Yes. There's no experience necessary to join. We will teach you everything you need to know.

 

Yes. We have a separate practice time for brand new rowers. That way you can learn the basics without having to worry about keeping up with the more experienced rowers on the team. Typically we'll have about 20-30 new novice rowers each year.

 

Yes. At all of our competitions there is a category for novice rowers. Anyone in their first year of rowing will race against other first year rowers. It means you're on a level playing field and can be successful even when you're learning.

 

Yes. Rowing is one of the few sports where starting in college is normal. It's why every college rowing team has a novice squad. Around half of the Loyola team started as novice walk-on athletes. 

 

Yes. Half of the members of the USA women's boat that won gold at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics had never touched an oar until they got to college.

 

Rowing is a varsity sport at Loyola. You'll get all the perks of being a varsity athlete including priority registration for class, free tutoring, access to the varsity weight room, a locker room, etc.

 

We have a boathouse downtown. It's just south of Federal Hill on a stretch of water known as the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River. The boathouse is about 7 miles south of campus. 

 

There is a team bus. You won't need to worry about transportation. 

 

The time commitment will be pretty similar to playing a varsity sport in high school. When we're in season we'll practice 6-days per week, typically for about 2 hours at a time.

 

Our bus picks up at 3:00 pm. You'll be back on campus in time for 6 pm classes. On Saturday mornings we typically practice from about 9 am until noon.

 

Yes. All rowers will have access to free tutoring for all of their classes. Freshmen athletes will meet weekly with our academic advisor to discuss classes and identify potential problem areas in advance. There is also a study hall for athletes and a writing center.

 

The rowing season aligns pretty well with the academic calendar. We have a fall and a spring racing season. You won't ever need to arrive early in the summer. Our first practice is typically the first Friday of school. The novices will often start the second week of school. The fall season is mostly spent learning the basics. We'll start slow and cover the fundamentals. By the end of the fall we'll ramp things up and start preparing you to race. The novices typically race at least once by the end of the fall season. The fall season wraps up a week before Thanksgiving break. Your winter break won't be impacted. The spring is our main championship season. We'll start racing in March and race most weekends until the start of May. Our championships take place a couple days after finals end. You'll have a couple days of rowing after classes end, but the dorms and dining halls will stay open for you (and the seniors waiting to graduate).


My class schedule is already set and it conflicts with practice times, what should I do?
Don't worry. We're used to athletes selecting classes and then deciding they want to try rowing. It's rare that schedules line up so that novices can attend every practice in the fall. We can work around a couple of conflicts per week. If you have class during practice time, go to class. If you don't, we'll see you at practice. If you have 3 or less conflicts per week you should be fine. If you have 4 or more it can be a little trickier, shoot Coach Megan an email at mapatrick2@loyola.edu and we can discuss. By the spring semester you'll have access to priority registration and there won't be any issues with conflicting practice and class schedules.

 

To prepare for our spring racing season we'll do a team training trip down in Georgia over spring break. There's a lot of rowing and team bonding that happens down in Georgia, it's a great trip and a lot of fun. We typically also race on the Saturday of Easter break. You still get Sunday and Monday off though so a lot of athletes head home with their parents right from the Saturday race. 

 

The coaching staff is happy to answer any questions. You can reach head coach Megan Patrick at mapatrick2@loyola.edu and assistant coach Maggie Rabenberg at marabenberg@loyola.edu for more information about joining the team.

 

Sure! You can reach out to our men's captains, Eoin McDonough and Ben Sala, via e-mail at emmcdonough1@loyola.edu and bmsala@loyola.edu; or, you can talk to our women's captains, Juliana Merlino and Lindsey Bonavita, at jfmerlino@loyola.edu and lkbonavita@loyola.edu.

 

Rowing is a mix of power and endurance. The best thing that you could be doing to prepare is working on your cardio endurance. It's the thing that takes the longest to train. Going for a long jog or bike ride a couple days per week is a great way to prepare for rowing. We would also recommend working on your core strength and lower body flexibility. Working on those will set you up for success.

 

Hold off on that for now. The rowing motion isn't something we use in our everyday life, so our body doesn't instinctively know how to do it correctly. When people hop on the rowing machine without a coach, they often use improper technique. It's a whole lot easier to wait and learn correct form than it is to try and change bad habits.