City Championships in the Coxswain Seat

Nichelle preparing to row a race. . .

As I jumped into the boat during the early Sunday morning of City Championships and we pushed off the dock, I tried to forget that I would only be coxing my second race.  Midway through the season, I had decided that I would transition from rowing to coxing; feeling as though I needed a change of pace.  If you are not a fan of rowing, a coxswain is the person in the front (or back) of the boat that steers and makes calls based upon what is happening during the race.  As a rower, I had the opportunity to push myself past my limits, pull so hard that I would lose my breath, and scream my heart out when I wanted to win.  I chose to transition from rowing to cox because it had finally caught up to me that I was the smallest girl on the team.  Though I still consider myself a relatively competitive rower, I thought that my size would be more beneficial somewhere else in the boat.
 

. . . and nervously preparing to cox one.

In my very first race, I didn’t have a single clue what I was doing.  I called the start late, I steered out to starboard so far that the coxswain in the boat next to me had to wave her hand around so that I wouldn’t crash into her, and I kept rowing way past the finish line because I wasn’t totally sure where it was.  But when we finally finished, my boat had done a great job, and we had proven ourselves as a team.  Between their post-race breaths, the rowers in the boat complimented me, telling me that I had done a great job and thanking me for all my hard work.  I couldn’t believe it.  If anything, I should be thanking them for a nice ride down the river and for exerting themselves so extremely that their voices turned into raspy growls.  Right then, I realized that I was as much motivation to them as they were to me; and from then on, we worked as a unit to be the best that we could.

In the time leading up to City Champs, there was a lot of stress.  In the two and a half weeks between the races, there had been a horrible flood which shut down the boathouse for several days.  Everyone was worrying about limited practice we had before the biggest race of the season.  When we all met at the river the day of City Champs,  the four rowers of my boat and I met to talk about how much this race meant to all of us.  We were nervous, but we were one unit; knowing that the mental preparation was as important as the physical.  As we approached the starting line of the qualifying round, I made the call to start.  The rest of the race was a blur, but only one thing mattered when we finished: we made it!

 

~ Nichelle H. '15

Members of GA's crew team pose post-race.