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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 8, 1996)
I love rowing in the morning and watching the sun • come up” Amy Potter junior crew member THE NEBRASKA CREW’S varsity mixed four row their way back to the docks after finishing their race in Iowa City, Iowa, last month. From left, Head Coach Heather Jameson, Men’s Novice Coach Ken St. Germain, Crew President Matt Devries, Amy Potter and Troy Smith. The mixed four took firstplace at the race. TARA BALLARD eats an apple and Kim Realph screams encouragement to the men’s novice eight boat during a competition in Iowa City, Iowa, last month. Photos by Ryan Soderlin FROM LEFT; Kimberly Cowgill and Danielle Browne help carry a boat to the water, while the women’s assistant coaches Brian Wanamaker and Omer Cimen give instructions. • ; • - ■' > - • v ' : • . _. t. ' • ',4 I—.. WIMWilWiMM——I I .■ KIM REALPH pulls her oar through the water as Nebraska crew’s boat passes Drake University’s boat in the women’s novice four race at Iowa City, Iowa, last month. Realph and her boat placed fifth out of 12 boats. Women’s crew combines devotion, drive, teamwork ■ By Darken Ivy ; Staff Reporter Join the crew! Women’s crew, that is. Interested people can join, especially those who want to sit on their butts. But don’t think that sitting on your butt and rowing a boat is going to be easy. “Anyone who works hard can do it,” said Angie Heywood, a junior from Papillion and novice women’s crew team member. “It just takes a lot of hard work and determination.” Practice for the women’s novice crew team • is at 5:30 every morning, regardless of the weather. The varsity women’s team practices with the varsity men’s team whenever all members of a boat can get together. They try to practice ev ery day. The 40 women crew members run, lift weights, practice simulation rowing in a tank and do the real thing on lakes and rivers. Women’s coach Heather Jameson said mem bers have to be determined, because the prac tices can be very difficult. Rowers compete on rivers in what are called “head races,” which are 5,000 meters (3.1 miles) long. During the fall season, the team of Jameson and Amy Potter, a junior from Weston, won all four races in which they competed. In the winter, the crew team will take the competition indoors to the ergometer machines. The ergometer is a rowing machine that exerts resistance equal Jo what a boat would experi ence in water. The final season will conclude in the spring with sprint races on lakes. Each season dictates a different race, rower uses two oars for pair and four bulling.” Rowers use one oar in two-, four person sweeping^ which uses long, strokes. Even though women have been ro the University of Nebraska-Lincoln crew is a club sport The teams dojHVt^ |_L_•- ' ' ■ - ■■_ rienced rowers. Potter said if crew becomes an intercolle giate sport, it would allow NU crew members to devote their attention to rowing. “It would be twice as easy because we wouldn’t have to worry about raising money, going to meetings, coaching ourselves and run ning the club,” Potter said. “Everything be comes so time consuming.” Because the NU teams don’t have a paid coach, an experienced varsity rower is selected each year to coach the novice team. The novice team is made up of first-year rowers. To become a varsity rower, .the^Yipes must compete in three different kinds of races and attend all practices. Once novice rowers become varsity rowers, they coach themselves. Jameson said most UNL members had never rowed before joining the crew team. Most mem bers said they joined because they wanted to stay in shape, and Jameson said crew was one of the best sports for a good workout. But it’s more than that for Potter. “I love rowing in the morning and watching the sun come up,” she said. Members also get a lesson in teamwork be cause crew members coach themselves and practice together. Jameson said when a rower is in the boat with someone, she has to read the other rower’s mind to predict the next move. ‘Teamwork is essential because if one per son messes up, then everyone in the boat is af- j fee ted,” Heywood said. The teamwork creates an atmosphere on the team Jameson says is “like one big family.” “We do everything together and if anyone ever needs any help, we are there to help them *out,” Jameson said Former crew members Amy Fletcher and Jeremy Fletcher took the family atmosphere a step farther: They married two years ago, and 30former NU crew members were there to help celebrate their wedding. J: “I made a lot of great friendships in crew,” { Amy Fletcher, who now lives in Knoxville, , “and I still try to stay in touch with as j many of them as possible.” I