By Tom Rohrer
Within the Olympia Area Rowing club, there is always promise in the present and for the future.
Seemingly every summer, the club sends experienced and talented rowers (both male and female) to the USRowing Youth National Championships in June. This tradition continued for OAR, as the varsity duo of Matthew Moen and Kyle Darling qualified along with the varsity quad featuring Nick Taylor, Ryan Katz, Josh Cutlip and Evan Nemeth. The national championships will be held from Friday, June 13 through Sunday June 15 in Rancho Cordova, CA.
This is the second straight trip to nationals for the 16-year-old Moen while Darling, a senior at Olympia High School, will be rowing for the first time on the national stage. The pair earned a birth to nationals by placing second at the NW Junior District Championships in Vancouver last month with a time of 7:31. Darling and Moen were one of 27 OAR teams to qualify for a regional final race and among 19 medaling squads from the club.
A strong performance at regionals is nothing new for Moen. He competed with Stuart Doty a year ago to earn a nationals bid, an experience that topped by no other so far in his rowing career.
“It’s the biggest stage and you can just feel the intensity and the pressure when you’re there,” said the Olympia High School junior of his experience at last year’s event in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. “You want to get back to that atmosphere again It’s a huge driving factor.”
A trip to nationals not only benefits those competing at the event but all OAR rowers as well.
The efforts of Moen and Doty, along with last year’s national placing duo of Corban Nemeth (now rowing for the University of Washington) and Walker Capra-Smith, motivated Darling to increase his training in hopes of taking a shot at the nation’s best.
“You see how hard those guys work and it’s sort of a situation of how could you not be motivated to work harder,” said Darling, who began rowing with Moen this past summer. “They showed me what it takes to get to the next level.”
Now, Moen and Darling are the role models for the new crop of young and novice rowers. One of those individuals is Olympia High School freshman Madeline Cope, a coxswain and rower within the novice division. Cope was coxswain on an OAR novice 4+ group that finished first place at regionals. While Cope will have to wait at least another year for a chance to compete in the national regatta (novice groups are ineligible for nationals), she has earned valuable experience that should help going forward.
“I only started (in the summer of 2012) so I’m still new. But I’ve made huge strides already,” she said. “We have the opportunity to go to a lot of different events against all levels of competition and that has helped.”
Cope says the performance and work ethic from Moen and Darling resonates with the club’s younger members.
“We’ll be out on the water and they’ll go by and the boat just erupts with murmurs about how fast they are,” said Cope. “That’s where we all want to be and it’s helpful to see it laid out in front of you.”
Helping Cope in her development as both a coxswain and a rower is the familiarity she has with both roles.
“As a coxswain, I know what the rowers want to hear and what motivates them,” she said. “And it’s vice versa. You can cross that knowledge over.”
Armed with knowledge and experience, Moen and Darling have been able to step into leadership roles for head coach Richard Hull. Their ability to improve personally while still instructing others is a testament to their focus and perspective.
“As you get older, you realize how hard you need to work to be successful in rowing,” said Darling. “A lot of our training hinges on our time management and how effectively we can practice. I know that’s something I’ve really worked on.”
“Coach Hull allows us to focus on ourselves, but he makes it clear that we need to help the novices,” said Moen. “It’s a pay it forward type system. There were guys and girls that did the same for us, and it keeps going forward.”
Frequently number one of the smallest teams at events, OAR continues to compete at a national level and send their athletes off to continue their education and rowing careers. What allows a “small” club to do this? The athletes themselves have a variety of answers.
“I think it has a lot to do with the camaraderie of everyone,” said Cope. “I talk to everyone involved with the club. The coaches, the varsity and all the novices. You can get ideas or motivation from anyone and I think that openness is a big reason for our success.”
“We always say there is never really ideal conditions on the water around here,” said Darling. “When we go to these other events, it’s usually much calmer or at the worst just as bad as a normal day around here. We can push through conditions other teams may find challenging and then have an advantage when it’s nicer out.”
“Coach Hull is a guy that pushes you so hard, but he’ll be on the water right there next to you,” added Moen. “When your coach is that dedicated, it only makes you want to work harder.”
Hard work is a necessary trait of rowing, and it appears that it’s a characteristic OAR rowers will have for many years to come.
To learn more about the Olympia Area Rowing juniors team, click here.
