Oct. 19, 2006

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 sixth of the 2006-07 school year, is by Shannon Wilson, a sophomore from Greensboro, N.C.

It's official, racing season is here. This weekend marks the opening of Carolina's fall season. Our first 8 heads to Boston for Head of the Charles, one of the most famous regattas in the world, and in just two short weeks the entire team will be in action at Head of the Hooch in Tennessee. Right before races we have a taper week where our practices are a little less strenuous. The coaches say this is to give our bodies a chance to recover and ready for the upcoming race, but it is also a time to reflect, and look back on what has led us to this point.

When we first came back this year, Carolina rowing was looking at a brand new group of athletes. The team only returned eight rowers from last year, had four incoming recruits, and the rest of us were rowers from the novice team, with only a year of experience under our belts. Despite all this everyone was ready for the challenge of coming together as a team. The one thing that I absolutely love about this team is that every single rower and coxswain wants to win this year; every single rower and coxswain holds herself to a higher standard. When Sarah Haney gives us a goal time, we don't just want to meet it, we want to smash it, in order to prove that we are stronger than others expect. So far we've done that, on our last erg test, and in race pieces. We've shown our dedication and commitment in our much-improved technique and fitness levels.

So now, as racing season starts, we're ready. We're ready to show every other team out there that we've worked harder, that we want it more and that we are going to have our strongest fall yet.