Rowing’s race callers appreciated this week
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> Like a general manager of any professional sports team or a coach on the sidelines hasn’t thrown a pass or run in for a touchdown, most coxswains in rowing have never pulled an oar.
But in the sport of rowing, they are an integral part of the racing shell, calling out the race pace, advising their rowers of who is close and often how far behind they are. They are the caretakers, the order givers and often psychologists of their shell from start to finish.
Fittingly, US Rowing celebrates the diminutive athletes who call the shots this week with its annual Coxswain Appreciation Week.
“I rowed for a day, started coxing in the sculling camps, I never rowed, rowed for a day on modified and then right after, we need another coxswain, you’re short,” Saratoga Springs senior Madeline Sayer said. “I was really excited, I wanted to cox. From the sculling camps from my first day I didn’t even do anything, I kind of just sat there, but I was like ‘I love this; this is what I want to do. So I was really happy.”
She has grown into her position
through the years, calling races for the men’s varsity eight this year and will continue her career at the University of Delaware.
“I sent some spring races and practices to their recruiting coach and also their coxswain coach who listened to it and he said he was impressed with my composure throughout the races because a lot of the time there you hear people screaming, franticly, I stayed composed and calm,” Sayer said.
Like any athlete a coxswain gets nervous before a big race. “I don’t have any trouble getting into the stake boat, but when I’m sitting there and have to wait for the other boats to get in I’m nervous,” Saratoga Springs junior and girls lightweight four coxswain Sydney Klotz said. “Once I’m in the zone I’m not nervous.”
Part of the duties of a coxswain is the race call and knowing when to ask for more from their rowers, who they are often face-toface with their stroke seat.
“Me and Katherine have to communicate a lot on rating because everyone in the boat is following her,” Saratoga girls freshman eight coxswain Grace Goodell said.
“For calls, it’s hard to talk to them in the middle of a race.
“I can tell ratio and I can tell splits on the GPS, if the splits aren’t there I know it didn’t work.”
Each race call is important as well as memorable.
“Last year at (US Rowing) Youths I was in the lightweight eight and there is a Beyoncé song that says ‘Boy, bye,’ and we wanted to beat Mount St. Joe’s,” Klotz said.
“So when we when we passed them and I was on their bow ball I said ‘Mount bye’ just like the song and we did a 10 after that for Mount Bye. I made that up on the fly so that was one of my best ones.
“That got them excited. For some reason we were listening to Beyoncé that whole trip, so that song was stuck in all of our heads. It meant something to everyone, that’s when the best moves are, is when the whole entire boat does the same thing.”
While there is no “motor” in a racing shell, the human power can make the trip down a race course feel powerful.
“It just feels like something with everyone clicks, everyone is working together, you can just feel that its effortless, it feels seamless, strokes, but getting the boat surging forward together, so that’s really nice when everyone gets their strokes together, moves together because that’s when the boat moves,” Sayer said. “Everyone can be strong and kind of get the boat to move, but it doesn’t really go clean or anything, it’s just kind of sloppy power, but when everyone is moving together, working together you can really get the boat to move forward and just it just feels seamless.”
For their efforts during three seasons, in warm weather and monsoons they get their own week of celebration.
“It’s nice looking at all the tweets and everything, all the pictures and it’s nice because a lot of times I think coxswain will get ‘Coxswains are dead weight’ jokes, which no one actually here says that,” Sayer said. “It’s I kind of think sometimes, ya, I’m not actually physically moving the boat. It can get discouraging if you are not effective, but it’s nice to have a coxswain appreciation week.”