March 23, 2007

The North Carolina rowing team opens spring competition on Saturday, racing against Georgetown, George Washington and George Mason on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. As she prepared her team for the start of the program's 10th season, head coach Sarah Haney took time to talk with TarHeelBlue.com.

TarHeelBlue: Heading into UNC rowing's 10th season as a varsity sport, how do you assess the state of the program?

Sarah Haney: "It is definitely still young in the grand scheme of college athletics, but at the same time with 10 years we feel like we've got enough of a foundation to really start getting the top speed that we want to get. We should be well-established enough in what our philosophies are and the athletes know what the expectations are.

"What I've seen this year specifically is more personal responsibility from the athletes in making this the program that they want it to be. Even the seniors who know they only have one more year to make an imprint, they're OK with starting the legacy now so that it will impact next year and the next year. So we started off the year with that - the athletes came to me with that mentality, what do we need to do? They're putting the shoes on their own feet, versus putting them on someone else's. Instead of having the coaches say, `This is what you need to do,' it's much more, `we're going to do this.' They've set their own goals, they've set their own expectations."

THB: As someone who has been involved in this program from the very beginning, first as an athlete then as an assistant coach and finally as the head coach, how much growth have you seen? How far has UNC rowing come?

Haney: "When you see it every day, it's hard to see the progress. But one of our alums, Erin Neppel, stopped by a few weeks ago, went to the erg room, went to the boat house, and her jaw was just open the whole time. She couldn't believe the changes from an equipment standpoint, the athletes standpoint, the expectations. She said it's a completely different world. When she was here [1998-2001], we were still a little bit more club-run even though it was a varsity sport. Now we are full-fledged varsity sport - this is our equipment expectation, this is our expectation in the erg room ... We know that we deserve this, we have worked for this.

"When you have that kind of support from the athletic department, that kind of support from parents and alums, to say, this is what we're going to do for you, it's just a whole different beast. I probably wouldn't have seen it since I see the program day to day, but when she stopped by I sat there and thought, `you're right.' It is very, very different. "But, I think the core of who we are hasn't changed at all because I think that's something that's really important - the hard work aspect, we earn everything, nothing is given to us ... that mentality that we've established from day one. That is still there and that is something that hopefully will never, ever go away."

THB: Until there's another sport added at UNC, you'll always be the youngest one, but do you feel like you've shed the freshman label and are not the "new" sport anymore?

Haney: "We've talked a lot about perception this year with the team. People can only judge you based on how you act and the information that you give them. If you want the other athletes on campus to respect you, you have to give them a reason to. They see you on the fields practicing, they see you on the track, they see you on the ergs, they see you at the dining halls eating, they see you on Franklin Street doing whatever you're doing - that's where you're going to earn respect. I think that because we've talked about perception a lot, we've worked really hard on making sure that we've done everything we need to do to gain respect, not only from our peers on campus but from our competition when we go to different races. When you talk to your team about that, they start to respect themselves a little bit more and hold themselves to a little higher standard.

"I do think we've shed the freshman label. I don't think that any team, whether they were the first team here or the last team that was added, should ever take for granted the fact that anything they say or do is going to be part of how people judge them. That's reality."

THB: What are your expectations for this year's squad?

Haney: "In the past, we've talked a lot with the team about winning this race or that race. We haven't talked about winning or losing at all this year. Our goals are to do certain things within a race, to make sure that every time we get off the racecourse that we've accomplished certain goals. And if we accomplish those goals, the race results will take care of themselves.

"If somebody does pass us, when they get off the water, we want them to think, `Carolina was the hardest team we've ever had to race.' We want that type of mentality, to never give up, to put in the work in practice so that you feel like you deserve the right to come across the finish line first. We want to give them the confidence so that they feel like they deserve to win and have a successful race. But once again we haven't talked about winning or losing, it's accomplishing certain technical things and race strategy goals so that when we get off the water, we can say we did it. There's nothing we can do about what another team did, but we did everything that we could do. It's been an interesting transition, but I feel like it's going to work really well for us this year."

THB: What do you think it's going to take to start to climb the ranks of the Atlantic Coast Conference and take that next step up?

Haney: "For us, it's all about confidence. Since we haven't done it yet, it's very easy when a boat that is `supposed' to pass you starts to pass you, to say, `well, they're supposed to pass us, let them go.' We're trying to change that mentality - why should they pass you? Have they done more work than you? No. Do they deserve to win more? No. Do they want it more than you do? No - and trying to develop that fight to make sure that we don't allow teams and boats to pass us when they shouldn't. We hope that with each weekend and each race, we take lots of positive things from the race that give us a little bit more confidence going in the next one. Confidence is going to be absolutely, positively the biggest barrier we have to go through."

THB: Your senior class includes three rowers - Christin Cotten, Megan Mitzel and Adriann Spinks. What do you expect from them?

Haney: "It's not that they aren't vocal leaders, but the seniors more than anything else lead by example. The three of them are never going to ask somebody to do something that they don't do. Christen and Adriann and Megan are always the ones that are doing the extra work, always the ones that come in from the summer fit and ready to go, always the ones that do well on erg pieces and erg tests.

"They always put themselves in that position and because of that, when they say that they want to start the legacy -which is a big phrase for us this year - people don't question that because they know that they're doing the work to make that happen. You've got to walk the walk before you can talk the talk and they're definitely doing that. That's the impression that they're leaving upon the freshmen, sophomores and juniors - this is what it takes to make it happen, you're either willing to do it or you're not and you're either on board or you're not."

THB: On the other end of the spectrum, there are several freshmen on the varsity who will contribute right away, with Megan McMullin currently in the varsity eight and Elizabeth Gardiner and Priscilla Poor in the second varsity eight. What are your expectations of them?

Haney: "They all have an amazing amount of potential to be able to contribute to Carolina rowing. We don't expect any freshman to ever walk in and be in our varsity eight. Megan McMullin is there right now, and that is a great and wonderful thing, but that's not our expectation. So she has surpassed that. We want them to sit back and learn from the seniors about what it takes. Being a freshman is not an easy task with classes and being away from home and just trying to figure out how to prioritize everything, so the fact that they can be contributing members speed-wise and take care of all their business to me is impressive. We do lower the expectation a little bit for freshmen so that they can kind of figure out how it all works, but anytime someone like Megan comes through and shows the times that she shows on the erg and continues to move the boat like she's doing, that's just an added bonus for us."

THB: With just a few seniors and freshmen, the bulk of the team is made up of the sophomores and juniors in the middle. What do you expect them to bring to the team?

Haney: "We have this huge sophomore class and a very prominent junior class. With the sophomore class, there are a lot of them numerically in a very positive way. One area in which Stephen [Arthur-Wong, the novice coach] did a really good job with them last year is their attitude. They are a hardworking, positive, no drama, let's-just-do-it kind of a class. Much like with the freshmen but with a little more expectations because they're sophomores, we say `it's your first year on the varsity, sit back and kind of learn a little more.'

"The juniors are really stepping up to the plate from a vocal leadership standpoint. They are walking the walk, too, so it's not like they can't speak up. But they are taking a very vocal leadership role because they see not only the impact they have this year but the kind of impact they're going to be able to have next year. They're taking those sophomores under their wings a little bit. They're definitely following the senior class in a very positive way. It's working the way you want it to - the seniors are impacting the juniors, which are impacting the sophomores and so on and so forth."