At last, I could see the first boat racing across the Chattanooga Lake with four more boats drifting behind it. The crowds were no longer in their seats, but were standing on their toes cheering for their team. I could tell that losing was not an option for these rowers, as their strokes gradually began increasing in velocity. At this point it was a question of which team wanted to win more. The UGA novice team answered that question as soon as they ripped through the finish line with their last powerful stroke. I found myself on my feet and cheering for my winning team as they held their heads high and victoriously. I was not expecting to be feeling this involved and interested in a rowing race, until I actually experienced one.
Rowing, also called crew, is a unique sport here at the University of Georgia. It is rare to find the subject of rowing in every day conversations. In fact, it often hides behind the shadows of more well-known sports, such as football, baseball, and basketball. At first, I myself was not interested in rowing sports until my roommate invited me to attend a race. Thinking of the idea, I couldn’t imagine myself sitting and watching rowers move their boats a few inches in water every minute. Instead, I could be doing something more productive, like finishing my English paper. However, if I hadn’t gone to the race I wouldn’t have been able to realize the hard work and effort these crew members put into their sport. Although rowing is not one of the most popular sports around the globe, for some reason people still do this.
The crew doesn’t have an official place they call “Home” such as a football stadium for football. This is mostly because they travel to different races every weekend; however, they do use...
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...en rowing and school work. Rowing is a place to make friends and cooperatively work with them as a team. It is the passion of these rowers for their sport that cohesively unites teams that sets an example across UGA’s campus, and ultimately the Olympics through their actions in and out of the water.
Works Cited
Bender, Betsy. "UGA Rowing Interview." Personal interview. 19 Oct. 2013.
Halloran, Jessica. "Pain and Penury - the Rower's Life." Pain and Penury. The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 Aug. 2006. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.
Quinn, Matt S. "UGA Rowing Interview." Personal interview. 19 Oct. 2013.
"Rowing Equipment and History." Equipment and History. Official Website of the Olympic Movement, 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.
Strickland, Ashley. "Rowing Team Is Beached, but Continues to Row for Love of Sport." The Red and Black. The Red and Black, 30 Mar. 2010. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.
when selecting the rowers should have taken into consideration both the psychological (personality types and traits) and the physical aspects (strength, speed, stamina, & coordination) and experimented the results of various combinations by mixing these aspects. He should have identified the growing internal conflicts and tried to look into the matter in the initial stages. Coach P from the beginning has focused on ascertaining his belief whether the Varsity team he chose is highly competent or not. Quantitatively, the members were highly competent in their individual abilities. Coach P. had several opportunities to counter this during the Atlanta Retreat. However, he failed to take actions on their failure as a team and waited to resolve it only in the end, just three days before the national games. The Army Varsity Crew is a dysfunctional group. They’ve not yet reached the Norming phase where trust among the members has largely been achieved. The coach should have made sure the structure and composition of the teams were properly made long before the seat races have started. The lack of presence of strong motivator in the Varsity team should have been met to give them a
There can be no question that sport and athletes seem to be considered less than worthy subjects for writers of serious fiction, an odd fact considering how deeply ingrained in North American culture sport is, and how obviously and passionately North Americans care about it as participants and spectators. In this society of diverse peoples of greatly varying interests, tastes, and beliefs, no experience is as universal as playing or watching sports, and so it is simply perplexing how little adult fiction is written on the subject, not to mention how lightly regarded that little which is written seems to be. It should all be quite to the contrary; that our fascination and familiarity with sport makes it a most advantageous subject for the skilled writer of fiction is amply demonstrated by Mark Harris.
High school buddies and members of the swim team Walker, Nortie, Lion and Jeff accept the challenge to participate in Stotan week, a week of rigorous swim training that pushes them beyond physical pain and tests their moral fiber, changing their lives forever. In the novel Stotan by Chris Crutcher a team of teenagers and best friends brace themselves for what’s going to be the hardest week of their lives mentally, physically, and emotionally. A “Stotan” is a cross between a stoic and a Spartan. Through this time of hardship they learn about friendships, relationships, dealing with cancer, racism, and physical abuse. Each of the four best friends learn more and more about each other and help each other when they need help. They come together as a group, team, and family. Each of them have a tremendous conflict that can not be resolved with just one persons help. They all help each other repair the emotional scars if one of them were suffering. They all have one thing in common which was that they all want to be the best they can be and being so determined. In Stotan By Chris Crutcher four boys Walker, Jeff, Nortie, and Lion experience a time of emotional and physical turmoil with the only way to overcome these barriers is to come together as a team with determination in mind.
Douglas, Bob. (2000). Life is a Ball: 50 Years of Nova Scotia Sport. Halifax, NS: Links Publishing.
" Doris R. Corbett WaynePatterson." THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF SPORT. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.
In August of 1852, the prestigious Harvard University and Yale University competed in a boat race in New Hampshire, marking the first beginnings of intercollegiate athletic competition (“College Athletics Programs”). Only 44 years later, “the first women’s intercollegiate competitions were in basketball, and held in 1896 between the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford, and the University of Washington and Ellensburg Normal School” (Siegel). Many other sports followed this lead, including baseball, football, rugby, tennis, and much more. These sports are just a few of the ones that still reign supreme in athletic programs today. Athletics within universities continued to rise to the top and become increasingly popular in education. This exponential increase in college athletics admiration caused it to be “embedded in universities mission” (“College Athletics Programs”). Soon enough, the creation of an organization to help maintain athletics was necessary to a...
"Sports People: Horse Racing;drug Suspension for Jockey." New York Times October 12, 1995, Nytimes.com, May 25, 2012.
College sports were not always the greatly admired and successful attractions that they are today. They were first created in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by students who needed some physical activity to liven their plain and serious lives. During this time period, sports activities were solely intra-collegiate and the main competitions were between each grade level (Flowers, 2009). With the new class rivalries came a sense of community that students needed to direct their attention away from strictly educational activities. However, in the nineteenth century, the addition of new academic studies, electives, and professional courses began to break apart the singular class unity that sports created. Intra-collegiate sports transformed into intercollegiate sports after the Industrial Revolution and invention of the railroad allowed sports t...
Online Sports News, 2013. Web. The Web. The Web. 28 Nov 2013.
Sport quotes. (2013, April 30). Retrieved April 30, 2013, from UNT: University of North Texas website: http://sportpsych.unt.edu/resources/athletes/31
The start of the 2002 track season found me concerned with how I would perform. After a disastrous bout with mononucleosis ended my freshmen track season, the fear of failure weighed heavily on my mind. I set a goal for myself in order to maintain focus and to push myself like nothing else would. My goal for my sophomore track season was to become a state champion in the 100 meter hurdles. I worked hard everyday at practice and went the extra mile, like running every Sunday, to be just that much closer to reaching my goal. The thought of standing highest on the podium in the center of the field, surrounded by hundreds of spectators, overcame my thoughts of complaining every time we had a hard workout. When I closed my eyes, I pictured myself waiting in anticipation as other competitors names were called out, one by one, until finally, the booming voice announced over the loudspeaker, "...and in first place, your 2002 100 meter hurdle champion, from Hotchkiss, Connie Dawson." It was visions like these that drove me to work harder everyday.
"The Myth of the 'Student-Athlete'" Opinionator The Myth of the StudentAthlete Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
I dip my toes in—feels cold. My nerves rise up and spread like fire throughout my body while I watch—while I wait. Stomach hurts. All those butterflies clash and crowd. They come every time that I race—it never fails. There is so much noise—the splash of water, talking, yelling, whistling, cheering.
Thompson, Christie. "Life of an athlete: balancing sports and academics." Stetson Reporter. N.p., 18 Sept. 2013. Web. 5 Dec. 2013.
A very controversial issue in college athletics today is whether student athlete's academic goals or athletic events should be placed in higher importance. In our society today, many people people tend to think of highly renowned college athletes as athletes that dedicate all their time to the sport that they play. What many people tend to forget is that these college athletes have as large a responsibility in the classroom as they do playing football, basketball, baseball, volleyball, track and field, or whatever sport it is that they play. These student athletes are required to practice for many hours each week in addition to having to complete hours of homework and research papers that they may have. Some people may think that being a collegiate athlete would be a fun and easy task but however, they are wrong. Regular college students receive enough homework and papers to do. Imagine having to complete all of the homework that all non- student athletes have to complete in addition to the time consuming dedication to a sports team. This is the stressful and challenging life of a collegiate student athlete.