By Lynn Worthy, lworthy@lowellsun.com
Updated: 05/16/2010 06:40:54 AM EDT
LOWELL — Rowing as a metaphor for life. That’s deep. Really deep for an 18-year-old who hadn’t even rowed up until three years ago.
When Rachel Walsh sat down to do her college applications, what came out was the experience of being out on the water struggling alone, and eventually with help from others fighting the water, a unit comes together in a boat.
The Lowell High School senior likened succeeding in rowing to succeeding in life, combining skills with others in pursuit of perfection on the water on in any other endeavor.
Lowell High interim head coach Kendra Bauer explained that notion of chasing perfection, saying, “You’re pulling your own weight in there, but you’re having to move in perfect synchronization with the other rowers in your boat. So that perfect stroke is what we’re always looking for, that perfect togetherness to be able to move your own individual body so that it’s perfectly in line with everybody else’s body.”
With that backdrop, its no wonder Walsh, who will row at Smith College next year, claimed to be “high on life” after her boat placed second in its heat of the Women’s Youth 4+ with a time of 8:00.84 at the US Rowing Northeast District Championships yesterday on the Merrimack River.
Walsh, Natali Soto (coxswain), Ashley Price-Dyment, Haley Clarke and Arianna Rogers formed the women’s varsity A from Lowell High which advanced to today’s semifinals. They’re two strong finishes from qualifying for nationals.
“It’s peaceful, when you’re out there. In the four, all I see is the landscape and everything,” she says before looking towards Natali Soto, who is standing within earshot. “It brings you together with your close friends. I love Natali, my coxswain.”
Yesterday marked just the second varsity race this year for Lowell in the varsity women’s four. The group rowed all season as the stern (rear) portion of the varsity eight along with Brittany Burgess, Liz LaRocque, Stephanie Beaudry and Lauren Dubois.
In the pursuit of perfection, you learn to lean on everyone in your boat. You also learn to trust them. Soto, Price-Dyment and Rogers are all seniors who’ve spent time in the boat together for parts of the past four years (eight seasons).
Soto, a senior headed to Boston College in the fall, is the coxswain or as the Lowell coaches like to refer to the position “the brain” of the boat. She steers, instructs, motivates, and decides when to go push harder or go faster.
The idea is let the rowers focus on pushing for 2,000 meters.
“I’m just like ‘Guys, I’ll worry about everything, all you have to do is pull. I’ll worry about it. I’ll take on the stress,’” Soto says describing her job leading up to the start. “Keep them calm, cool, relaxed, keep them motivated especially for the race.’”
The rowers trust Soto to do the thinking, allowing them to concentrate all their energy, physical and mental, on the task of moving the boat.
After all it takes a certain type of person to exclaim, as Walsh does, that the best part of the excruciatingly tiring race is the last 300 meters when everyone is pushing as hard as they can.
You’d think that’d be the most painful part of the race?
“It is,” Walsh says, smiling. “You’re dead by the time you get there, but you just know you’re constantly thinking okay back straight, arms out, you’ve got this. You want to get it over with so bad that you just leave it all on the water. Afterwards if you haven’t spent yourself while you’re out there, you kind of feel like crap.”
That sort of dogged determination and devotion to their teammates isn’t the exception for all the Red Raiders rowers. It’s the rule. That must be why Bauer praises the work ethic of all the rowers (boys and girls).
This week alone the upperclassmen had to study for and take Advanced Placement (AP) exams, along with classes and practice all while they were anxiously awaiting their prom on Thursday night.
“Everybody’s there and fully committed,” Bauer says. “It’s really just amazing. It’s such a nice group of kids. It makes it easy to come and coach them.”
Lowell is just one of 49 teams from eight states participating this weekend as 1,500 rowers dip their oars into the Merrimack River. They all share the same passion for perfection. They’re all pursuing a berth in the national championships.
Racing begins today at 8 a.m. and continues until approximately 6:30 this evening with semifinals in the morning and finals expected to take place in the afternoon.
