Letter to Rowing News:

SUBJECT: The Other Side of the Rolodex Story

Rowing News recently featured an article addressing rolodex teams/crews. It was, in my opinion, lopsided (interviewing Sandy Armstrong from Marin to get her perspective, and leaving out any input from “rolodex” teams). The article featured a photograph of two Chinook crews mid race at Master’s Nationals - leading readers to believe that Chinook Performance Racing is handpicking elite athletes from a rolodex file.

This is not the model for Chinook Performance Racing. I would like to tell you our side of the story.

For years Olympians have returned to race at San Diego Crew Classic and Head of the Charles in hand picked crews - choosing only those who are “elite” and of a certain rowing lineage. Chinook has chosen a different approach. To start, the team started with 4 friends who wanted to row with women who had the same mindset - we all had jobs and families that consumed an enormous amount of our time and wanted the time that we spent rowing to be time well spent. We were extremely competitive and committed to making boats go fast and we wanted to be with other people who shared the same focus.

We are a team of athletes who train together (albeit virtually) stateside and all over the world. We are good friends and some of us longtime rowing teammates. We are comprised of over 100 athletes, many of whom were introduced to the sport later in life, some who rowed in college, and a few former National Team athletes and coxswains. All of these athletes found us.

We do not recruit rowers, we purposefully choose to let the team build itself. Our mission statement which you can find on our website states:

Chinook Performance Racing is a rowing team for masters rowers. It is our mission to provide competent, athletic, self motivated rowers from throughout North America with an opportunity to race on a team of like-minded athletes at the highest levels, nationally and internationally.

CPR provides a platform for rowers, committed to conscientious training, to blend into crews diverse in age, experience, and learned rowing styles – bind them together through a shared desire and determination of spirit and successfully compete at international and national regattas.

These are people who want a competitive environment in which to train and race. In the photo Rowing News featured, there is not an Olympian in the bunch, but there are many who came to the sport late in life - many following in the footsteps of their children who took up the sport. Many were athletes in their own right, cyclists, triathletes, runners - and yes, some collegiate rowers who stopped rowing to raise families and returned as empty nesters. There are a handful of elite rowers in various age groups who are friends and rekindled their interest in rowing because of what they saw in Chinook. Caryn Davies came to Chinook because she is a friend, and was part of the Oxford team where I was working with coxswains. We have a couple of former Oxford athletes that love the opportunity to row with athletes who share the same competitive spirit. They are all serious athletes who were looking for a rowing club to call home and found it. I am proud to have given them a home. I am proud of our model - we have developed many rowers over the last couple of years, as well as coxswains from the ground up. We have given a number of folks a rowing home that didn’t have a competitive group to train with at their home clubs.

The Head Coach from Marin was interviewed for the article. Sandy was quoted as saying, “Just be fit and I will hand pick you, just be ready”...

This is not how Chinook works, perhaps some other crews that are not brick and mortar teams choose this method. Athletes find us. They go to our website and complete an athlete profile - we get in touch with them following that introduction. They are then invited to a training camp where we can determine their ability level and their fit with the team.

The greatest complaint of master’s rowers is the lack of availability of competitive programs in their home clubs, the second gripe is the “drama” that comes with the club environment because folks feel like they should be in certain boats, seats, sides etc. We do not erg test, we have not yet done any seat racing other than measuring race results from each regatta. We meet a number of times a year at various venues around the country and we assess where athletes are at physically, as well as determining how they fit into the whole. Much of what we assess on the water is based on what we feel and see when we are together. In fact it is the same off the water, we feel and see if the athletes are sportsmanlike, drama free, able to blend into the team and be a contributor.

We are at an advantage as our team is built on like-mindedness. Everyone understands that we need to be self motivated, put the time in when we are apart from one another, so that we can be productive when we are together. Everyone understands the rules: come to the table fit and ready, be a nice person, help one another. Those who don’t will not be invited back.

We also are at a disadvantage because we do not have an opportunity to train on the water together day in and day out. We definitely get together throughout the year for camps, but we definitely lack miles of connected water time. We put miles and miles in together virtually on our ergs, and are connected by a shared desire to perform at the highest level. It’s not easy to just jump in the boat at the regatta and pull a group of athletes together - it isn’t a magic potion; an Olympic pill. Our boats that have won the Head of the Charles and the Crew Classic and Nationals in various events have usually never raced together in those combinations ever before. It is amazing what a shared mindset can do for a boat, add in hard work and relationships and you have winning combinations.

In large red print the article states, "The downside is that largely puts an end to development at the master's level". I can't tell you how many of our rowers train in boats all across the country in their home clubs (where they are dues paying members in keeping with the U.S. Rowing rule allowing a person to be a member of two clubs in a calendar year) and help to bring along new or much less experienced rowers. Sitting in on practice sessions that are often well below their level of ability and sometimes compromising to them physically. Should high performance athletes have to race with those novice/ intermediate rowers or even less committed experienced rowers? They pay equal dues but are expected to just deal with what they see as inadequacies of the program, be a team player.

Many of our rowers race with these club crews throughout the year because they do want to be a part of their home teams and make a contribution. They coach at their clubs, fundraise, contribute in many ways. Rowing clubs should be serving their members. We gather at the end of the season every year to determine if we are properly serving our team. What can we do differently, better?

Some of our rowers only row with Chinook. It is the only water time and rowing they can fit in. Others who still row at times with their home clubs, choose to compete in big events with CPR because they ARE competitive and prepared and want to be in boats with like-minded athletes who perform at the same level. Why should the high performance athlete be the one to compromise. Rowing clubs need to recognize that this is why teams like Chinook exist.

Why have many of the former Olympians created their own teams for the big races? Teams like Occoquan International, Master’s International, Kent Mitchell, 1980, Etas-Unis, to name a few. We can’t speak for them, but assume they want to row with their peers, their friends and former teammates. They do not want to row in lesser ability boats. Time is valuable and flopping around in boats is not fun especially if there is an alternative.

A big hole exists between learn to row and performance racing teams. Brick and Mortar clubs that are working to meet the needs of their entire demographic, novice through the very competitive rower, are successful because they are filling in the gaps. We have had athletes return to race with their home clubs for all manner of racing. These teams have reached in and figured out how to serve all their masters rowers. We encourage rowers to race with their clubs when they are being appropriately boated. It is the right thing to do..

In the end, we are just tired of the “rolodex” label. There are so many assumptions that are attached to it. Hell, who even knows what a rolodex is anymore. Suffice it to say, Chinook is a different kind of rowing club. A place for competitive athletes to do what they love to do. We have no walls - we have no water - the world is different now and we have adapted.

Lesleh Anderson Wright

Chinook Performance Racing