Bucknell University Athletics
It's All About the Process for Bucknell Women's Rowing
4/2/2009 8:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing
April 2, 2009
Fall/Winter Recap Slide ShowBy Todd Merriett, Bucknell Athletic Communications
Twenty-five years ago the Bucknell women's rowing team looked up from the base of a looming mountain and all that the team members could see were clouds encircling the rocky cliffs high above. Eighteen years after the program reached varsity status, the Bison have scaled the side of that rocky mountain and have recently broken through the clouds and the summit is now in sight.
As recently as 1999 Bucknell's team members were still well below the clouds, but the success of recent years could not have been achieved without the many alums who started the trek up the unmapped mountain.
The Bison have put together an unprecedented string of championships the last few years, but 13th-year head coach Stephen Kish, a 1992 graduate of Bucknell and a former Bison rower himself, cautions it is not all about those recent rowers, and is instead about the process and journey the program has experienced over the last quarter of a century.
"I believe it is a process and over these 25 years the team has continued to grow and develop, and most importantly, as we have grown and matured, we have been able to learn from our past experiences and build on our success," describes Kish, who has been involved with Bucknell rowing for the better part of two decades. "It has never been about reaching a certain goal or having a certain result. We have been fortunate enough to bring home a trophy each of the last three years at our league championship, but it has hardly been the goal."
Kish, who hesitates to call his profession a job since it is his passion, returned to his alma mater in the fall of 1996 to guide the women's rowing program after a brief stint as the frontman for the Rhode Island women's rowing team. He dreamed of the success the Bison are currently experiencing, but did not know when it would come to fruition.
"It hasn't been about the process all along," describes Kish. "In my first few years we weren't focused on the process and confident about our path like we are now. I don't know where that evolved, but it is definitely part of an evolution."
In Kish's fourth year at the helm, the team essentially rebooted and started from scratch. There were just seven women on the roster that year, but it did not stop them from earning the program's first medals at the Dad Vail Regatta and having outstanding performances at the Henley Women's Regatta in England.
Under Kish, Bucknell has continued to build on those performances and finished just outside of the top-20 national rankings in 2008. That is one of just many accomplishments for the program over the last handful of years. Since women's rowing became an official Patriot League sport in 2005, some of the top accomplishments for the Bison have been:
• Three consecutive Patriot League titles
• Two consecutive ECAC Metro Championship titles
• Three consecutive Murphy Cup titles
• 2007 IRA Lightweight National Championship
• 2008 Eastern Sprints participant
(finished 8th of 18 teams)
• 2008 Knecht Cup title
• Varsity Eight is three-time Patriot League Boat of the Year
• 2007 All-American (Katherine Brewster-Duffy)
• Five Coach of the Year awards for Stephen Kish
"We know we are on a worthwhile path and we know that path is littered with some fun and rewarding experiences," beams Kish. "We knew we would be competitive for a Patriot League Championship, we just didn't know when. We knew we would be competitive for a Lightweight National Championship, we just didn't know when. We knew we would be competitive for the ECAC Metro Championship, we just didn't know when. We knew we would be at the Eastern Sprints, or at least at that level and able to schedule teams like Princeton, we just didn't know when."
So, how has Bucknell filled the trophy case so quickly and gained national recognition in the process? According to Kish, it is a confluence of a number of fortunate factors that would have been difficult to predict.
Among the many fortunate coincidences that have surfaced in recent years are increased support from alumni - including a large donation that supported women's athletics at Bucknell by Bill Graham '62 - and parents, the addition of three full-time members to the coaching staff, a synergistic relationship with athletics administration and the addition of women's rowing as a Patriot League sport.
All of those factors helped Kish and his staff recruit student-athletes for the first time and also build the size of the team, which typically is divided into varsity and novice groups. While each item listed above has been important to helping the program reach its current level, none of them individually would have helped vault the program to the level it currently sits.
One of the most important items helping the team over the last few years has been the culture of the team.
"With the addition of more staff we have been able to make use of recruiting and to devote more time to each student-athlete," says Kish. "We have tried to recruit people instead of athletes and have been lucky to find ourselves with a group of young ladies that have great spirit and chemistry."
There are no captains on the Bison women's rowing team. Instead, there are senior leaders, which consist of the whole senior class. Each year the seniors meet with Kish on a weekly basis. Those veterans are the ones that set the tone for the squad that numbers more than 60 rowers.
"I think our team is special in that there are so many of us, but we have the one common goal, and that is to keep progressing," comments Page Kannor, one of six seniors on this year's team. "You can't have that without everyone being in and working hard. It's been really cool to have that mindset."
Kannor and fellow seniors Gillian Carter, Caitlin Doolin, Kelly Henkler, Whittney Henry and Jeweliet Yost are charged with continuing the tradition of team cohesiveness that has blossomed in recent years. Team members regularly write journal entries that appear on www.BucknellBison.com and there are very few mentions of the success on the water. Instead, the passages focus on the friendships, relationships and long-lasting bonds that are formed within the team.
The team members spend countless hours together on the water and land throughout the year, making those relationships extremely important. During the fall semester, the team focuses on small-boat skills, something that would not have been possible technically, mentally or financially a few years ago. Additionally, the squad members train heavily throughout the fall despite only one or two competitions appearing on the schedule.
While the fall training can be tiresome, the Bison at least get to see the water, even if it is as the sun creeps over the horizon. The winter training can be downright boring as the rowers are stuck in the erg room for an immense amount of time. However, to a woman, the team knows that training time is important to their success just a few months down the road.
"With rowing, once you have that tiny feeling of accomplishment at the end of a race, that is enough motivation to make it through the winter," says Doolin, who is in her third year as a member of the varsity eight. "You can't train like we do without teammates. It is 55 girls training as one unit."
Thanks to the championships, awards and honors, the Bison will get to see their hard work pay off this spring against some big names in the women's rowing world. In addition to its normal slate of championship events, Bucknell will face five teams that finished in the top 12 of last year's final national rankings.
That difficult schedule will only help the Bison proceed on the path up the mountain even further. With the top of the mountain in sight, Kish cautions the NCAA Championships are not at the top, as most outsiders would believe. Instead, he thinks providing the best scholar-athlete experience in the country is the program's mission.
"If we continue focusing on our process, I believe we can become one of the top-five programs in the country in terms of student-athlete experience and I believe we can match that one day in terms of speed," explains Kish.
To obtain that ideal student-athlete experience, the Bucknell rowers must be strong academically as well as athletically, much like their fellow student-athletes on the other 26 Bison teams. Evidence of the team's success in the classroom is shown by the fact the squad has led the Patriot League in Academic Honor Roll selections with 65 over the last two years.
To help make sure the team stays at the top of the Patriot League in academics, there is a tutoring program within the team. Older squad members who have taken a certain class are paired up with younger teammates who are taking that class.
Additionally, even though it is tough to get up when that alarm goes off, many times in the five o'clock hour, Kannor cites the early morning practices as helping her academics.
"Having the early practice gets it out of the way so I can focus on schoolwork the rest of the day," says Kannor, who is majoring in animal behavior. "However, being a student-athlete, you have to learn to prioritize. You can't just be an average Joe and hang out."
Doolin is a civil engineering major and she tends to use rowing as a release from her academics and vice-versa.
"When I have a lot of frustration in school, then crew is my outlet," explains Doolin, who is a native of Pennsauken, N.J. "Sometimes people quit a sport because they feel like they don't have the time, but if I didn't have that outlet it would make it more difficult. It is a great way to balance my life."
Kannor, Doolin and their classmates will be entering the 2009 campaign aiming to help the program progress along even further. When they joined the team as part of the program's first recruiting class, Bucknell's only championship success had come at the Dad Vail Regatta. Now, just a few years later, the trophy case is brimming with shiny memorabilia.
"Every senior class since I have been here has built on the previous senior class's efforts," remarks Kish. "I am proud of them for that. The challenges of the senior class have changed as we have developed from a very small team to a large and very competitive team. It is interesting to watch as senior classes have gone from never winning a championship to one that has won three."
While the entire team would love to win a fourth consecutive Patriot League championship and add hardware to the already impressive collection, the seniors, especially, have heard the speech from their coach enough times to know it is not about them or their accomplishments, but about the process and the path.
All the women who have helped the program get to where it is today were recently back on campus to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the program. Among the highlights of the weekend celebration were a fun-filled reception, a special boat dedication and alumni boat races on the Susquehanna River, where current student-athletes joined their predecessors.
During that weekend, plenty of memories were recalled and stories exchanged. However, almost certainly, Kish's memories are tough to top as he has guided the program to prominence.
"The memories are vivid from my first interview all the way to the most recent practice," says a sentimental Kish. "We have a great history and we look back on it often for inspiration."
While Kish is hard-pressed to single out one moment from his time as Bison mentor, Doolin and Kannor both cite the 2006 Patriot League title as one of their top memories. The team had finished fourth the year before, but managed to edge out defending champion Navy by two points with freshmen stroking each of the three boats. Kannor was a member of the varsity eight that claimed its first of three consecutive Boat of the Year awards, while classmates Yost, Doolin, Henry and Carter rowed the second varsity eight to a second-place finish.
"That was a real humbling feeling because it was a huge success for our team, but I didn't have a medal around my neck," remembers Doolin. "That was interesting and was our first huge success."
The first of many successes. The trip up the mountain had to start somewhere.
"It's great to win, but it is always about the process," cautions Kannor. "Every time we have gone to the Patriot League Championships it is amazing and just another milestone. It really puts a snapshot to our growth as a program. It shows the progress we have made. I feel lucky to be part of a program that does have success. It's fun to be out there and more well-known in the rowing community."
This story appeared in the winter/spring edition of the Bison Roundup alumni magazine
