Think of rowing and Boston and there’s one name that really stands out: Ellen Minzner. Born and raised in Lawrence, Mass., Ellen has spent more than two decades developing and leading programs in the state, including most recently as the Director of Outreach and then Director of Inclusion and Advocacy at Community Rowing Inc.

Ellen also balances being the co-chair of the Head of the Charles Announcing Committee with her full-time position as USRowing Para High Performance Director, a title she’s held since 2019.

From walk on at Villanova University to 5-time National Team member, to her transition into coaching and program development, Ellen saw the long game: changing the status quo of her clubs, organizations, and communities.

In this episode, she also gives a peek behind the curtains of the world’s premier annual rowing competition - the Head of the Charles - from her vantage point in an announcers booth on the roof of Cambridge Boat Club.

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00:00 - Intro

00:24 - Lead-In Banter

04:45 - Welcome

06:26 - Bio/Olympics Distance

Rowing Week is quiet after getting home from Worlds, looking ahead to para rowing in ‘24 and ‘28

11:19 - The Hot Seat Q&A

18:51 - Walking on at Villanova sophomore year, being a part of Boathouse Row, and finding summer rowing in Lowell, MA

23:39 - Coaching at CRI planted the seeds of a National Team dream. A bumpy trajectory across five national teams in the ‘90s was a lesson in playing the long game.

26:24 - Retiring from the National Team and transitioning into college coaching

28:40 - The teaching magic of the pair

31:50 - Returning to Massachusetts to help bring rowing opportunities to her blue collar community

34:36 - Pairing rowing community accessibility with “what is just and equitable” has driven Ellen’s career

37:15 - The future of para rowing: developing juniors athletes, and supporting collegiate programs that recruit athletes with disabilities

45:50 - Ellen’s early involvement with HOCR, how announcing has changed over the years, and how it makes the sport more inclusive and accessible

49:54 - Watching HOCR from the roof of Cambridge Boat Club, Elliot Bridge, and other great spots

51:58 - Behind the scenes at HOCR

56:56 - Listener Question: "My HOCR coxswain hasn't coxed in several years. Should I be worried?" 

58:50 - HOCR meet and greet for para rowers at Noon in the USRowing tent

1:00:04 - HOCR’s Ellen Minzner trophy, awarded each year to the winners of the  LTA 4+

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To see photos of Ellen and get links to the people, clubs, and events mentioned in this episode, check out the show notes on our website.

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This episode was made possible in part by Barb, Breakwater Realty, Concept2, EB5 Investors, RowSource, and our Patrons.

In 2002, Lindsay Dare Shoop reluctantly walked-on at the University of Virginia. Within a year she became an NCAA Division I All American. In four years she broke a world record and earned her first World Championship. Within six years her hard work manifested a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Today she seeks to help others remove self-imposed limitations. This Fall, 20 years after it all began, the author of Better Great Than Never returns to UVA as an assistant coach, paying it forward. 

This thought-provoking conversation considers serendipity, struggle, pressures on student athletes, walk-ons, team-building, rowing for life, Head of the Charles (and being coxed by Mary Whipple), and a whole lot more.

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QUICK LOOK

00:00 - Intro

04:50 - How 9/11 indirectly led to Lindsay walking on at the University of Virginia

07:38 - When Rachel met Lindsay at Steeringuwright / Endeavor Racing Alliance Camp; coaching rowers to consider the long timeline

11:30 - The Huddle

12:48 - Coaching CrossFit coaches and developing an indoor rowing curriculum with USRowing

15:31 - Rowing Week

16:00 - Preparing for HOCR, being coxed by 3-time Olympic medalist Mary Whipple

18:14 - Beijing teammate Anna Mickelson on savoring the moment

19:30 - The Hot Seat Q&A

23:23 - Growing up on a farm in Virginia, playing with boys, and trying “all the sports”

25:19 - Early Olympic dreams and the notion of “not being a real athlete”

27:40 - Losing her athletic self and finding it again at the University of Virginia

32:44 - The waning prevalence of collegiate walk-ons, the importance of novice rowing, and optimizing movement patterns

38:48 - How social media, NILs, and the prospect of financial contracts  have put additional pressure on college athletes

43:15 - Beyond erg scores: intangibles that make for positive team culture

46:19 - Better Great Than Never, inspiring others, “catching up with the things your parents always said,” and taking it one day at a time

50:49 - “Team” as the tribes of today; and the importance of paying attention, getting and staying connected with people

53:00 - Winning gold in Beijing and the weight of the moment she was handed a medal from Anita DeFrantz

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To see photos of Lindsay and get links to the people, clubs, and events mentioned in this episode, check out the show notes on our website.

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This episode was made possible in part by Barb, Breakwater Realty, Concept2, EB5 Investors, RowSource, and our Patrons.

“Physical limitations only exist if you’re willing to find them.” This is the philosophy of Mitch King, a coxswain for River City Rowing Club in Sacramento, CA. Every day he does countless things that doctors said were impossible when he was a kid diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy.

Mitch doesn’t call himself a disability advocate, doesn’t want to be an inspiration, and would rather folks didn’t try to tiptoe around his disability.

We talk balancing coxing with graduate school, collaborative coxing, finding tenths of seconds on the erg, and shattering expectations. 

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QUICK LOOK

00:00 - Intro

02:10 - The Huddle

04:38 - Rate Your rowing week: 1-10… quickly turns into swapping coxing stories

10:05  - The Hot Seat Q&A

15:44 - Coxing origin story

19:24 - How rowing helps student athletes with discipline and time management

21:22 - Erging with the team began as a means to understand what his athletes were going through, and became an outlet for moving beyond internal and external limitations of his Cerebral Palsy

29:18 - Collaborative coxing: getting to know your rowers, giving and receiving feedback, sharing race strategies, leaving your worries on shore

35:08 - Diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy as a kid, Mitch wants strangers to assume he, and other people with disabilities, are competent and capable

38:50 - It’s okay to ask, and it’s okay to say “disabled”

43:21 - Being an inadvertent ambassadors for people with disabilities, how we’ve been socialized to understand disability, and  rebutting the notion of being an inspiration

49:03 - Mitch’s rowing pitch

50:00 - What’s next and hoping to make it to Head of the Charles

49:56 - Outro

54:48 - Outtakes

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To get links to the people, clubs, and events mentioned in this episode, check out the show notes on our website.

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This episode was made possible in part by Barb, Breakwater Realty, Concept2, EB5 Investors, RowSource, and our Patrons.

That place a lot of us call a second home – the boathouse – is on land with a long history. And the waterways we dip our oars in once provided sustenance. Know Where You Row is a campaign across the United States and Canada to explore the spaces and places where we row, which have been – and continue to be – the lands of the native peoples who, for centuries, have stewarded them.

Know Where You Row encourages rowing clubs to connect with the history of the waterways and land that they use, and the indigenous tribes of the area. The team behind the campaign – Dave Harvey, Julia Gonzalez-Wolf and Steady State’s own Tara Morgan – tell us more.

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QUICK LOOK

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To get links to the people, clubs, events, and resources mentioned in this episode, check out the show notes on our website.

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This episode was made possible in part by Barb, Breakwater Realty, Concept2, EB5 Investors, RowSource, and our Patrons.

The World's Toughest Row is a 2,800-mile race across the Pacific Ocean. On June 12, 2024, more than 20 teams will leave Monterey, CA and race to Kauai, HI in unsupported, man-powered ocean rowing boats.

Hannah Huppi (NORC), Phil Doyle (PBC), and Hunter Deuel (OWRC) formed Horizon Racing USA to take on this massive rowing challenge. They are solidly into their planning and training with a goal of breaking the Mixed 4x World Record for rowing across the Mid-Pacific ocean – which currently stands at just over 34 days.

We talk about lots of steady state training on the erg, star-gazing and the unknown, competitive drive, Cheez-Its, and fundraising for Laureus Sport For Good USA.

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QUICK LOOK

00:00 - intro

02:00 - Welcome and The Huddle

03:20 - Rate Your rowing week: 1 to 10

05:04 - The Hot Seat Q&A

08:33 - Rowing origin stories: Hannah, Phil, Hunter

14:13 - About the World’s Toughest Row across the Pacific

15:50 - About their 4-person Ranoch RX45 boat

18:20 - Whose  idea was it to row the WTR; finding a fourth crewmate, necessary skills, and the importance of coming together as a competitive unit

28:56 - Supporting their charity partner Laureus Sport for Good USA

31:20 - Sponsorship opportunities and Hannah’s hopes for Cheez Its

33:24 - How training started, what they’re looking forward to, and what they’re nervous about 

40:40 - Letting go of flatwater perfection, thinking BIG intervals, and canned peaches for celebrating milestones

46:15 - The adventure of a lifetime and leaving an impact on the next generation

50:10 - Sign Off

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To see photos of Hannah, Phil, an Hunter, and get links to the people, clubs, and events mentioned in this episode, check out the show notes on our website.

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This episode was made possible in part by Barb, Breakwater Realty, Concept2, EB5 Investors, RowSource, and our Patrons.

This is the final episode in a four-part special series on gender identity policies in rowing.

Since December 2022, World Athletics, World Rowing, USRowing and other national governing bodies, have announced updated gender identity policies. In response, voices across the rowing community have stood up for "fairness for women" and alternatively "inclusion for marginalized athletes." We're taking a closer look.

Dr. David Scherzer learned to row with DC Strokes Rowing Club, one of just a handful of dedicated, independent LGBTQ+ rowing clubs in the world. But for many years, even DC Strokes wasn’t able to provide answers to David about how they could participate and race as a non-binary athlete.

And when Bobbi Kizer, PhD inquired about racing at Head of the Lake as a transgender athlete, the organizing committee worked with them to create an exhibition “mixed” category for all genders.

But in general, the current USRowing gender inclusion policy leaves transgender, non-binary, and other gender nonconforming rowers with very few opportunities to race.

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QUICK LOOK

00:00 - Rachel and Tara re-introduce the podcast’s Gender Identity Policies series

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To see photos of Bobbi and David, and to get links to the people, clubs, policies, and events mentioned in this episode, check out the show notes on our website.

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This episode was made possible in part by Barb, Breakwater Realty, Concept2, EB5 Investors, RowSource, and our Patrons.

Start your engines! Get to know Indianapolis Rowing Center, host of the 2023 USRowing Masters National Championships. We talk with IRC board President Janet Francis, Masters Head Coach Zach Christopher, and recent LTR grad Lisa Stickley. Developed in the 1980s, the race course at Eagle Creek remains one of the country’s premiere venues, host to PanAm Games, World Rowing Championships, NCAA Championships, and a lot more. Get an inside scoop on Vendors Village, course strategy, and IRC, Indy’s only rowing club.

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QUICK LOOK

00:00 - Intro/Lead-in

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To see photos of Janet, Zach, and Lisa, and to get links to the people, clubs, and events mentioned in this episode, check out the show notes on our website.

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This episode was made possible in part by RowSource, Barb, EB5 Investors, Concept2, and our Patrons.

GENDER IDENTITY POLICIES: Part 3

Since December 2022, World Athletics, World Rowing, USRowing and other national governing bodies, have announced updated gender identity policies. In response, voices across the rowing community have stood up for "fairness for women" and alternatively "inclusion for marginalized athletes." We're taking a closer look.

Kevin Harris’s coaching career began in the early 1990s and culminated with 20+ years at the helm of the University of Tulsa women’s rowing program. Harris offers an in-depth and thought-provoking perspective on DEI, the importance of boathouses as welcoming spaces, the prevalence of transgender and non-binary rowers in the United States, and gender inclusion policies.

ICYMI: Gender Identity Policy Series

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QUICK LOOK

00:50 - Pre-interview banter with Tara and Rachel

04:30 - The Huddle, a discussion of Kevin’s early coaching career in D.C. and Virginia

05:30 - Hot Seat Q&A

08:20 - Starting out as a coach, Stonewall Regatta

10:35 - Experience at 2023 Youth Nationals with the USRowing Board of Directors, perspective on FL controversy as a Black man who grew up in the South

19:00 - Welcome mat at T.C. Williams High School when he learned to row

21:30 - The Harris family history in Alexandria, VA and why Kevin’s mom asked him why he wanted to get into a “white boy’s sport”

29:20 - Kevin’s reality as a lightweight hit him when he arrived at the Naval Academy, and then coach bumped him to the cox seat

31:50 - An unexpected early departure from the Naval Academy led him to his first coaching job at T.C. Williams

33:50 - History of Dee Campbell Boathouse in Alexandria, VA

36:10 - The development of USRowing’s DEI committee in 2020

45:00 - Intro to Gender Inclusion Policies and the ICONS petition

47:10 - Kevin’s inroads to coaching women’s programs 

50:02 - Title IX, gender policies, the ICONS petition, and DEI from Kevin’s unique perspective as an NCAA coach and member of the USRowing Board.

1:00:00 - USRowing’s work to accommodate a huge variety of members

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To see photos of Kevin, and to get links to the people, clubs, policies, and events mentioned in this episode, check out the show notes on our website.

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This episode was made possible in part by RowSource, Barb, EB5 Investors, and our Patrons.

PRIDE MONTH SPECIAL: PART 2

Listen to Part 1 of our Pride month special – a chat with LGBTQ+ DC Strokes Rowing Club and the Melbourne Argonauts.

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00:00 - Podcast lead-in

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To see photos of Michael, and to get links to the people, clubs, and events mentioned in this episode, check out the show notes on our website.

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This episode was made possible in part by Breakwater Realty Group, Concept2, Live2Row, Barb, EB5 Investors, and our Patrons.

A small but growing group of flat water rowers are making a transition to coastal rowing. In 2021, USRowing boated its first-ever Beach Sprints National team and in 2022 Next Level Rowing appeared on the scene, training high performance rowers who have gone on to win medals at domestic and international coastal regattas.

The U.S. is just taking on this discipline, which has been raced for generations in Europe. We reached out to coastal rowing rising stars Christopher Bak and Christine Cavallo, and their coach Ben Booth, co-founder of Next Level Rowing. All three wax poetic about giving in to Mother Nature, working through adversity, and why coastal – like indoor rowing – is a perfect cross-training option.

QUICK LOOK

00:00 - Podcast lead-in

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To see photos of Ben, Christine, and Chris, and to get links to the people, clubs, and events mentioned in this episode, check out the show notes on our website.

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This episode was made possible in part by Breakwater Realty Group, Concept2, Live2Row, Barb, EB5 Investors, and our Patrons.