Camosun’s recently formed rowing club wasted no time getting to the podium when student athletes Graham Obee and Trish Mara medaled in the lightweight men’s single sculls and lightweight women’s single at the Western Canadian University Rowing Championship in Burnaby on October 23.
The wins come mere weeks into Camosun’s rowing club existence. Although a club has long been in development, previous attempts have failed to gain enough traction to succeed. The club’s recent tryouts saw 12 student athletes make the cut, a number that will hopefully increase for the spring season.
“There’s a tremendous pool of athletes at Camosun that we want to expose to rowing,” says Barney Williams, talent development coach of the Canadian Sports Centre Pacific. “Also, recognizing that many rowers from the junior rowing program in Victoria end up at Camosun, the thought was to provide them with a context and an environment to carry on in the sport.”
Williams says this is the first coordinated launch of the program that features investment from several groups, including the University of Victoria, the Victoria Rowing Club, and Rowing Canada.
“All of these people are really looking to support the growth of rowing in Canada,” he says, “then there’s increased support for new programs, and I think Camosun is really fitting the mould of a new program that we want to see happen.”
Camosun’s program will initially provide new athletes and more experienced athletes with separate training environments that cater to their abilities. Athletes new to rowing will participate in an initial orientation with the hope that they will eventually join the rest of the program’s athletes in 2012.
Williams says student athletes will have the opportunity to focus their attention to the sport at hand, thanks to the partnerships in place.
“For Camosun, the challenge, obviously, is resources,” he says, “and the advantage is we do have partners that are really excited to support the initiative, with the Victoria Rowing Club providing resources and equipment.”
Although still in the early phases, Camosun rowing coach Douglas White would like to see the program take the next step sooner rather than later.
“One of the objectives of the program is a two-year horizon, so we’d like to see a men’s eight and women’s eight at varsity level being able to compete on a two-year program to accommodate university transfer,” he says, “and to go to the San Diego crew classic and compete in the college event every second year.”