Men’s rowing club continues rebuilding

Rebuilding from the ground up is not just a credo reserved for Tom Crean and the new-look Hoosier basketball team this season. 

The Indiana Men’s Rowing Club is going through a similar renewal this year, but its journey will not be seen under the bright lights of Assembly Hall or on television sets nationwide.

Dwindling interest and lack of leadership once drove it out of existence, but the team is now in its third year back.

The climb back has not come without its share of difficulties, the most pressing being insufficient funding. The University provides the club roughly $1,000 per year; however, a new boat can cost up to $30,000, leaving the club with a large monetary hole to fill.

Because of the lack of sufficient funding, the club has reverted to raising money the blue-collar way. Recently, the team started an effort unofficially called the “rent-a-rower program,” where community members can hire the team for odd jobs like yard work, painting and moving. In addition, the club hopes to work parking and concessions during basketball games this winter.

Another challenge for the rowers will be altering their training as the winter months set in. The team’s usual practice spot at Lake Lemon will be unusable for the boats in the coming months, meaning they will have to move inside to continue their practice. Unlike the women’s varsity rowing team, the men’s rowing club does not have any established training facilities. Instead, the club will have to share the School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation building with all IU students.

The team will utilize the few indoor rowing machines – ergometers – that the HPER has.But the HPER building does not offer enough space to move the ergometers together so the rowers can work on their timing and technique as a team.

Despite these obstacles, the club has maintained its focus and intensity and hopes to keep building on the improvements it has seen so far this fall.

Club President Ryan Ginty said he is excited about how far the club has come and the potential it has in the near future.

“We have had more progress this season than any,” Ginty said.

Head coach Tim Climis echoes this sentiment.

“We have been fighting our way uphill,” Climis said. “We just want to keep growing at a nice steady rate.”

The fruits of the rowing club’s labor came on Nov. 1, when the team participated in its second and final race of the fall at the Head of the Eagle Regatta in Indianapolis. The team entered two races, finishing 18th out of 25 in the first race and 15th out of 17 in its second.

Despite its relatively low results, the team is excited to compete and eager about what this race means for their future.

“It was together, it was strong,” Ginty said. “Everyone felt really good about that.”

The team carries a strong sense of optimism into its spring season, where it hopes to compete in up to three more races and also field two groups, a novice and a varsity, to fill both of its eight-man boats. 

Much like the men donning the candy-striped warm-up pants in Assembly Hall this winter, the men’s rowing club is still finding its identity and measuring its success not by wins and losses, but by day-to-day growth. Unlike the basketball program, though, the rowing club acts independently and embraces this independence as a way of building solidarity.