Women’s Rowing- UAlbany’s Official 19th sport

[B9j2j6s]

Dam they nailed the perfect coach to start the program.  Hope they got the old boat house and aren't rowing out of ARC.

[B9j2j6s]

https://ualbanysports.com/news/2023/12/13/womens-rowing-chris-chase-hired-as-first-womens-rowing-coach.aspx

[olddog71]

The sport has been added already to the UAlbany Athletics website. Impressive!

[kikuria]

On 12/14/2023 at 9:31 AM, dslyank said:

Kikuria any thoughts/opinion on new coach? His BIO looks very impressive. Of course, I respect your privacy if you do not wish to respond or have no opinion.

Family obligations have kept me offline and I come back to lots of new stuff.  My two cents - Chris Chase is a good fit.  The challenges with "starting up" aren't the same as coming into a fully established program where you're maximizing what you already have and look to extend it. He's got deep relationships in the rowing community and should be able to leverage that into a recruiting advantage.

I'm sure there will be growing pains. As long as he has enough resources (doesn't need to be the most, but does need to be enough) and is given the time to build, UAlbany has some real advantages that have been overlooked for decades. I always believed if you built it, people would come. I say that from a place of optimism while trying to be brutally objective.

[alum73]

Shouldn't this thread be moved to a season?

[Clickclack]

11 hours ago, alum73 said:

Shouldn't this thread be moved to a season?

Danepound last visited this site October 8th. Not sure if accurate but perhaps life has taken him elsewhere with other interests. 

We should at some point as a community discuss what to do and where to go if this board goes by the way of the dodo bird. 

 

 

[cwdickens]

8 hours ago, Clickclack said:

Danepound last visited this site October 8th. Not sure if accurate but perhaps life has taken him elsewhere with other interests. 

We should at some point as a community discuss what to do and where to go if this board goes by the way of the dodo bird. 

 

 

I do not know if he has season tickets for basketball.

[dslyank]

15 hours ago, Clickclack said:

Danepound last visited this site October 8th. Not sure if accurate but perhaps life has taken him elsewhere with other interests. 

We should at some point as a community discuss what to do and where to go if this board goes by the way of the dodo bird. 

 

 

Several have volunteered to step forward to run the board; but for some reason DP has not accepted any of these offers. I'm NOT sure why?

Perhaps we should have a hostile take over🤨?

[Clickclack]

My concern isn't to hostile take over anything but we should discuss what to do in the event thing shere go tits up. 

[dslyank]

17 hours ago, Clickclack said:

My concern isn't to hostile take over anything but we should discuss what to do in the event thing shere go tits up. 

I was only joking about hostile [note the smily face]; but absolutely share your sentiment that if DP cannot or is unwilling to turn over the administration and costs of this blog, we need to be prepared as you say if tits up.

[alum73]

I don't see this sport listed on the Athlettic website. Does anyone have any news on this sport?

[B9j2j6s]

Yes it is listed if you go to the website and put the cursor over the sports label, look on right side below lacrosse.  Coach has sent out two emails to past rowing alumni (d3 and club eras).  Not sure how much the coach wants to be made public in those emails so my comments will be vague.  But things are going in a positivedirection.  From what I can tell they are building this program the correct way.    

[cwdickens]

I know the UAlbany coach reached out to an area rowing coach and former women member of the Albany Rowing Club.  She was not impressed, and she decided that sticking with her current position was her best career option.

Edited April 1 by cwdickens

[B9j2j6s]

Hope it works out for both.  I can only go off what was being communicated in the emails.  It seemed positive to me because of the equipment that the AD were buying for the team.   As a club member we were using weights made of paint cans and metal pipes, our rowing machines were ancient concept 2 model b's and my freshman year boat that I learned on was made of wood.  Think the type you see at a TGI Friday's hanging on the walls.  

The rowing team in the club Era had many many ups and downs.  So not surprised some UA alumni would be hesitant to help with the start of the D1 Era.  Sorry if this sounds like a Taylor Swift tour. 

For those unaware the D3 Era ended appox 1994.  Here is what the team looked like back then.

https://www.row2k.com/video/-quot-Albany-39-s-Rowing-Revival-quot--original-airdate-July-1988-on-WMHT-Channel-17-Albany-NY/29306/

Then the club Era was after we got dropped from the AD.  We got our funding from the Student Association and dues that the rowers would pay. During this time the team was student run with a coach being hired but all the choices were made by the eboard which was made up of members of the rowing team.  Recruiting was only on campus and we often had large Novic or beginning rower teams.  The major problem was students would lose interest when after the first year with a 430pm practice time they would have to switch to the Varsity team which had 530am practices.  This made it hard to grow the team, coaches often wouldn't stay for more than a year, and we didn't have the money to upgrade equipment.  

There was also a time when SA dropped the club and they were competing under the Friends of Albany Crew.  Not sure what happened during this time period (appox late 2010's to Covid) or what ultimately sank the Friends of Albany Crew, but that is the very short history of the Rowing Team at UA. 

I am sure I am leaving a lot of historical details out.  If anyone knows anything more please feel free to add.  I know I said this before, glad to see UA back on the water.  Hope we are back to stay.  Rowing and Pep Band were the two activities that made a large University seem smaller and made it feel like home for 4 years.

Edited April 1 by B9j2j6s

[alum73]

3 hours ago, B9j2j6s said:

Yes it is listed if you go to the website and put the cursor over the sports label, look on right side below lacrosse.  Coach has sent out two emails to past rowing alumni (d3 and club eras).  Not sure how much the coach wants to be made public in those emails so my comments will be vague.  But things are going in a positivedirection.  From what I can tell they are building this program the correct way.    

I'm on my phone. On the page the dropdown has 'All Teams'. It doesn't have rowing or crew.