA affects lightweight rowing

- FITD is the only place you’ll find a discussion of why there aren’t more lightweight programs

- FITD was the first to do a post-season ranking of V8s

- FITD was the only place to find race reports of lightweight women’s races

- FITD is the only place to find an analysis of lightweight vs. heavyweight race times

- FITD is the only to place to find season previews for women’s lightweight programs

- FITD was the first to call out the Rowing News on its lack of women’s lightweight coverage in its season preview issue

There was other unique information on FITD but perhaps the biggest scoop was also the one that stimulated the most negative feedback – the IRA dam opening. Of all the outlets reporting on the IRAs no one else was alert enough (or cared enough) to recognize aberrant results and look for the cause. In some quarters FITD will be forever despised for making a lot of people look silly.

As the summer flies by (teams will be back to school next month), lightweights with national team ambitions are testing themselves at U23 trials, Nationals, and Canadian Henley and will provide leadership to their teams and the sport in the fall. Like all major endeavors, progress for women’s lightweights will come in fits and starts. Much progress was made last season, but who knows what will happen this coming season? The trend in dedicated programs is up, in quality of crews is higher, and in parity is more. The 2007 season should be better than the last. More crews than ever have shown they are fast, and more crews than ever believe they can win. As Georgetown and UCF have shown, the top five slots of the national poll are no longer safe. There will always be threats to lightweight rowing, but the best way to fight them off is for more women to row harder, row faster, and row smarter. I firmly believe that will happen, just as I believe the best days of women’s lightweight rowing are yet to come.

“The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.”

Tulsa Developing a Lightweight Program

Tulsa coach Kevin Harris has informed me that Tulsa is "'developing' a lightweight program within our existing structure with the hopes of making it a full fledged varsity program in the next few years." There will not be a full time coach, but the program will be "actively recruiting true lightweight women."

This is great news! Where this initiative goes in the coming years will depend a lot on the success enjoyed by Tulsa lights. Clearly programs with a combined heavyweight/lightweight coach can do extremely well, just look at Bucknell and Georgetown of a few years ago. Congratulations to Tulsa and good luck in 2006-07.

Growth

Now that the summer club season is here, it's a good time to think about growing women's lightweight rowing, probably the single most pressing issue in the sport today. We've just finished possibly the most competitive season ever, yet women's lightweight rowing remains the smallest of the four categories in the sport. Total participation is good, and may actually show the women to be close to men's lightweights. When I looked back at the 2004 and 2005 seasons, I found that around 90 schools boated lightweight eights or fours over the two years. Seventy did in each year alone and, of those, 50 were consistent between the two years. The problem, however, is that the dedicated programs are growing realatively slowly (although I think at an accelerating rate). Most of those 50 programs raced fours, as in any one year there were about 20 to 25 schools racing eights. Dedicated programs race eights.

The combination of Title IX and a NCAA championship has resulted in explosive growth for women's heavyweights, and logic would suggest that a NCAA championship for lightweights would do the same. While the desirability of such a championship for any category is far from settled, a major hurdle exists for a lightweight championship - the NCAA considers rowing to be a team sport. The most obvious manifestation of this is the emphasis on team championships. The latest issue of Rowing News announced Cal's team championship in the headline of it's NCAA championship article. A reader had to get into the text to read about Princeton's V8 which won it's championship after one of the most dominating seasons in history. Did any rowers care about the team championship other than Cal? I ask the question again, Would you rather win the V8 or the team championship? A newspaper reporter had an apt description for the team championship - it's like winning the Home Run Derby.

More important to us, however, is the fact that since rowing is a team championship, if lightweights were to be added they would have to be added as an event in that championship. In other words, those teams receiving team bids would need to have lightweights. No teams would receive bids for just a lightweight boat (which would be similar to a team receiving a bid for a V4). Since almost none of the programs sending teams to the NCAAs have lightweights, it's hard to imagine a lightweight event ever making it into the championship. In addition, some of the better lightweight programs are DII or DIII schools, which would not be allowed to mix with DI schools. Perhaps the structure could be changed to allow lightweights in separately, but it's not clear how.

Interestingly enough, if lightweights were simply another event, like a 2-, it wouldn't be so difficult to add them. The problems arise because lightweight rowing is more similar to another sport, not another event. A lightweight program requires different athletes, different coaches, different equipment, and different schedules. The NCAA tells lightweights they're simply another event, while the rowing world says it can't add that event because it would be like adding another sport. Perhaps this is another sign of how the NCAA misunderstands rowing, or perhaps a sign of how the NCAA would like to see lightweights go away.

While saying it wants to grow women's rowing at all levels, the NCAA has also said that it has no plans to add lightweights to its championship, a decision it leaves up to its membership. As best I can tell that membership has a voice through an advisory committee. It would be interesting to know if that committee has ever discussed lightweight rowing and what its attitude is toward the category. Perhaps we can find out.