The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Friday, November 1, 2019 — 7
How do you build a Division I athlete? Just ask the novice rowing team
What makes a Division I
athlete?
Enthusiasm for improvement,
a mindset for work, physiology
— one thing is noticeably absent
from Dan Harrison’s list: any
skill in the sport.
This year, the majority of the 36
novice rowers on the Wolverines’
team have no experience with an
oar. While this isn’t unheard of
for collegiate rowing, Harrison,
Michigan’s
novice
rowing
coach, has led a
concerted
effort
over the past few
years to recruit
inexperienced
athletes
from
across the state.
Harrison
and
his coaching staff
travel throughout
Michigan,
going
to
high
school
tournaments and
practices in every sport, looking
for their next championship boat.
Getting the word out through
coaches and even the current
Michigan rowers, Harrison finds
driven high school high school
athletes and encourages them to
check out the team.
The theory behind the strategy
is that Michigan is looking at
a pool of untapped potential —
future DI rowers who’ve never
gotten the opportunity to get on
the water.
“I think the reason it’s such a
big walk-on opportunity is that
it’s not a sport you can just pick
up as a little kid,” said assistant
coach Liz Tuppen. “You can’t
just walk outside your house
and go play. It’s not offered in
all communities and so that’s
why it’s an opportunity later
at a place like Michigan where
athletics is so prominent and
well supported.”
The sport does come with a
hefty price tag. A competitive
boat alone can cost anywhere
from
$25,000
to
$50,000
— a cost most high school
athletic
programs
can’t
swing, particularly in lower
socioeconomic areas. There are
just 18 high school programs
across
the
state,
leading
Harrison to look elsewhere for
new talent.
Even if kids do have access to
a program, very few start rowing
before
their
freshman
year
because of how physically taxing
it can be. For those not starting
until college, it’s easy to make up
the ground.
“I think within the state, there
are a lot of athletes who have
that physiology and just haven’t
found their sport yet,” Harrison
said. “They might be playing
basketball,
but
just
have
too
much
slow-twitch.
They
might
be
running
cross
country,
but they’re six
feet tall. They
should probably
be rowers.”
Six-foot-
one
freshman
Olivia McMullen fit the bill
perfectly. A former three-sport
athlete, McMullen heard about
the opportunity from her high
school volleyball coach. She
knew she wasn’t going to get the
option to continue with either of
her first loves — volleyball and
basketball — collegiately, but
she didn’t want to give up hope
of being a Division-I athlete.
She already had the height and
athleticism, and after talking to
Harrison, she decided to give
rowing a try.
“I
love
that
you
have
individual
goals
and
you’re
trying to get faster individually,
but it’s so much of a team sport
too,” McMullen said. “It’s just
a cool sport and I just couldn’t
wait to try it out.”
But, it takes much more than
the right physique to do well on
Michigan’s team. As physically
demanding as rowing is, it may
be more a test of determination
than strength. Repeating the
same motion over and over,
perfectly in sync with the other
seven athletes in your boat,
takes willpower, teamwork and
a strong competitive drive — all
things McMullen learned from
her previous team experiences.
When she made the decision to
try collegiate rowing, McMullen
spent the rest of her senior year
building up her fitness using a
training plan Harrison gave her.
Counterintuitively, he advised
her against one thing: joining
her high school’s
rowing team.
“We want them
to be a part of their
(original) teams,”
Harrison said. “I
think a big part of
it is it’s important
to
be
part
of
your community,
be part of the
program
that
you
were
with.
To abruptly switch away from
your team, I don’t think is a
great practice and we preach
team here, so it would be
pretty hypocritical for us to
say, ‘We want you to abandon
the teammates you’ve had for
the last three years for this one
pursuit,’.”
Beyond that aspect, there’s an
argument to be made about form.
Harrison doesn’t want to his
future rowers developing poor
technique before coming to Ann
Arbor. Rowing is an extremely
technically refined, repetitive
sport
—
once
bad habits are
learned, they’re
hard to break.
When Harrison
meets his team
at the first day
of practice, he
wants
to
be
working with a
clean slate.
In fact, the
new
novices
don’t even touch an oar on the
first day. Instead, they do a two-
mile run and circuit workout.
While Harrison is looking to see
who stands out, he knows a team
isn’t built in a day.
“When it does get challenging,
that is when you see the true
character of someone,” Harrison
said. “When the fatigue builds
up, when we’re doing lots of
volume, it’s dark out, that’s when
you see the true character of the
rowers come out.”
Understandably, not all the
novices make it through. As
winter season gets into full
gear with demanding indoor
workouts, at least a few novices
each year decide rowing isn’t
for them. In Harrison’s mind,
one thing differentiates the ones
who stay from those who don’t:
an enthusiasm, almost love, for
hard work.
“There’s definitely a level of
motivation and adherence to the
idea of excellence (at Michigan),”
Harrison said. “When you want
to set that standard, they’re
really excited about it and it’s not
intimidating. Being a Michigan
student athlete is a big deal. The
expectation is high and you don’t
have to sell that. It’s just known.
So, when people join, they
understand what they’re getting
into.”
For those who stick it out,
the rewards are worth the
work. Last year’s top novice
eight came in first at the Big
Ten Championships and some
members of that boat are already
starting to make a name for
themselves on the varsity team.
Sophomore Elizabeth Schlyer
rowed in the second varsity eight
at the largest race of the season,
the Head of the Charles.
Harrison has seen many of
his former novice athletes climb
the ranks of the varsity team,
starting in one of the lower
boats and working their way
up to the top eights, becoming
team leaders and even reaching
All-American status. While this
may seem daunting to someone
joining the team, novices like
McMullen aren’t scared off by
the challenge.
“With
rowing,”
McMullen
said, “what you put in is what you
get into it is what you’ll get out.”
And McMullen is all in.
LANE KIZZIAH
Daily Sports Writer
ALEC COHEN/Daily
The Michigan rowing team recruits athletes who haven’t rowed for its novice team as a way of getting around socioeconomic barriers to entering the sport.
(Rowing is) not
a sport you can
just pick up as a
little kid.
With rowing,
what you put in
is what you get
out.
Michigan looking forward to season
On April 9 of last year, Jordan
Poole,
Ignas
Brazdeikis
and
Charles Matthews all decided
to forgo their remaining college
eligibility and declare for the NBA
Draft. From that moment on, the
Michigan
basketball
program
was launched into an offseason of
uncertainty and overhaul.
John Beilein jumped to the
professional ranks. Nine days
later, Fab Five member Juwan
Howard returned to Ann Arbor as
the Wolverines’ head coach. From
there, assistant coaches Luke
Yaklich and DeAndre Haynes
moved on, while Phil Martelli and
Howard Eisley moved in. On July
6, Franz Wagner committed to
Michigan — giving a needed boost
on the wing. And finally, just two
weeks ago, Howard landed his first
five-star recruit, 2020 forward
Isaiah Todd.
On Friday night, the Wolverines
will finally play a basketball game.
Granted, that game is an
exhibition against Saginaw Valley
State. But, with all that’s taken
place since its Sweet Sixteen loss to
Texas Tech last March, Michigan
is ready to tip-off.
“We’re really excited,” said
sophomore guard David DeJulius.
“There was a lot of talk around us,
having a new coaching staff but
we were just kinda mature about
it. We just stayed down, stayed
humble and worked hard.”
Even freshman guard Cole
Bajema, who stayed committed
to the program throughout the
coaching search, is itching to
get his first taste of gametime at
Crisler Center.
“I’m definitely a little nervous,”
Bajema said. “I feel like that’s
normal for a first-year player
though. Overall, I’m super excited.
I’ve been practicing since I got
here in June, so it’s been a while.
I’m ready to get out there.”
With the exception of a sparsely-
attended open scrimmage last
Thursday, the matchup against
the Cardinals will be the first time
fans get a glimpse of the new-
look Wolverines under Howard.
Without as many pure scorers as
a season ago, they should expect a
Michigan squad heavily dependent
on defensive intensity, especially in
the early going.
“Our identity is going to be
extremely competitive,” Howard
said. “We’re going to play hard-
nosed
basketball,
where
we
defend… Our defense has picked up
strong in practice but offensively,
we still have a lot of work to do and
some things to clean up.”
It will likely take some time
for the Wolverines to sort out the
offensive kinks with Howard’s
new system. Losing Wagner, who’s
been praised for his offensive skill-
set, to a broken hand before the
season even starts, doesn’t help
that cause.
How smoothly that offensive
transition goes though is not a
question that will be answered
tomorrow night. Michigan will
undoubtedly put up a lopsided
number against a team that
finished 6-14 last season in the
Great Lakes Valley Conference.
Still, Howard can at least glean
some details from his team’s
performance.
“We’re going to treat it as a
regular season game,” Howard
said. “I’m not looking at it as a game
that doesn’t count. We’re going to
compete like we’re playing against
the number-one ranked team in
college basketball.”
For a team loaded with new
faces and revised expectations,
any game is an opportunity to
prove themselves.
“Am I going to have some
butterflies? Of course I will,”
Howard said. “But I am going to be
pumped.”
York bringing stability after injury
Cam York wasn’t happy.
He sat in the press box, five
floors above the ice, watching his
team warm up below him to finish
the series against Lake Superior
State.
A week and a day earlier,
against Clarkson, the freshman
defenseman played 27 minutes
in his Michigan debut. But he
suffered an ankle injury in that
game, and he missed the next game
— and the two that followed.
So, on Oct. 19, York’s face said
it all as he sat with the rest of
Michigan’s
non-dressers.
He
wanted to be down with his team,
and
the
disappointment
was
evident.
In York’s two years at the U.S.
National
Team
Development
Program, he played in 122 games
and never missed more than two
games in a row. In the first month
of his career with the Wolverines,
York missed three games straight.
Michigan coach Mel Pearson
knew that York had never suffered
an injury of this type before — the
kind where your pain tolerance
and confidence dictate whether
you can or can’t play. Finding the
balance between healing and
pushing to get back in the lineup
is tricky for anyone, and it was
especially tricky for the 18-year-old
freshman dealing with it for the
first time.
“I think any time you have your
first injury of any sort and you’ve
never missed games before, you
just don’t know how to handle it
and the pain tolerance,” Pearson
said Wednesday. “Because I’m
having some soreness, should I
play, should I not play? Obviously,
he had a lot of people tell him a lot
of different things, but he’s the only
guy who can tell how he felt.”
Once York was cleared to get
back on the ice, it wasn’t a smooth
path to returning to the lineup,
either.
“It was a lengthy process,” York
said. “It was only two weeks, but it
felt like a year. … Mentally, it sucks
just because you want to be out
there with your brothers battling
and you’re stuck watching. That
was tough.”
The week leading into the Lake
Superior State series, York skated
once on his own and practiced
partially with the team before
deciding he wasn’t fully ready to
be back. It took another week for
him to test things again — this time
on the Wednesday before Western
Michigan came to town last Friday.
Two practices later and two full
weeks after the injury, York’s name
was called as one of Michigan’s
starters against the Broncos on
Oct. 25. By the end of the night,
York had picked up his first — and
second — collegiate points with
two assists and had a plus-3 rating
in the Wolverines’ 4-0 win.
“Great, excellent, just so smart,
so smooth and so easy,” Pearson
said after the game. “He got
through the game pretty good,
we’ll see how he feels, we’ll see if
he can go back to back, but it’s hard.
You haven’t played many games
and you have to come off an injury.
I thought he was a warrior and he
did a great job.”
The following night, when
Michigan went to Kalamazoo to
face Western Michigan on the
road, York remained in the starting
lineup. Pearson had been unsure
how he’d do in back-to-back games,
but as the game began, it was clear
that the concern for York wasn’t his
physical readiness to play.
The road crowd rattled the
freshman early, and it took him
most of the first period to settle
in. But by the time the Wolverines
were on the power play in the
second period, York was back to his
usual self and picked up his third
point of the year — a secondary
assist on senior forward Will
Lockwood’s power-play goal.
“They had some interesting
chants that were coming at me, but
it was fun,” York said. “Every time
you get to go into another Michigan
school’s barn, it’s always special.”
York still isn’t 100 percent, but
he got a full week of practice this
week in preparation for his second
road trip — this time to No. 13
Ohio State. The atmosphere at the
Schottenstein Center is unlikely
to replicate Lawson Ice Arena,
but starting a road swing with a
volatile crowd in Kalamazoo isn’t
a bad thing as it set a high bar
for what young players like York
should expect on the road.
As Michigan tries to get its first
road sweep since Jan. 2018 this
weekend, the stability York brings
will be key for the Wolverines.
“He just adds so much, just as
far as breakouts,” Pearson said
Wednesday. “He’s so smooth, he
makes a great first pass, so he’s
going to take a lot of pressure off of
us in our own zone and then on the
power play, he’s the quarterback.
“He is the quarterback of the
power play and he just settles
everything down. To have him
available is — can’t put a price on it.
It’s huge.”
CONNOR BRENNAN
Daily Sports Writer
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Michigan coach Juwan Howard will be on the sidelines for the first time Friday for the Wolverines’ exhibition game.
BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Freshman defenseman Cam York missed three games this month.