Freshman Hawaii native Emily McLain came to Pacific with no intent to join a sports team. Yet her roommate Haley Gee, an experienced rower, convinced her to join the team and give rowing a chance.
McLain, a previous high school water polo player and recreational canoe paddler, decided to join the team and drag her best friend along.
“I also convinced my best friend to row with me so she made it a little more bearable to start,” McLain
said.
McLain and Gee commute to Hagg Lake Monday
through Saturday.
Some of the rowers practice from 6:15 a.m. until 9 a.m, depending on if they are in an eight person boat or a four person-boat.
While the rest of them practice from 4:30 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday in the four person boat.
With practice being so early in the morning, McLain said the hardest part of it is the weather.
“The hardest thing about rowing is waking up and practicing in 40-degree weather,” McLain said. “Although it is tough getting motivated to get out of bed, once you are on the water it is all worth it,”
Even though weather is a hard aspect of rowing, the synchronization of all the rowers is also tough.
“If you are not going at the same pace as the person in front of you, or not putting as much strength into your drive, you can slow the entire boat down,” said McLain.
Since their first race is right around the corner on Sunday Oct. 26 in Portland, they have been dedicated to attending every practice and keeping up with dry land working out as well.
“You cannot go by with missing a practice or two without falling completely behind from the rest of your team,” said McLain.
Since there is a separation between the teams since there are two practices, they like to bond to make sure that they have a strong cohesion through out the team.
McLain said rowing is a sport of rhythm and unison so making sure that the team knows and understands how each other works is a key component to success.
“We work really hard at practice, even if we were focusing on technique for the majority of the practice,” said McLain.
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