THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 18, 1994 TAG: 9408160161
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SARAH HUNTLEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
The observers that gathered to watch the two boats of high school women line up at the starting point on the Lafayette River weren't rowdy. They didn't wave signs, shout cheers or guzzle cold beer.
In fact, the sole spectators - two egrets wading along the shore 1,000 meters west of the 52nd Street pier of the Hampton Roads Rowing Club - seemed nonplussed by the event.
Never mind, the young rowers had said before they launched their four-person shell Saturday while a small gathering of friends, relatives and club members watched, that's the nature of rowing.
``You don't get the excitement of lots of people watching, but to be rowing in a race, that's mucho adrenaline,'' 17-year-old Julia Hines had explained. ``It's a rush.''
Every weekday at 8 a.m., Hines and six other students, all from Maury High School, trek down to the rowing club pier to hone their skills, to test their strength, to learn the importance of teamwork. Trained by coach John Gartin and director Roy Newton, they give up their mornings to row.
``They have a lot of energy and enthusiasm. This is their summer. They could be sleeping in or watching TV, but they are here,'' said Gartin, 24, who rowed for Old Dominion University's Rowing Club as a student. ``That says something.''
The students, who sat around a picnic table before the race, said rowing is almost always fun. ``It's such a beautiful sport when you get it right,'' Nicole Fewell, 17, said.
But it's never easy. The practices - usually six miles a day - stretch every muscle. The boats must be heaved in and out of water. ``We have to carry that big old monster to launch,'' Andrew Richard, 17, said, laughing as he pointed to the team's four-person boat, First Colony. And the oars leave blisters and calluses.
On Saturday mornings, the students race. Often their competitors are older, more experienced rowing club members, but this weekend the primary opponents were other high school rowers from Mobjack Rowing Club on the East River in Mathews County.
``They are the first people we beat, so we like them,'' Hines said, smiling.
The Lafayette River course is 1,000 meters. Each race lasts only a few minutes.
``You practice for 1,000 hours for like 10 minutes, 10 minutes of rowing. It's all that practice condensed into one brief moment of time. It had better work or else you'll end up giving up your T-shirt,'' Gartin said.
``There's no star in rowing,'' Gartin said. ``You can't have one ultimate rower who's going to pull the boat if the others can't.''
Now that they were on the water, and the warmup was drawing to a close, the students were revved up. Mentor Roy Newton's command, ``Ready, ready all, row,'' had barely made its way through the light breeze before the boats were off.
The rowers' tight shoulders rocked forward and back. Their knees popped up and then disappeared inside the shell rhythmically, as the oars sliced through the river. Only the coxswains spoke.
At about 500 meters, First Colony veered toward Mobjack's boat, their oars nearly hitting, but the Hampton Roads rowers pulled ahead.
The hard work of the Hampton Roads girls crew paid off. The crew of Hines, Nichole Fewell, Kerry Brown and Joanna St. George with Coach Gartin as the coxswain defeated the Mobjack girls crew 4:26 to 4:42. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by RICHARD L. DUNSTON
The Hampton Roads girls crew makes it way down the Lafayette River
to defeat the Mobjack crew.
Roy Newton, director of the club, provided encouragement.
by CNB