Welcome to my page about my life with Indiana Crew. Ive rowed for a year now and loved it from the start. The picture above is one of an IU womens boat docking down in Tennessee. I picked up rowing one day when a friend of mine kept bugging me to go out for the team. Finally, after listening to him over and over, I gave in. That turned out to be one of the best decisions I've ever made, with a few exceptions. My life on Crew has been memorable from the start and I'll tell you more as you scroll down this page.
Heres a little info first about the mens crew team at Indiana University. We are a club sport, not a varsity sport. Title 9 has stopped us from becoming a varsity sport. The womens team at IU is now a varsity sport, but was always a club sport before this year. I wish them the best of luck with their status as a varsity sport. Despite only being a club sport, we still compete against NCAA Division I varsity teams. We have raced against about 45 other schools from across the midwest and even race teams from as far south as Florida. If your from Indiana, you'll understand thats a long way. We compete at a competitive level against these teams. With the exception of Wisconsin, we are on the same level of competition as all other schools. (Thats Mark and Rob talking to the womens varsity boat before their race down in Tennessee pictured above)
All Me
This is a picture of me decked out in my novice jersey before a race at Culver. I started out on the team as one of the unexperienced novices since I had no clue what rowing was when I joined the team. I picked it up pretty quick and moved my way up on the team. After putting in numerous hours on an erg and out on the lake, I finally got the hang of things. I worked my ass off hour after hour trying to be the best I could, and eventually it paid off. At the start of the season, I was rowing in the novice boat at races. By the end of the year, because of the small number of guys on the team, I had worked myself into our varsity boat. I rowed with the varsity guys in Indianapolis at what you could call Big Tens, but since we're not a varsity program, its not Big Tens.
Teammates
My teammates were some of the coolest people Ive ever known. I got along with almost every one of them, with a few exceptions. The guys I rowed with were all incredible athletes that were willing to give all their time and energy to make our boat stronger. We all put in double practices just so we could have that extra advantage on our competition. Pictured above are a few of my teammates. On the left, Shane is getting pounced on by Lyndsay and Michelle just for taking a nap between races. On the right, Shane is up and out and rigging a boat before the races started for the day. These are just a few of the many, many awesome teammates I have. They all rock.
The Accident
At the end of the rowing season last year, we faced an unfortunate experience on the way to competition in Wisconsin. The driver of our van lost control and we flipped and rolled across the highway, throwing 5 of the 7 of us from the van. Several walked away ok, but a few of us were severly injured. I suffered a fractured vertebrae, which is currently putting my athletic career for any sport on hold for 6 months until I can heal. At that point, I'll be able to test out my back again and see what kind of limitations I have. All of us from the accident are survivors and are lucky to be alive. We've fought through the worst of times and are on the way up. We wont give up, no matter what the situation. Put me up against anyone or anything, I'll win. Just try me. I'll never give up, ever.
A bunch of randomn rowing pics. I think they're all from when we rowed at Culver.
