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

[B9j2j6s]

Looking at it on my desktop it is listed.  Oh technology 🤪

[kikuria]

On 4/1/2024 at 2:59 PM, B9j2j6s said:

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.

Not precisely.  I went down a rabbit hole years ago and spent way too much time researching this (my wife will never forgive me.) 

The program was always technically a "club" but that meant something different when it was founded in 1984. Club Sports then were generally sports the University would track towards varsity-status. Direct support from the Athletic Department ended in 1991 though the team maintained informal support.  It's unclear why the school never formalized varsity-status.

 

Based on some of the documents I tracked down, it appears that the University made the decision in roughly 1990/1991 to begin elevating athletics in terms of divisions.  The school moved to Division 2 in 1995 before the subsequent move to Division 1.

 

It's important to understand that there wasn't a profound distinction in rowing in the 1980's and early 1990's.  No one was well funded so clubs could make a run at it. The biggest distinction was whether or not you had a paid coach. Which was a consequence of 100 years worth of alumni to draw from.

 

The program moved into the student government oversight  era during the 1991/1992 school year and it appears to have been a scramble to survive.  There was a solid group of seniors that made it work.  But 20 years old's don't plan the way a Department does (longer term.)  The teams had ups and downs typical of club programs. Ups coincided with having a coach of reasonable caliber.  Downs tended to occur when it was heavily "student run" (student run clubs can't hold a candle to ones with professional leadership - no matter how hard one tries.) 

 

There was always an occasional crew that would do well but very little programmatic stability and success.  It would be like Track and Field having the occasional athlete in a particular event do well rather than the success it has had across many events with a wide range of athletes over a long period (not a perfect analogy.)

[B9j2j6s]

Kikura, Thanks for the history lesson. 

Athletic Support ending in 91 would explain why most of the (8's) boats I rowed in (02-05) seemed like they were late 80's, early 90's boats (Thomas Whalen, Karen Hitchcock, I know I am missing one or two more) even the 4's were around that vintage Dirigio (name of the company not sure it every got a boat name) not sure how old the Kasper was (the all wooden boat). 

Thanks for the clarification.  Hope to catch there first race this fall.