Ohio's Top-notch Crew Ready to Row with the Rest
by Joe Donatelli
THE POST
 |
| Rachel Rice/The Post |
John Reichard, a member of the Ohio Rowing Club and a senior from Columbus, practices with his teammates Thursday at Stroud's Run State Park.
Last week after giving a speech at the Memorial Auditorium, CNN's Peter Arnett casually remarked how much Ohio reminds him of Harvard.
With its old brick buildings and expansive college green, Ohio can be easily mistaken for an Ivy League school. But that's not the only reason anymore.
Although rowing club president James P. Wamsley and his crew may not be as visible as their counterparts at Harvard and Yale, the members of Ohio's first-ever rowing team have the program aimed in the right direction - due East.
"For a small-college program we've done very well," said Ohio rowing coach Jeremy Jokinen. "Next year our varsity rowers will be on par with any team in Ohio or any team in the Midwest - but I'm not content with that. When I joined the program I told James I eventually wanted us to be competitive with east coast crews and some of the bigger schools."
Until then, Ohio's nine-member women's crew and 10-member men's crew must prove they can hang with their peers - so far they have. After both teams took second place at Dayton to open the season, Ohio proved it had the right stuff.
At the Capital Classic in Washington, D.C. last week, the men's crew finished first out of four teams and the women placed second - despite some problems.
"In the women's race, one of the rowers came off her seat 200 meters into a 2000-meter race," Jokinen said. "Her seat, which runs on a couple rails in the boat, popped off. She had no leg drive for over 6/8 of the race and they still only lost by three seconds - which to me is a victory."
Ohio has one more chance for victory this season when it heads to Toledo May 18 for the team's last regatta of the season. Certainly the crews are looking ahead to the race, but it's worth taking a look at what the club accomplished this year.
In the spring of 1995, Wamsley and club vice president Ben Stormer decided to test the waters and see if anyone else was interested in creating the club.
"When I first started doing this I didn't expect it to be what it is now," Wamsley said. "I thought it would be smaller - just getting some guys together. I never intended it to be a club sport with this much interest and this much strength."
After holding a meeting where 120 people applied for the team, Wamsley stumbled upon Jokinen as a coach. Just like anyone else, Jokinen went to the meeting and filled out an index card. Unlike everyone else, Jokinen had been around the pond a few times.
The third-year graduate student was part of four PAC-10 Championship crews and two national-title winners at the University of Washington. He also had experience as an intramural coach and plans on being with the club next season.
"I guess he's everything you'd want in a coach," Wamsley said. "He's talented in technical rowing, he knows what he's talking about and he communicates very well... If you have any problems he's easy to talk to."
Except for Wamsley, everyone in the club is a novice. Yet when Wamsley and Stormer asked junior Michelle Perry to be a coxswain - the person who steers the boat and gives orders - she couldn't say no.
"I knew Ben Stormer his freshman year. He asked if I wanted to row, and he knew James because they were roommates and in the same fraternity," Perry explained. "He said, 'Do you want to be the coxswain?' I was like, 'Hell, sure.' But I didn't even know what it was. It's good because I'm smaller and I don't mind telling people what to do. I just kind of got drafted into that position."
The rowing club is in good position now because of hard work in and out of the water. Out of the water, the team must raise money and find sponsors to support itself. In the water at Stroud's Run, the crews practice six days a week for two hours a day.
One of the club's goals is to lose its club status and become a varsity sport. The idea of a female varsity rowing team has made its way to athletic director Tom Boeh's office, Stormer said.
While that may be in the future, it's something Perry likes to think about when she's thinking of her friends on the crews.
"I'm thinking like 20 years down the road, I'll come back to school, and I'll see our picture up in the boat house that we'll hopefully have some day," Perry said, grinning, "And I was there when it all began. I'm honored to be a part of this."