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