If you are thinking about rowing at Denison here is some info about our team.
We are a club program and one of the larger clubs at Denison. This spring we have 26 rowers on the team. We travel all over the Eastern half of the country for competition and training. We practice more than most club sports and we have a budget that is greater than some varsity sports. This year we competed in Ohio, Tennessee, West Virgina, and Massachusettes (Head of the Charles)
We recruit heavily in the fall and highly encourage you to try rowing in the fall. The fall season has a more relaxed pace and there is more time for on the water instruction and building endurance. At the end of the season we travel to Chattanooga Tennessee for one of the largest regattas in the country, The Head of the Chattahoochee.
In addition to practicing we hold fundraisers to keep your dues down, and to cover additional costs for Head of the Charles, Spring Break, coaches salary, new equipment, repairing old equipment, and other fees.
We will have a boat on campus and we will have some social gatherings planned to meet the team and exec board. Practices for returning rowers and any new rowers with experience begin the first week.
We will hold a few mass meetings where you can get more info and ask questions.
Keep checking the Crew Calendar for updates on these meeting times.
In the fall we practice and compete until early November. We don't have organized team practices until January but you are encouraged to workout on your own. Once Class begins in January, we start back with some really tough workouts on the rowing machines until Spring Break where we travel south for a week of eating sleeping and rowing! After that we race almost every weekend until Finals and in 2008 our goal is to attend the Club Championship regatta in Philadelphia the weekend after finals. If a boat does well enough there they could be invited to compete at the National Championships (IRA's) in New Jersey the First Weekend in June.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Do I have to know how to row to join?
No. Of the 26 people on the team only 5 had ever rowed before coming to Denison.
2. When do you practice?
Currently practices are Mon PM, Wed AM, Thurs. PM, Fri AM and Saturday AM or we have a regatta. This is voted on by the students and allows for the best practice environment, gives students time for extra meetings/study groups and other activities.
3. Are there dues?
Yes, While we do get support from the university, a program of our size requires much more than that to operate. Typical dues for a Club program range from $500 a season to $1000 a season. Our dues are much lower, but are more than any other club sport at Denison. We organize fund raisers to keep your dues down.
4. My parents and I are worried about having enough time to study. Will this interfere?
My response to this is that good grades come from good study habits. The pace is slower in the fall so that freshman can to adapt to college life in the first semester without consuming a lot of their time. But ultimately good grades come from good study habits, and this requires that student-athletes manage their time wisely. In fact, competing in a sport can actually lend to better study habits, as it provides some structure to the day. Being a student-athlete is definitely challenging in ways that it isn't in high school. It may require some sacrifice of TV time or just "hanging out doing nothing in particular." Welcome to the real world. By nature, people are more productive when they stay busy than when they have extra time. You should devote 40 hours a week to class and studying. If you sleep for 70 hours a week, eat for 21 hours a week and spend 20 hours a week for crew(includes travel time), you still have 17 hours a week to do anything you want.
