March 2, 2004

Throughout the season, members of the UNC rowing team will provide TarHeelBlue.com readers with an inside look at the Carolina program and the experience of being a varsity athlete at North Carolina. This installment, the 11th of the 2003-04 school year, is by Katie Sorensen, a senior from Pompton Plains, N.J.

Just prior to launching our boats to start our pre-race warm up on Saturday, coach called a team huddle to give us some final words of rowing wisdom. As we conclude every team huddle, we all get our "hands in" the middle of the circle. I expected our meeting to end with a chant of "Beat Duke" or "Go Heels" but instead coach called for us to say "commitment." That has been our theme all year, and this week was no different.

On Monday, the entire team had the privilege of listening to our famous women's soccer coach, Anson Dorrance. We all found it highly motivating and beneficial to listen to him speak of the values and work ethic that has allowed him to win 18 national championships. Since that meeting, the team has made a collective effort to incorporate some of the ideas he spoke of into our daily lives.

The rest of the week we prepared for the opening of our spring season. We did not have Monday or Wednesday conditioning, as this was a week to rest our legs for Saturday. A snow storm rolled into Chapel Hill on Thursday afternoon but we were still out there on University Lake preparing for our race against Duke. Friday classes were cancelled due to the weather. We had a pre-race day row, loaded the trailers, and concluded the night with a team dinner.

Saturday was race day!!! We traveled up the road to Durham to race against Duke. It was an unusual race day in that each boat raced four times, and there were limits on the stroke rating (number of strokes per minute), but that did not lessen the intensity or importance of this race. Overall we had the best day of racing against Duke in over three years. The varsity beat Duke in the second race, and the novices won all four of their races. Every race of the day was close, and came down to the last few meters and strokes.

While our pre-race huddle may have concluded with "commitment," our spring season is beginning with this idea deeply rooted in our team. Every member of this team shares the same desire to work hard and go fast. This weekend showed us that we are in a position to race and beat some fast teams this spring. The excitement we experienced will carry over into our spring training next week in South Carolina and motivate us to become even faster.

If you were as excited as I was to see Carolina ahead of Duke this weekend, just wait...this is only the beginning.

Go Heels,
Katie