University of Minnesota Athletics
Spring Season Preview with Coach Davis
2/4/2016 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
The University of Minnesota's rowing team kicks off their spring season this weekend with a scrimmage in San Diego. With the Maroon and Gold returning to the water, GopherSports sat down with Coach Wendy Davis to talk about winter training, expectations for the spring season and more.
What did the team do for winter training?
"When we went out to San Diego, we rowed twice a day. The good thing about that trip is they're not in class, just like spring break, but unlike spring break we are not getting ready for competition. There is no competition stress on them. The amount of improvements we make technically is always so dramatic. This year was similar to all the other years, we were able to do more work because they were ready to do more work."
Was there any rower in particular that improved drastically over the trip?
"Allison Sterneman sticks out. She's just figuring it out more and more. She got kind of lost with the technique last year. She's tall, she's 6-3, so I think it took her longer to figure out what the movements meant. But once the light bulb clicked on for her, she is improving more and more each day. Also the novices traveled with us on this trip and they made these huge improvements. They did a lot of work and it's really fun to see everyone out there improving."
What did your team get out of fall season?
"We went to a new boat manufacturer so it's taking a little bit of time to get used to this new style of boat. We spent a lot of the fall experimenting with the rigging and which oars to use with it. As always when you have young walk-on rowers it's all about taking strokes. I don't think anyone can claim any sort of breakthrough during the fall. Sometimes, you see teams that go to the Head of the Charles and perform very well, yet they don't do as well in the spring or vice-versa. It's really hard to get anything out of the fall season as far as where you rank across the country."
What are your expectations going into the spring?
"We want to be nationally competitive and a lot of that is determined by how early we can get on the water. Now that we have the contract with Medicine Lakes so that we can go over there when the river is flooding, we have much better long term expectations. I think at Big Tens our novice team is going to be very competitive, I think our fours are going to be competitive, as will the second varsity eight because we have 10 or 11 who could make the top boat. We have a very committed group and to the degree that we can have normal injuries and normal illness that everyone deals with, I am optimistic that we can do quite well."
Is there any meet the team is most looking forward to this season?
"I think it's going to be fun that Wisconsin is putting on a double dual format at Devil's Lake in late April. It's a chance for us to not have to get on a plane to get a race in. We are also going out to Cherry Hill, New Jersey the first weekend in April to race some of the northern schools on the east coast. Those are two that you look at and say, 'this is going to give us a chance to see how we stack up. We have a home event this year too. Wisconsin comes here in May."
What does a home event mean to this team?
"Wisconsin and us are in similar positions in that because you race on lakes, you can't schedule anything earlier than the third week in April realistically. That limits who we can bring in realistically because people don't want to race tough competition that late in the season. The fact that Wisconsin and us are willing to go head-to-head that close to the championships is a neat thing for both programs. They are an incredibly established program so for them to come to our place every other year and let us bang heads with them is always really fun. That's a relatively new thing that we've done and there is a trophy between us so it's a nice competitive event for us."
Is there any rower that you think is going to have a breakthrough season?
"Joyce Jollands was stroking the first varsity four as a freshman and this past fall she stroked the first varsity eight. That's a big jump in one year. She has an easy rhythm that is nice for everyone to follow so we are hoping that she has a breakout year. Kourtney Luedloff was a novice last year and she made her way into the first varsity eight this fall and that is pretty remarkable. She's another one that as I watch her, she is getting better and better and figuring it out more and more."
Tell us about your first meet in San Diego.
"It's a nice tradition we've had the past five years. Normally we have a joint practice on the Friday and we do a scrimmage of some type on Saturday. Some years we do three times five minutes. Some years we do a straight-on 2k which is a little hard because they don't have the course laid out so that makes it difficult to know who's actually winning if it's a close race. It is nice to do multiple pieces in your scrimmage because that gives you a chance to switch people from your boats. San Diego is a good school, they just started their practices on the water in February but they have plentiful water time so it's always fun to watch that scrimmage. We tend to pull harder but they always row better. By the middle of April, it all evens out, but this early in the spring it is very obvious which team is from what part of the country"
How do you avoid fatigue in a four-month long season?
"The biggest challenge is that the Big Ten Championships ar during our final exams. There's three Big Ten schools that are in exams during the championship. So that's an added stress that we need to make sure we are ready for. We tell the athletes that they have to stay on top of their academics and take care of themselves. And like all coaches in all sports, we hope and pray they do the right thing when they are away from the boathouse."
Players Mentioned
