The women's crew team remains without a coach
By Dannielle Lowe
The women's varsity club crew team is without a coach. This fall, the club team lost three coaches due to personal reasons.
In addition to this loss, the team is also missing its coxswain, the member of the boat responsible for maneuvering in the water and calling out the stroke.
Despite the adversity, the team is determined to make the best out of an unfortunate situation.
According to Crew Club members, the former coaches decided to move on with their lives. Two of the coaches returned to school for further education. The other is now engaged. According to the interim coaches, no one blames the coaches for leaving because the position is unpaid and they left for good reasons on friendly terms.
In their place, two students, Jacob Warren and John Roberts, have stepped up to the plate to fill in as interim coaches. Both are Crew Club members and have rowing experience. Warren, a junior civil engineering major, serves as the head coach. Roberts, an accounting major, and president of the Crew Club, is also aiding the team as an assistant coach.
Although both men would prefer to be rowing, they are having fun coaching.
"We'd prefer to be on the water," said Warren, with a laugh and a shrug. The team appreciates Warren and Robert's willingness to help.
"We have two interim coaches, and they're doing just fine," said sophomore varsity rower Leslie Eddy, who acknowledges that her peers are giving up their rowing time to help.
Warren and Roberts are working ardently to find the team a coach. However, due to the fact the position is pro bono as well as for a club, it is difficult to find an individual to commit to the responsibilities of coaching for essentially just the pleasure of it.
The team has had some difficulty getting out onto the water due to practice in the mornings due to its current situation. Consequently, the team has been unable to prepare for its upcoming regattas as often as it would like.
"I would really like it if we had the funds for a permanent coach," Eddy said.
Because crew is a club sport at UP, the team does not receive funding for coach expenses. However, if the team was to become a university and WCC recognized sport, the funding situation would change.
According to Warren, the team must prove itself by doing well at its regattas this year, but even that does not mean the University will consider changing the status of the group.
A lack of coaches did not hinder sign ups at the recent club fair. Freshmen and new member turn out has been good. However, the Crew Club is still searching for new members and is trying to also fill the coxswain position in the varsity boat, as well as search for a permanent coach.
A potential coach responded to an ad early last week and the team will know shortly whether the person will accept the position. In the meantime, the team continues to practice without a coach but hopes to find an individual to fill the void soon.
