Rowing to win

A runner and soccer player growing up, Phil Simons thought his competitive athletics career would end after high school.

That is, until Simons found out about the UNC-Chapel Hill Crew Club and picked up a new sport.

“It’s the best decision I’ve made since coming to Carolina,” said the junior. “It was just the right fit. It was perfect.”

Sporting Carolina blue in an eight-man boat, Simons is among the 18 members of the club’s varsity team that pays their own way to represent the University on the water.

Carolina’s Crew Club is one of the University’s nearly 50 club teams that train and compete in intercollegiate competitions on a local, regional and national levels as part of the Sports Club Program. Established nearly five decades ago, the Crew Club competes against club and varsity teams from across the country.

“We’re a club that likes to compete and represent UNC as if we’re a varsity program,” Simons said. “We practice as much, we travel as much, and we dedicate as much time and energy, and our goal is to perform well. A lot of guys row for different reasons — friendship and camaraderie — but for the most part we’re here to win.”

Many team members grew up playing sports, but most had never actually rowed before arriving at Carolina. Coach Joe Holthaus and the rest of his staff are tasked with teaching the basics and quickly turning beginners into competitors.

To build a fundamental understanding of the sport, rowers begin their Carolina careers at the novice level — focusing on mechanics and principles. The best then move to the varsity level to compete nationally.

Even then, though, most of the rowers are still developing.

“Even when you get to the varsity side of things you’re still a novice in the grand scheme of things,” said Holthaus, who rowed for the team as a Carolina student. “There is still a lot of learning.”

A grueling practice schedule is critical in order to bring the rowers up to speed quickly. If they’re not in class, chances are the athletes are in the gym or on the water of Jordan or University lakes.

But that’s just part of the process. To be competitive in a short period of time, Holthaus said, the team needs to maximize its time on the water and go through the motions as much as possible

“We have six practices that are on the water and then they have on-your-own workouts,” the coach said. “They end up with eight or nine practices a week. The only time that they really have off is Sunday and Wednesday morning. Otherwise they’re pretty much on two-a-days for all the time. It’s about building a good cardio and strength base and also getting a lot of experience.”

That’s what separates the club team from a hobby.

“We do expect quite a few things from our athletes that go above and beyond a typical intramural team — they have to be really determined to do really well in the sport and they have to be really dedicated to the team,” said senior coxswain Phoebe Castelblanco. “While it is a challenge and it is difficult and we have our definite setbacks, we really see a lot of success. Our team definitely cultivates the scholar first, athlete second mentality even though we are competitive.”

The team trains year-round with competitive seasons running during both semesters.

In the fall, it competes in endurance-testing 5,000-meter races, traveling to Boston and Virginia for races. Then it’s on to the main spring racing season when the team faces some of the top teams in the country in 1,000-meter courses at regattas held throughout the east coast.

Between practices and traveling, the schedule can be a struggle to manage. But for the rowers, the chance to represent the Tar Heels is worth the challenge.

“It’s a pretty cool experience for somebody with very little experience in the past to be able to come in and compete at a high level in a sport you’re just picking up,” Holthaus said. “That’s a pretty unique experience for these guys to have, and also representing the school and being competitive. That’s something that not a lot of people are able to do.”