Club rowing sets sights on gold medal

One of the unheralded club sports at the University over the last year has been the men's club rowing team. 

Coming off of a successful fall season and remarkable Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta race last spring, the men's rowing team has pushed to recruit new athletes this year as well. 

The rowing team is a commitment first and foremost, but as coaches Logan Johnson and Brian Kasper explain, the rewards are worth the investment. 

"It definitely takes a certain mind to compete in this sport," Head Coach Johnson says. "It definitely takes an athlete, not just someone who wants to participate. I kind of break the sport up into racers, competitors and participants. And at the very minimum we are looking for competitors if not racers."

Johnson and Freshman Coach Kasper are looking for athletes to help their program compete for a national championship against the likes of Division I varsity teams across the country. 

Even with needed recruitment, Johnson and Kasper have quickly built a high-caliber program. 

Johnson, a graduate of Marist College, oversees all the athletes for the men's crew team. 

During his college years he was recruited as a coxswain, which is the person that sites in the stern of the boat.  

After coaching the final two years at Marist, Johnson was later hired at the University as Head Coach in the winter of 2009 with only 12 athletes on staff. Now the program has grown to 30-40 athletes in the span of almost three years. 

Kasper, a graduate of Boston College, spoke of his squad's most recent success at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Cambridge, Mass. 

The freshmen placed 19 out of 39 boats to secure a bid for next year's regatta, which is the largest two-day regatta in the world. 

"It's a tremendous honor, and it gives an affirmation really to the work the guys have brought in over the summer, and over the fall," Kasper says. "The efforts that Logan and I have had in terms of building up the athlete level and performance level was definitely realized in that race."

The biggest accomplishment of the Johnson-Kasper tenure has undoubtedly been last spring's Dad Vail Regatta, which is held on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. 

A team dubbed the "Freshman Four" finished second out of 47 teams in the semifinal round and received a silver medal for its efforts. 

Johnson has formulated a winning plan for his squad and set the tone early in his tenure. He and Kasper have treated their athletes as Division 1 material, which provides a challenge but also opportunities for reward as seen in the recent past. 

"In 2009 I told [the athletes] I wasn't going to run this team as a club team," Johnson says. "I know nothing from club teams coming from varsity teams, and I nipped that in the bud since day one and told them the only thing different about this sport is the title itself."

As for the present, the team is working on its fitness and competitive nature by training every morning on the ergometer rowing machines at the Pavilion. 

The team's goal is to enhance its performance for the spring training camp held in Orlando, where the team will compete against Division I crews such as the University of Florida, Central Florida, Emory Riddle and Rollins College. 

Johnson reports that the team goal for this year's Dad Vail Regatta is a medal of some sort, whether in grand or petite level races. 

Kasper echoes the high expectations for his freshmen, especially in the novice eight races.