Many people had been anticipating the reopening of Tempe Town Lake since the dam broke on July 20. Perhaps none more so than the ASU women’s rowing club.
The lake was already dry at the start of this semester, so the team has been doing strength and endurance training at the Student Recreation Complex. They have practiced on Firebird Lake and raced on rowing machines to work on their technique. Still, the lack of access to Tempe Town Lake has hurt their recruiting numbers this semester and has not allowed them to properly train for competitions outside of the state. They’re expecting that to change since the lake opened up last Tuesday though.
So far this year, the women’s rowing club mostly consists of a group that is new to the sport. “Everyone’s basically a rookie coming into rowing,” freshman Rachel Stratton, 18, said. “We have a couple of people who have done it before though.”
Stratton, an aerospace engineering major, said her roommate has a friend that was on the team in previous years so they both decided to try it out. “We went to the meeting and kind of got hooked from there,” Stratton said.
Freshman Kristen Cole, 18, found out about the team at the Passport to ASU event held at the beginning of the semester. Cole, a justice studies major, said she ended up going to the club’s meeting and decided to stick with rowing.
“Everybody is really fun and the team experience where everyone’s pushing each other to do better, it’s really great,” Stratton said.
“I love the team,” Cole said. “It’s a great experience. Personally, I like the getting in shape part and being able to do something different to better myself.”
On a rowing team, you can either be a coxswain or rower. The rowers are the ones who move the boat and the coxswain sits on the stern, steers the boat and relays information from the coach. Cole and Stratton are both rowers.
“Everyday is kind of an adventure,” Stratton said. She described the coaches as being strict when they need to be but also “the goofiest people sometimes so it’s really fun to mess around and just have a good time with everybody.”
Cole agreed with Stratton and said that women’s coach Ken Donnelly can be the silliest of all their coaches sometimes. That was evident when the coach was asked what he believed to be special about the sport of rowing. “The money and all the movie stars that hang around us,” Donnelly said. “No, actually there’s just something about rowing itself, it looks rather simple from the outside but it takes years, a lifetime, to basically master it.”
Along with a good sense of humor, Donnelly brings six years of coaching experience to the team. He coached the freshmen men & women for a year at Fordham University and varsity & novice men & women for 5 years at the University of Connecticut.
Assistant women’s coach Brittany Machala is in her first year of coaching. However, she brings 10 years of rowing experience to the table.
“We have this core group of girls that when you look at them, they don’t seem like the typical rower or the typical athlete, some of them have never even done any sports before in their lives,” Machala said. “This is one of the few sports that you can come into in college and you can learn everything there is about it and everyone else is starting at the exact same level that you are.”
The team may be young and inexperienced now, but Donnelly feels confident that they can evolve into a great team.
“I see a core group of people that really want to stick with it through the entire college experience and grow into something more than just themselves. I really like what I see and I think it’s going to be a good foundation for building something special.”
With the team now able to frequently practice rowing at Tempe Town Lake, they expect to compete in out of state competitions early next semester.
Stratton and Cole strongly encourage anybody who is even slightly interested in rowing to give the club a try.
“I would just say, ‘try it,’ even if it’s something you don’t think you could do,” Cole said. “I never thought that I would be in rowing and I just gave it a shot and it ended up being one of the best decisions in college so far for me.”
The cost of joining the club is normally $500 and that covers racing costs. Since the team was not able to use the lake until it reopened on Tuesday, the price was reduced to $300 for this semester.
“If you want a challenge and something you will be able to take with you for the rest of your life and really make a positive impact in your life as well as compete on a competitive level, check us out,” Donnelly said.
For more information on the women’s rowing club, visit the team’s website.
If you have any questions about the team, e-mail head coach Ken Donnelly at kaxd@hotmail.com.
