Jan. 24, 2007
With close to a month away from the beginning of the season, head rowing coach, Leeanne Crain shares some of her thoughts on the upcoming season and how practices are coming along.
Q. How have practices been going so far?
"Practices have been going pretty well. Everyone is pretty healthy. There are only a couple of injuries but nothing that is keeping athletes out of practice. There are only a few minor things.
"The team is anxious to race. I think this time of year is the toughest part of the training. The volume of training is high but the racing isn't until a month away. The athletes are working hard but aren't close enough to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but other than that I think that practices are going really well."
Q. How do you deal with all the new athletes who know very little about rowing when they first come to you?
"We have a separate squad, the novice squad, so any inexperienced rowers or any athletes that are coming in that don't have any rowing background are placed on the novice squad. It is kind of like a freshman team although there are some upperclassmen that are starting to learn. They spend a year at the novice level, as an introductory year, and they learn the fundamentals then if they return the next year they can be on the varsity squad."
Q. How do you keep so many girls focused during practices?
"We race and train in multiple boats. That in itself creates inter-squad competition. They are always challenging each other in a positive way and it keeps the focus there."
Q. Which team/teams are you most excited about competing against this season?
"We are racing the University of Virginia, April 7th. Virginia is looking like they are going to be ranked No. 1 or 2 in the country based on the pre-season poll. That will be a big race. We are also going to be traveling to the west coast and there we will face Pac-10 schools like UCLA, Stanford, California and Washington State. That will be a good test to go up against some of the top schools that are out of our region and pretty prominent schools nationally."
Q. What is the biggest challenge you will face during the season?
"I think a challenge for us is that we were in the top 20 last season, and that was the first time ever in program history, so now that is our expectation. It is going to be tough to repeat that. It is going to be something that is in reach but repeating that top ranking is going to be a challenge."
Q. What are some of your goals for the upcoming season?
"I think bringing in the top 20 ranking again is one. I would like to see us back at the season ending championship. I would like to see us in the top three in the South, I think if we can do that then there is a good chance that we could get an NCAA bid."