The water was calm on Lake Wheeler, but the intensity rippled through the members of the NC State rowing club during its first home regatta of the spring season. The gloomy weather conditions didn’t seem to affect the team’s spirits, as it vibrantly cheered on its fellow teammates throughout the four-hour regatta.
Members of the club have some of the more demanding schedules of non-varsity athletes at the university, practicing more than six days a week, both in and out of the water. Now approaching its 25th anniversary, the club has its sights set on making waves under head coach Samantha Smelley.
Two years ago, Smelley took over the program in hopes of continuing her passion for the sport.
“I coached for VCU in the past, and when I moved to North Carolina, I was interested in rowing, and I had seen an ad for coaching with Triangle Rowing Club, but Sean Stevenson, who helped found NC State’s program, happened to talk to me first,” Smelley said. “And the next thing I knew, I was their coach, and I’ve been with them for two years now.”
The rowing season is split into two different parts: fall season and spring season. Similar to cross country, the fall season focuses more on long-distance races, while the spring season is more closely related to track with sprint distance races. As race distances change over the split season, the team’s goals alter as well.
“When we started at the beginning of the season, the plan was to double the size of the team, to build back up, get strong and hopefully make a grand finals entrance at Dad Vails,” Smelley said. “We doubled the team since fall semester. We’re in a strong position. We have enough people, we have the boats now to race, and I think we have a really good chance of getting at least one boat in the grand finals.”
Both experienced and novice rowers compose the Pack’s rowing team, and new rowers are always welcome.
“We’re always looking to grow the team,” novice team captain Shannon Robbins said. “The more people you have, the more talent, and it’s always cool and interesting to meet so many different people.”
Many new rowers join as they enter college and end up loving the sport and continuing it throughout their time in school.
“I came in and tried out coxswain [member who sits at the stern and steers the boat] and it worked out really well, and I thought I could stick with this,” said freshman Alex Milliron. “I thought, ‘Let me just join the rowing team,’ and I really enjoyed it.”
Although the team has a rigorous practice schedule, the fun and experience make the hard work worthwhile.
“I just like being out on the water. It’s a great stress reliever,” sophomore Robert Tapp said. “If you’re having a bad day, you can just go and pull a hard piece and forget about it.”
NC State’s novice and varsity teams compete in regattas across the east coast against teams ranging from Massachusetts to Georgia and occasionally compete against scholarship athletes. With such a broad spectrum of competition sites, the team depends on donations and the payments made by the student athletes.
This past weekend, the team hosted the Millikan Cup Regatta at Lake Wheeler. The participating universities included Duke, Wake Forest, High Point University and UNC-Wilmington, as well as members of the Triangle Rowing Club.
“The regatta has been huge this year,” Smelley said. “This year every team worth their salt from North Carolina was out here. Scrimmages are the bedrock of how we know where we’re standing at in the season. Now we know to gun for High Point for the rest of the season.”
The NC State Rowing Club team will continue to train for this season and future regattas, focusing on the end goal: the Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia.
