April 2, 2007

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 UNC. This installment, the 15th of the 2006-07 school year, is by Lisy McIntee, a junior from Bala Cynwyd, Pa.

For the first time in the three years I've been at Carolina, the team's spring break training took place here at home. Sadly for some, this meant replacing the annual trip to Camp Bob Cooper in South Carolina, with a much shorter drive to a hotel in Durham, less than 10 miles from our dear University Lake.

We kicked off the training "trip" with a scrimmage against the Dookies, who graciously hosted the race on their home course, Lake Michie. This was the novice squad's first exposure to head-to-head competition against another crew, but you couldn't tell that by looking at the results. The novice not only proved their speed and heart ... they won! Our varsity four also had an awesome day, beating Duke's four on every piece. The varsity eight was matched up against Duke's 1st and 2nd eights, who provided excellent competition. Not only did the scrimmage show each boat where its strengths and weaknesses lie, but also it reminded us of the time we'd spent during the winter developing our speed in the erg room. The scrimmage pointed out where we needed to technically direct our focus, for the next week. Both the erg room building our speed, the weight room our strength, and the time on water building our technique are all coming together now as the pinnacle begins: Spring Racing!

Immediately after the race, the varsity squad switched gears and headed to Raleigh to attend the funeral of Kathryn Winz's grandmother. We filled the last two pews of the church with Carolina blue and listened to Kathryn's touching words about her grandmother, Dottie. If nothing else, staying home this year was worth it because the team was able to support Kathryn when she needed it.

Staying at home also allowed the team to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity at a few sites in Hillsborough. Eugenia and our outreach committee arranged for us to put our strength to good use working on floors, walls, decks, and other odd jobs. The novice and varsity combined efforts for these tasks, giving us the opportunity to get to know each other a little better (and have a lot of fun!).

So to put our spring break experience at home in a nutshell: we gained some great speed and skill on the water; we got our butts kicked by our strength trainer, Melissa (who is crafty beyond belief when it comes to planning our conditioning workouts); we improved our carpentry skills, while helping the community; we enjoyed an afternoon of go-karts, laser-tag, and mini-golf at Frankie's Fun Park; the novices ate some delicious food courtesy of the Moseley family and Kaiea; and we made a whole lot of fun of each other on skit night.

Chapel Hill has proven itself to be a pretty decent Spring break destination. Dorothy said it best...