SE: Come Here, Do Work – How K-State Rowing Spent a Year Between Race Days
Mar 23, 2021 | Rowing, Sports Extra
By: Austin Siegel
It was Opening Day in Manhattan, Kansas and anyone who could sneak out of the office a little early was headed to a baseball game. On a warmer-than-usual Friday afternoon in the middle of America, it felt almost patriotic to skip class, enjoy the weather and watch a ballgame.
Across the parking lot, close enough to hear the crowd react to every strikeout, a group of student-athletes decided to do something a little different on a Friday afternoon.
They got on a machine called an erg and started to row, until every part of their body began to ache, and then they kept rowing because that's just what you do at the K-State Rowing Center.
You find a way.
"My team is what brought me back," Marisa Rodriguez said. "Academically and athletically, rowing is what has pushed to become the individual that I am. Having that mindset helps me push my team but also to have hope that there's a chance we could row again."
Rodriguez is a junior, someone who's experienced the feeling of racing past Kansas in the Sunflower Showdown or wearing a bronze medal around her neck at the Big 12 Championships.
But that also means she's felt every single one of the 384 days between her last competition against Sacramento State and when the Wildcats will get back on the water against Creighton on Saturday.
"The majority of us didn't come here to row," Madison Jensen said. "But we can't just spend our time doing whatever we want. We have to follow a schedule…I've had classes with lots of athletes and we usually find each other. There's a certain drive that you need to be an athlete."
None of the rowers at K-State had ever been in a boat, picked up an oar, or otherwise rowed in their lives before college. It's a learning curve unlike any other program in Manhattan.
It also means the last year for K-State Rowing has been a wager, that every member of the team has the drive required to endure 12 months of practice without a finish line.
So, it helps that before Rodriguez was a rower, she was a high school volleyball star. Before Jensen had ever considered rowing, she was an All-American in dance.
"Dance was my main passion. When I came to K-State, I was tall enough and athletic enough, so I decided to give rowing a shot and walk on," she said. "I think the dancing has helped me a lot with the discipline and not looking for instant gratification. Dance is similar to rowing because you're practicing and taking classes for maybe one performance at the end of the year."
The Wildcats missed out on their spring season in 2020, returning from training camp and a meet in California when COVID-19 brought the world of college sports to a halt.
Sitting on a plane headed back to Manhattan, the Wildcats heard the news that the spring season, their season, had been canceled due to the pandemic. What should have been the payout for months of hard work in the fall and winter never arrived – the Wildcats just went home.
"That was my first trip," Idallis Shaffer said. "We had a race at the beginning of the week and a full week of practice in California. After that race, I was like, 'Oh, this is why we do everything that we do. This is the feeling.' We got done and you don't remember that it hurt or that it was hard. It was just a blur in the best way."
There were Zoom calls and video messages on birthdays, before K-State Rowing was finally back on campus in August. As they adjusted to life as socially distanced student-athletes, the only thing missing for the Wildcats was a schedule. In most sports, that's the whole point.
But if you could design a team in a laboratory to grind through months of early-morning workouts and lung-busting sprints on a rowing machine, you would be wasting your time.
That team already exists inside the K-State Rowing Center.
"Since day one, I think I appreciated that if we're out on the water or on the ergs, I can put all my stresses aside, come here and do work," Rodriguez said. "It gives me a way to de-stress."
Of course, the difference between a K-State Rower and 99 percent of the population is what that de-stressing looks like.
At this practice, the Wildcats went through a series of timed sprints on the ergs, with plenty of rowers coughing and struggling to find their breath between each set.
The rowing machines are set up in a room about the size of a ballroom, attached to each other single file, like a mechanical army standing at attention. Each erg sits on a track that forces a rower to synchronize their movements. Just like on a boat, everyone has to be in synch.
Coxswains floated up and down the aisles, yelling out instructions and encouragement to simulate the experience of racing. Each line of ergs at practice includes the exact same rowers who will be paired together when K-State Rowing gets back on the water.
"I think the main driving force is just coming here to see all of these people who are working so hard," Jensen said. "Facing all of the challenges this past year, if we can get through COVID and six months at home, we can get through a workout together."
A few days after that practice, the schedule for K-State Rowing in 2021 finally dropped – a scrimmage in Oklahoma, followed by four meets and the Big 12 Championships in Austin.
For rowers like Rodriguez and Jensen, it's an opportunity to return to the moments on the water that made their first few years with K-State Rowing worth the sacrifice.
For Shaffer, it's a chance to finally experience what she got a taste of before COVID shut down her newfound passion.
And it all begins this weekend in Nebraska, with a duel against Creighton on Saturday.
No team in Manhattan has waited longer to return this season than K-State Rowing. Spend an hour inside the K-State Rowing Center, and it's hard to argue any team has worked harder too.
"When things are hard here, you have people to lean on who are experiencing the same thing. They're willing to open up and be vulnerable with you," Shaffer said. "Everyone's in the same boat. We lean on each other."
It was Opening Day in Manhattan, Kansas and anyone who could sneak out of the office a little early was headed to a baseball game. On a warmer-than-usual Friday afternoon in the middle of America, it felt almost patriotic to skip class, enjoy the weather and watch a ballgame.
Across the parking lot, close enough to hear the crowd react to every strikeout, a group of student-athletes decided to do something a little different on a Friday afternoon.
They got on a machine called an erg and started to row, until every part of their body began to ache, and then they kept rowing because that's just what you do at the K-State Rowing Center.
You find a way.
Winter Camp Rewind ⏮#KStateROW x Find A Way 💪 pic.twitter.com/wOVWNVueX8
— K-State Rowing (@KStateROW) February 1, 2021
"My team is what brought me back," Marisa Rodriguez said. "Academically and athletically, rowing is what has pushed to become the individual that I am. Having that mindset helps me push my team but also to have hope that there's a chance we could row again."
Rodriguez is a junior, someone who's experienced the feeling of racing past Kansas in the Sunflower Showdown or wearing a bronze medal around her neck at the Big 12 Championships.
But that also means she's felt every single one of the 384 days between her last competition against Sacramento State and when the Wildcats will get back on the water against Creighton on Saturday.
"The majority of us didn't come here to row," Madison Jensen said. "But we can't just spend our time doing whatever we want. We have to follow a schedule…I've had classes with lots of athletes and we usually find each other. There's a certain drive that you need to be an athlete."
None of the rowers at K-State had ever been in a boat, picked up an oar, or otherwise rowed in their lives before college. It's a learning curve unlike any other program in Manhattan.
It also means the last year for K-State Rowing has been a wager, that every member of the team has the drive required to endure 12 months of practice without a finish line.
So, it helps that before Rodriguez was a rower, she was a high school volleyball star. Before Jensen had ever considered rowing, she was an All-American in dance.
"Dance was my main passion. When I came to K-State, I was tall enough and athletic enough, so I decided to give rowing a shot and walk on," she said. "I think the dancing has helped me a lot with the discipline and not looking for instant gratification. Dance is similar to rowing because you're practicing and taking classes for maybe one performance at the end of the year."
The Wildcats missed out on their spring season in 2020, returning from training camp and a meet in California when COVID-19 brought the world of college sports to a halt.
Sitting on a plane headed back to Manhattan, the Wildcats heard the news that the spring season, their season, had been canceled due to the pandemic. What should have been the payout for months of hard work in the fall and winter never arrived – the Wildcats just went home.
"That was my first trip," Idallis Shaffer said. "We had a race at the beginning of the week and a full week of practice in California. After that race, I was like, 'Oh, this is why we do everything that we do. This is the feeling.' We got done and you don't remember that it hurt or that it was hard. It was just a blur in the best way."
There were Zoom calls and video messages on birthdays, before K-State Rowing was finally back on campus in August. As they adjusted to life as socially distanced student-athletes, the only thing missing for the Wildcats was a schedule. In most sports, that's the whole point.
But if you could design a team in a laboratory to grind through months of early-morning workouts and lung-busting sprints on a rowing machine, you would be wasting your time.
That team already exists inside the K-State Rowing Center.
"Since day one, I think I appreciated that if we're out on the water or on the ergs, I can put all my stresses aside, come here and do work," Rodriguez said. "It gives me a way to de-stress."
Of course, the difference between a K-State Rower and 99 percent of the population is what that de-stressing looks like.
At this practice, the Wildcats went through a series of timed sprints on the ergs, with plenty of rowers coughing and struggling to find their breath between each set.
The rowing machines are set up in a room about the size of a ballroom, attached to each other single file, like a mechanical army standing at attention. Each erg sits on a track that forces a rower to synchronize their movements. Just like on a boat, everyone has to be in synch.
Coxswains floated up and down the aisles, yelling out instructions and encouragement to simulate the experience of racing. Each line of ergs at practice includes the exact same rowers who will be paired together when K-State Rowing gets back on the water.
"I think the main driving force is just coming here to see all of these people who are working so hard," Jensen said. "Facing all of the challenges this past year, if we can get through COVID and six months at home, we can get through a workout together."
A few days after that practice, the schedule for K-State Rowing in 2021 finally dropped – a scrimmage in Oklahoma, followed by four meets and the Big 12 Championships in Austin.
For rowers like Rodriguez and Jensen, it's an opportunity to return to the moments on the water that made their first few years with K-State Rowing worth the sacrifice.
For Shaffer, it's a chance to finally experience what she got a taste of before COVID shut down her newfound passion.
And it all begins this weekend in Nebraska, with a duel against Creighton on Saturday.
No team in Manhattan has waited longer to return this season than K-State Rowing. Spend an hour inside the K-State Rowing Center, and it's hard to argue any team has worked harder too.
Friday Morning Sunrise 🌅 pic.twitter.com/2ZEDeUXAJH
— K-State Rowing (@KStateROW) February 5, 2021
"When things are hard here, you have people to lean on who are experiencing the same thing. They're willing to open up and be vulnerable with you," Shaffer said. "Everyone's in the same boat. We lean on each other."
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