Nov. 3, 2006

Hello to all and welcome to the second installment of our Coach's Corner. I hope you all enjoyed the first entry a few weeks back. Thanks for all of the questions and supportive email messages.

When I last wrote, we had just come off a successful weekend in Rochester with the Varsity Four that is racing this fall and the novices were really starting to get moving on the water. On the second Saturday of October the four was in action again, this time in Philadelphia at the Navy Day Regatta. With a week more of rowing together, they completed another day of good preparatory racing, finishing second in their event. If you recall, this four was put together as a little bit of a new idea this fall. Most of the team focuses their fall time on getting in good sculling strokes without an emphasis on racing, but we decided to give a voluntary group an opportunity to do a bit more and culminate their efforts at the Head of the Charles in Boston. With two strong weekends behind them, the four made the trip for Boston last weekend. Starting toward the back of the pack, the women managed to pass eight boats on their way to a win in the Collegiate Four event. The Head of the Charles, maybe rowing's most famous event, and certainly one garnished by prestige and tradition, was a great experience for the women. Coming out on top was a bonus and a nice product of their work this fall.

Meanwhile, the larger part of the varsity team remained well-focused on putting in the strokes on the water needed to improve their technical skills and aerobic base and push the level of rowing to new heights in the spring. Weekly intrasquad racing continued through the month and on the same day the four was racing in Boston, the team was back at home on the Susquehanna participating in the largest Saturday race yet, including all of the novice boats. Quads, eights and singles raced a full 6k together in head race format with a staggered start. The varsity continued to better their efforts from the previous weeks and the novices showed off their hard work and their readiness for the Head of the Schuylkill, slated for the last weekend in October.

On Thursday, Oct. 26 the Head of the Schuylkill race committee put out a notice about the possibility of canceling the regatta due to predicted heavy rain and strong winds. However, by that afternoon the determination was made to go forward with the racing. On Friday, Oct. 27, the team loaded the trailer to capacity, ready to race the entire varsity as well as another unprecedented year of six novice eights at the Schuylkill on Saturday. I made the trip to Philadelphia on Friday afternoon in order to secure a great spot for our trailer and tent. Despite their efforts to stand up to the weather report, the largest one day race in the world was canceled on Friday evening at 6 p.m.

Of course the cancellation is an unfortunate twist in our fall plans, but now that the wild weather has blown through, the team hopes to be out on the river this Saturday to have some fun and conclude the fall water season with a little rowing festival of our own.

As the wintry weather descends on the river, our indoor training begins. We will spend the next few weeks before Thanksgiving transitioning onto the ergs and continuing to build our strength in the weight room.

Again, we hope you will check back regularly to see how things are going with Bucknell Women's Rowing. Although our fall season has come to an end, we have the Erg Armageddon, our erg race, and an exciting spring schedule posted on the Web site, so start making plans to check out the team in 2007, we'd love to see you at a race or two!

- Coach Kish

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