At 6 a.m., when most University students are sound asleep or perhaps just getting home from the library, the men's club rowing team is already at the Rivanna Reservoir for an early morning practice. The Virginia rowers do more before 9 a.m. than most college students do all day long.
The team, divided into novice rowers and varsity rowers, arrives at the boathouse bright and early to tackle whatever workouts coaches Will Oliver (varsity) and Bryce Fletcher (novice) have prepared. Team members are aware of the consequences of being late.
"You better be on time or prepare to have the whole team angry at you, because when one person is late, the entire team suffers in the terms of a harder workout," first year rower Mike Hankinson said. Practice starts with abdominal exercises or "jumpies" -- which begin with a deep knee squat and then jumping as high as possible into the air only to return immediately to the squat. This action is repeated over 200 times before the actual workout even starts. Then the team stretches before finally getting to the rowing. The crew workouts are designed daily to work in one of three areas -- endurance, power or speed. Two hours later the team is back on the bus headed to O-Hill to have breakfast before class.
The intensive workout is structured to prepare Virginia to face some of the most elite rowing teams in the country, namely Yale, Princeton and Harvard. While these programs are fully funded by their respected universities, Virginia crew operates on endowments, private donations, dues paid by the rowers and a small allocation from the University.
According to Oliver, money is a constant concern to the team.
"Hopefully in the future, we will be a little more consistent on allocating money from year to year," Oliver said. "Sometimes the donations come in and some times they don't."
While women's crew is a varsity sport at the University, because of Title IX, the men's team is not. Title IX is a federal law that prevents the preferential treatment of men's sports over women's. An equal amount of money must be allocated to both men's and women's athletic programs. With the University's football and basketball programs competing on a national stage, men's crew simply isn't in the budget. In addition, men's rowing is not recognized by the NCAA as a sport. Instead it operates under smaller regional organizations.
Despite this though, the crew team manages to land among the top 20 teams in the nation every year.
"U.Va. is typically a top-20 team," Fletcher said. "We are usually top one or two club team in the nation. It's us and Michigan that vie for the spot every year."
The program competes all across the nation in regattas from Massachusetts to Tennessee. In the fall, the races are longer "head races," where the boats are released one at a time and race against the clock. During the spring season, the races are head to head "sprint races." No matter the type of race, pain is the name of the game for rowers.
"Think of the pain as a black abyss that consumes your body," Hankinson said.
Between the intense physical trauma and the early mornings, it is no surprise that the rowing team boasts a high level of camaraderie.
"When you wake up at 5:15 every morning to go through two or three hours of intense physical and psychological pain only to do it again the next day, strong bonds are developed," Hankinson said. "These guys are my brothers."
Both the rowers and the coaches have high hopes for the future of Virginia rowing.
"We'd like to raise enough money to [hire] a part time trainer," Oliver said. "In the long distance, I'd like to see the team raise enough money to have some scholarships so we can encourage rowers around the country to come here."
Hankinson places the challenge of elevating the program on the shoulders of all of the rowers.
"One person cannot carry a crew," Hankinson said. "If we are going to become a dominant program, it will require the efforts of all rowers, novice and varsity."
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