Carolina
Masters have been very fortunate to be coached by volunteers. Michael Nicholls
established the masters program and was the first coach. As we grew, we stumbled
upon coaches who were not affiliated with our program, but were willing to spend
time with us, improving our technique. The first of these coaches was Roger Frazier.
His daughter Deneen rowed with us. He came up from Florida to give a couple of
weekend "camps". On the first day of the first camp, he never let us progress
to bodies over. It became obvious that we needed a lot of work.
Alice Elliott became our second
coach. She is "veddy" British and instilled fear and concentration. When we heard
Alice's launch coming, we all sat up straighter and tried a little harder. Alice
spent an entire summer working with us and all she got in return was our total
devotion and a couple of beers.
Andy Goldman coached us next. Andy had coached at UNC, but masters rowing
is a whole 'nother thing. Andy's expertise seemed to be in conditioning. He worked
us hard for many months while he completed his dissertation. When he couldn't
come for a practice, he sent us a workout--and expected us to do it! We were also
very lucky that Andy would cox us. He is the only cox we have had who counts in
Turkish. Andy coached us to a first place at the Head of the Hooch. We look forward
to him "guest coaching" whenever he is in North Carolina.
Craig Drake coached us in preparation for the Southeast Regionals. His
wife, Amelia, is one of the masters rowers. Craig was preparing us for this summer's
races by getting our stroke rating into the good solid forties. He said it would
feel so much better when we brought it down to race pace. We believed him and
he was right. His sons rode with him in the launch. They were concerned about
our health.
Ann Crawford was our coach from the summer until the end of 2000. She rowed
as an undergraduate for UNC's Varsity Women where she was an exercise science
major. Ann was working three jobs while coaching us. She was very dedicated and
learned to deal with the special issues of coaching masters women. She was thrilled
at one practice to discover that one of the women in the boat was younger than
her. We were happy to have her drive our launch and improve our technique. She
has moved onto a coaching position at the University of Rhode Island. We expect
she will notice a difference coaching undergrads.
Bob Millikan prepared us for the 2001 Southeast Regionals. He was very
savvy about what women want and brought us a chocolate bunny and some homemade
cookies to enjoy after our practices. He especially helped us to refine our starts.
We believe he secretly wishes he could row with us regularly, despite his mocking
of our "delicate little oar handles". Bob is a prominant breast cancer researcher
and is not going anywhere soon, so we expect to turn to him for help in the future.
And despite his sometimes snide remarks, we know he loves us.
Maureen Bunger has come from the University of Wisconsin to whip us into
shape for serious competition. We are very grateful to have consistent coaching
for the first time in a while. We are trying to get used to working on our technique
at every practice. We have noticed that she is particularly good at connecting
new faces and names. She seems to appreciate our club's unusual approach to rowing.
We feel very lucky to have had these coaches spend so much time with us.
We have also had coaching by proxy--Kevin Sauer from Virginia has sent us several
of his fine rowers, Holly Metcalf and her team of coaches have taught a few of
us at her Row-As-One Camps and Jody Wilhelm and Jason Coffman also provided a
masters camp for us at our lake. Each of these coaches has taught us things that
we didn't know and has improved our rowing immeasurably.
