Turning Sport into Art

By: D. Scott Fritchen

Nathan Benderson Park is a 600-acre park owned by Sarasota County, Florida, directly south of the Manatee County line, west of Interstate 75. The park includes a 400-acre artificial lake that hosted the 2017 World Rowing Championships along with the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Team Trials. Halle Fee remembers April 2, 2022 well. It was on that day and on that lake that everything felt perfect for the Kansas State third varsity eight crew in the Grand Final, and, for a few moments, sport blurred into art, as the oars slipped in and out across a sheet of glass.

"It looks like an art," Fee says. "When everything is being executed perfectly together, in that moment, it does feel like art. It feels like something special."

The 3v8+ boat, comprised entirely of freshmen, posted a time of 6:49.61 to capture a silver medal, finishing just behind Iowa at 6:48.19 and two seconds faster than Kansas at 6:51.96. That following week, the Wildcats' 3v8+ found itself ranked No. 23 in the nation — a victory, for sure, and a feeling that Fee continues to cherish, as they conquered the prestigious venue.

"That was really fun because we did something we've never done before," she says. "We just never knew we could take it that far."

There was a time when Fee, a junior, didn't think about rowing. Hadn't even crossed her mind. A native of Lee's Summit, Missouri, and daughter of Mari and Kelly Fee, Halle competed in basketball, lacrosse, track and field, and cross country at Lee's Summit North High School. Her earliest sports memory was playing soccer over the course of 10 years. She's the oldest of triplets — two seconds older than Olivia and one minute older than Brianna ("I consider myself being the oldest," Halle says) — and they did almost everything together ("If somebody did something, we all did it and we all liked it," Halle says), and soccer was their sport of choice.

That is, until lacrosse entered Halle's life her high school freshman year. She learned the sport through a friend, got the itch, and lacrosse became her favorite sport.

"It looked fun, I tried it, and I just felt so skillful and was really confident as a player, so it made it easy for me to enjoy the sport," she says. "It was different and something new. It was so much fun."

She investigated playing lacrosse at University of South in Sewanee, Tennessee, where Olivia and Brianna now play soccer. She also looked at University of Colorado-Colorado Springs and Rockhurst University in Kansas City.

But something changed. K-State came calling. None of her family had attended K-State. She knew a few classmates at Lee's Summit North who planned to attend K-State, but none of her close friends had considered the school. But she received a letter about joining the K-State rowing team. Turned out rowing coaches had scouted her as she played basketball, and they liked her height (she is 6-foot) and her build, and they believed that she would make a fine addition to the team.

"Definitely a difficult and long process," Fee says. "At first when I received the letter about rowing and started considering K-State, I wanted to play lacrosse, and K-State was never on my radar for lacrosse. I was like, 'I don't want to do that.' Then I went on an unofficial visit and was interested in hearing more about rowing, but I discovered that I loved K-State.

"It felt like such a home so that made it easier to make the decision to row here because it quickly became my favorite place to be. K-State is where I'm meant to be, so I know I'm meant to be doing this. That makes me confident, but the decision was a little bit difficult in the beginning."

You know what else was difficult? Picking up an oar for the first time.

"It was just weird because I never saw myself in that position and it looked so different than anything I'd ever done," she says. "It was kind of scary because it's a lot more technique than I'd ever thought it could be in order to make the rowing happen."

The training typically starts at 6:30 a.m. in the 9,000 square-foot Intercollegiate Rowing Center — a limestone facility located along Kimball Avenue and adjacent to the east parking lot at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. The IRC includes two state-of-the-art 2,800-gallon indoor rowing tanks that allow up to 16 rowers to practice at one time and simulate "being on the water" year round. Then there's afternoon weight training at the new Olympic Training Center.

"Usually when you start traveling, racing season becomes the most fun because that's when you make memories and create those stories that you remember for a long time," Fee says, "so basically any time I'm around my team, it's my favorite part."

Fee has learned much about herself along the way.

"I've definitely learned that I can work hard and be disciplined and motivated," she says. "That wasn't really something that was on my mind or something I thought I was capable of in high school and even in early college — motivation, drive and being tough. When I got here my freshman year, it was very difficult. This year has been difficult, but you also learn the more time goes on that you can do the workouts and persevere through these difficult things."

The end of Fee's junior season is near. K-State competes at SIRA in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on Saturday and Sunday, then competes against Kansas in the Sunflower Showdown (May 4) before the Big 12 Championship (May 19).

"My goals? They aren't necessarily measurable," Fee says. "I really just hope I can be a good example at all times for my teammates and the underclassmen. I always want to have a positive impact. We have a bond that I've never experienced with another team, and we feel so tight knit.

"We usually leave practice at the same time and go to dinner together. Then we make jokes and tell stories."

There's a story that Fee will forever be able to share. It's about the time they tackled Nathan Benderson Park, when a boat of freshmen came together, turned sport into art, and flew across a sheet of glass.

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Halle Fee

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