Over the summer, you may have noticed us tweeting about the HC rowers who made the wise decision to row over the summer at various club programs. At their respective programs, they were able to row with and learn from a wide variety of athletes and coaches, and all of them seemed to have a great time doing so! We took a couple minutes to catch up with HC's summer rowers and ask some questions about their summer experiences. The interview, with TJ Zaleski '12, Peter Prominski '13, Steve Raiola '12 and Pete Dwyer '12, is below.
In the coming weeks, as we get excited for the athletes' return to Mount St. James to embark upon a successful 2011-2012 season, Friends of HC Men's Rowing hopes to have the following interviews published: Jordan Traub '14 on his Henley trip, Mike Walker '13 on his captainship, and Al Monte '07 on his promotion to head coach for Bucknell Men's Crew. Keep checking back for those interviews!
Interviewer: Adam Furlong '09
Athletes: TJ Zaleski '12, Peter Prominski '13, Steve Raiola '12, Pete Dwyer '12
Adam: How did you end up at the program you ended up at? What made you decide to row this summer?
TJ: I started looking into summer rowing programs when my old captain, Adam Furlong, recommended that I apply to Penn AC. A few days later I received a call from a former teammate's dad who is a racing marshal and a respected man amongst the Philly Boathouse Row community. Between the two of them, I felt I had a very good chance to get into Penn AC-- a program I have a tremendous amount of respect for and have always wanted to join. Simply put, I rowed this summer because I wanted to get faster. Not being able to find a job made rowing that much more feasible.
Dwyer: My good friend and teammate Stephen Raiola ('12) recommended that I apply to the New York AC (NYAC) after his positive experience there as a member last summer. I was recovering from a few injuries sustained during the year and was trying to stay in shape while building up strength in my knee and back. I was also looking for a club that was competitive, but not so big that I would get lost in the crowd. I found those qualities in NYAC. Even though we only had a total of 10 or 12 heavyweight rowers, we maintained a very competitive squad, and that atmosphere was something I was also looking for in summer rowing. I was also only able to row for a limited time this summer and NYAC was very willing to accommodate me.
Steve: I had initially planned on rowing at NYAC, but I got a job in DC for the summer and the NYAC coach encouraged me to inquire in to the Potomac Boat Club (PBC). I e-mailed PBC's captain and they took me on for the summer. I decided to row this summer because I want to make one of the top two boats this year and I need to do a lot of work to improve enough to make those boats. To get in those boats, I am going to have to be much faster than I was last year and beat people who have beat me in seat races, so I knew I needed to get on the water over the summer to achieve my goals for the 2011-2012 year.
Prominski: I ended up with Old Dominion Boat Club (ODBC) because a local rowing family wanted to start an intermediate program in DC. Old Washington powerhouses like Potomac Boat Club were not offering competitive intermediate programs this summer. The ODBC Coach's son rows at UPenn and asked him to get some friends together to get a 4 and possibly an 8 together for the summer. The boat that he assembled consisted of all EARC rowers (Penn, Syracuse, HC, Yale, Wisco) and two soon to be EARC rowers going to Cornell. We had all competed against each other on the high school level and now the college level. Now we had the opportunity to compete together. I decided to row this summer because I wanted more opportunities to practice racing as well as stay in shape without having to sit on the erg every single day.
Adam: Tell me a little bit about some of the guys that were your teammates and your coaches.
Prominski: Our coach this summer was Andy Bacas, a local DC guy, who rowed and briefly coached lightweight for Yale in the late 70's and early 80's. He is retired and currently coaches at Yorktown High School in Arlington, VA. Yorktown is always a competitive program, and the majority of their men's rowers go on to row for EARC programs in college. As far as my teammates go, I mentioned above where they went to school (UPenn, Syracuse, Yale, Wisco, Cornell). But, I would also like to say that it was pretty neat to row with kids who were always my rivals in high school and remain my competition in college.
Dwyer: I rowed with a pretty big range of guys, a lot of graduates and guys working on Wall Street who had come from the Eastern Sprints teams, like BU, Yale, and Columbia while some of the younger guys came from Drexel, Cal-Berkeley, Syracuse, and Fordham. The coaching staff was made up of David Lai from Army Rowing and more importantly Kevin Murphy, the full time men's coach for NYAC.
TJ: The guys I rowed with were pretty cool. They really weren't much different from the guys here at Holy Cross. The guys above me worked harder. The ones below me did not. All of them were committed and enthusiastic about practicing and getting faster. My 2 coaches had a lot on their plate coaching 30+ rowers and sharing boats and oars with other programs at Penn AC, but they were as helpful as they could be. All in all my coaches were students of the stroke as we watched hours of film.
Steve: PBC is coached by Marco Bovo, a former Italian national team member. He also coached at BU for a number of years before becoming the PBC head coach. The team was very diverse, there were a number of college rowers like myself including a member of the GW V8, the Yale V8, and Georgetown 2V. There were a bunch of GW rowers who had graduated in the past 5 years. The team though also included masters rowers in their 30's or 40's. About 40 total rowers.
TJ: Since we're all name-dropping, I rowed with oarsmen from Cal, Georgetown, BU, Northeastern, UVA, Villanova, Trinity, Delaware, Holy Cross, former and future Olympians, Santa Clara, Franklin and Marshall, Mercyhurst, Penn State and Yale. My coaches were Khaled Sanad from Colgate, Dameon Engblom from Oakland Strokes, and Nick Zinter from Holy Cross.
Adam: List the boats that you raced in in the various summer races.
TJ: At Independence Day Regatta (IDR), I raced in an Intermediate 2x, Intermediate 4+, and Intermediate 8. At US Rowing Club Nationals, I raced an Intermediate 2x and Intermediate 8. At Canadian Henley, I raced in an Under-23 8, and a Senior 8. I was in the 3rd 8 for most of the season, but moved up to the 2nd for Canadian Henley.
Dwyer: At IDR, I rowed and stroked one of the club’s Intermediate 4+'s, and made it to the semi-finals, but stroke is probably not my calling. Club Nationals, I raced in the Intermediate 4+, Senior 4+, and Senior 8. We placed 4th in the 8, 5th in the Sr. 4+, and missed the GF of the Intermediate 4+ by about 4 seconds.
Steve: Intermediate 4+ and 8 at Navy Day Regatta. Intermediate Lightweight 4+ at IDR. AA 8 at Capital Sprints, AA8 and AA4 at Diamond States Masters Regatta, and AA4 at Quaker City Regatta. (Editors Note: AA is a masters' racing level category)
Prominski: I competed in both the Intermediate 4+ and Intermediate 8 this summer and we competed in both the Independence Day Regatta in Philly and Club Nationals in Indianapolis. Our 4+ was definitely the most competitive boat because, due to everyone’s work schedules, we were unable to practice in the 8 as often. Despite having a rough start at IDR and having minimal amount of practice in the 8, we were still able to make the grand final at Club Nationals in the Intermediate 8, placing 5th. In the 4+, we made it to semi-finals at IDR and made the Grand Final at Club Nationals, also placing 5th. Obviously, I would have liked to have medaled in these races, especially because our Junior 4+ and 8 received watches and medals, but I am pleased that we were able to do so well with assembling intermediate boats at the last minute with hardly any seat racing and zero erg testing. What helped us was that we were all hard workers and pulled hard every stroke.
Adam: What did you take away from the fastest guys at your respective clubs this summer?
Dwyer: I think what I was able to take away from the faster guys was that you have to row with a little bit of pride and swagger and just to hold yourself and your teammates to a higher standard.
TJ: I took away a greater understanding of the requirements for success in the world of rowing. There is really no substitute for hard work. You can eat right and prepare right, but all of that is overshadowed by hard work.
Prominski: That you always have a little more in the tank, especially at the end of the race. you just need to drain the tank.
Steve: The fastest guy on my team - a lightweight rower in the Yale Lightweight Freshman 8 that won EARC Sprints told me about how his junior year in high school he joined the heavyweight team and made the V8 as a lightweight. I guess I took away from that discussion that my goal of making a top boat at HC is attainable regardless of size. That where I end up is a reflection of my effort and dedication and there is no other excuse for not being where I want to be. My friends at NYAC, including two Under-23 members, helped me devise a training plan while some older scullers at NYAC taught me how to scull proficiency. (Before PBC, I received full membership to NYAC and trained both with the team and some masters scullers who rowed with my father at NYAC). I guess I took away a training plan to get me in shape, some technique, and just living examples that proved to me the attainability of my goals despite my size, and that has helped keep me motivated this summer.
Adam: What was the highlight of your summer, on or off the water? After all, summer rowing is supposed to be a lot of fun.
Dwyer: I'd have to say that Club Nationals was the highlight; going back to what I said earlier, we had a pretty small HWT squad and had entries in almost every 4+, 8+, 2x, and 4x event possible. So a lot of us were at least in 3 events, sometimes 4. We made it to the semi-finals at least in every event we entered. Being in the medal hunt in the Senior 8 was the peak for our team since we ended up finishing 2nd in the points standings and the HWT squad hadn't had that good of a showing since 2006. For me, that was something special to be a part of.
Steve: I guess this summer it was rowing on the Potomac at 5:30 and the sun coming up over the Washington Monument in the middle of a steady state with a perfectly set boat. That daily occurrence reminded me how beautiful a sport rowing is, why I love it, and why I strive for perfection in it. Todd has told us a million times that athletes search for the sweet spot in time and I found that sweet spot on mornings like that. I'd also add IDR as my favorite race of the summer. I got to see TJ and Dwyer in Philly, the race was fun, and the 4th of July festivities were very memorable.
TJ: The two weeks leading up to Canadian Henley. I lost my seat race into the 2nd boat and got chewed out by my coach after the practice. The next 3 days, I stroked the 3rd boat that did not lose a single piece or a steady state to the 2nd boat. After the 3rd day, the 2nd boat requested that I be switched into their boat. It was a week of great personal validation for a boy who rowed out of a small-time public high school and an up and coming college crew.
Prominski: I think the highlight of my summer on the rowing front was a day that we took the four out on the Potomac by ourselves with no coaches, and just rowed until we got it. I feel like there are some other highlights in there but they probably can’t be published.
Adam: What are you going to do differently this year at school as a result of something you took away from summer rowing?
Prominski: I don't know that I will do anything different necessarily. I definitely have a new mindset in how I approach races and pieces.
Dwyer: I will be adding and organizing additional erg workouts and boatings to just feed our team's competitive drive for this year, the thing I feel we need the most to achieve our goals.
Steve: I'm going to show up in September ready to kill the 6k - excited for it instead of being scared. I'm going to have more pride and confidence on the water. And I'm going to put in an extra 3-4 workouts a week because I know that is what it will take to be fast.
TJ: I sort of feel like the crew team here was just handed the title "The Hardest Working Team on Campus." We definitely have not earned this title the past couple years, so I want to make sure we get that back. All of our goals - speed, a winning culture, medals, cups - will come with that.
Adam: Final question: from top to bottom, what was the fastest racing program you encountered this summer?
Dwyer: Probably Penn AC, due to their immense team and the amount of talent they get to take up oars for the club.
Prominski: I guess Penn AC was the fastest because they cleaned up at Club Nationals.
TJ: You would be doing yourself an injustice if you said anything but your own team. Pennsylvania Athletic Club Rowing Association.
Steve: Penn AC heavies.
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