by Martin Taylor

Special to the Sounder

Orcas Island Rowing team is already working out in the pre-dawn, pre-season.

The high school and middle school kids are already working out on land at the boathouse three days a week before school. The season starts in earnest on Feb. 20.

Thanks to a generous grant through the Orcas Island Community Foundation in 2015 we have been able to improve our workout room at the boathouse on Cascade Lake and bring our safety launch back up to full strength. Thank you to the Orcas community for your generosity, support and faith in us. Due to that grant, we have been able to add mirrors and a variety of workout gear in our workout room at the boathouse. We also added new batteries for the electric safety launch along with a powerful searchlight. The mirrors are a great aid in training allowing rowers to see themselves as they practice on the rowing machines. This, along with the video recordings of rowing on the water that we can now replay on a flat panel display at the boathouse, are powerful training tools. Self observation is one of the most powerful coaching tools.

Many parents and friends of the club have helped us out in the past. In our recent improvements at the boathouse since last summer, the following people were particularly helpful: Stu Stevens, Murray Neal, Paul Holmes, Bruce Myers, Dave Roseberry and Becky Griswold.

Jake Zier is our most successful rower ever. He graduated from Orcas High in 2013. He was one of the handful of Orcas Island rowers to compete at junior nationals and the only one to compete in a single. He placed sixth at nationals in 2012. Jake went on to be recruited by the best rowing team in America at University Of Washington. He is now in his junior year competing strongly for a place in the first varsity eight. They  are arguably the hottest college crew in America and competitive with any university crew in the world.

Jake may be our most successful rower ever, but we are proud of all of our alumni. Many have gone on to be successful in their own fields. We are a young club with our first graduates now still only in their 30s, so it will be wonderful to see what our alumni are capable of.

This season we have past alumnus Lily Ryder helping with coaching. In the past Dave Noneman has participated as a coach for a couple of seasons. Recent graduates, including Jake, come by to help with coaching especially at the beginning of fall season or late in the spring depending on their college schedules. We really would like to encourage adults with any experience in rowing to get involved.

Any Orcas Island residents ages 13 to 19 in school are welcome to come out and learn to row. This really is one the best sports you could possibly get involved in. The program is open to all so long as you can pass a simple swim test and demonstrate minimal physical fitness. Rowing is a great sport. The coed team is a really great bunch of people. We have some very strong senior rowers and we know we will have a strong season. We also have one or two very promising younger rowers and we await the wild cards that are always fun to witness in the novice rowers racing in their first year.

I want to introduce and thank our ever enthusiastic head coach Tina Brown. She really is the dynamo that provides the power and energy in the club over the last few years. Tina was an Olympic competitor in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic games and a powerful competitor and very experienced coach at college and elite level rowing. Not to mention the ever enthusiastic Dave Roseberry and our master boatman Mike Reid.

For more information contact, go to OrcasIslandRowing.org, email info@orcasislandrowing.org or call 360-298-2086.