UW finds world-class rowers paddling in its own backyard

Jesse Johnson started rowing to stay in shape for football and wrestling at Mercer Island High.

The next thing he knew he was one of the most coveted recruits in the country.

"He was the guy we absolutely had to have, who defined what we were looking for," said Bob Ernst, the Washington rowing coach.

"Others would follow him, he had that kind of a reputation."

Johnson was like Joe Steele in football, and Brandon Roy in men's basketball, or any of a number of key local athletes Washington needed to stay at home.

But does it really matter that Washington is good — really good — again in rowing, that the UW varsity men's eight established itself as the No. 1-ranked crew in the land by winning the Head of the Charles Regatta in the fall and has kept it by repeatedly turning back California and Stanford in the spring.

On June 2, they'll try to win their first national title — at the IRA in New Jersey — since 1997, which could set them up for a trip to the Henley Regatta in England.

"I know rowing isn't a main revenue-producing sport or a media favorite," said Johnson, a sophomore pulling the No. 2 oar, "but, you know, we have had a good season."

For me, crew is classic at Washington, the sport that a lakeside university ought to be good at, and has been, winning Olympic and national tiles.

It's indigenous to Puget Sound. Its first coach established the way to stroke a boat at a time when the best boats were built here.

Because of its history it ought to be more important at Washington than baseball and track and golf and softball and volleyball and soccer — all but football and basketball.

The rowing community, if no one else, is rejoicing in Washington's triumphant season, and understands how difficult it is to dominate a sport that went worldwide with the fall of the Soviet bloc.

For years, Washington had the advantage of miles of open water, a tradition that drew athletes from other sports, and local rowing clubs.

But to understand why USC has the No. 1-ranked women's team you need look no further than a roster you can't pronounce. The Trojans have attracted top-notch rowers from Poland and Russia who were obviously eager to learn and train in Los Angeles.

"Cal imposed that recruiting dynamic on us," he said of the Bears' use of foreign athletes. "We needed to get world-class athletes but we wanted to get them from as close to home as we could. That's the model."

He wanted them to have their parents be able to see the races, for the kids to go home when they needed to, so he started first by going after locals and then moved through Western Canada.

At Mercer Island, Johnson had helped the U.S. row to a world junior championship.

"He's not big but he is as tough as they come," said Ernst of the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Johnson. "Everyone in rowing knew about him."

In the UW varsity eight, there are five Americans, three Canadians and a European, Aljosa Corovic of Serbia. More important, there are only two seniors. And the JVs also won the recent Pac-10 championships to suggest an underlying pool of good, young rowers.

Who are the guys in the boat?

Well, first of all, one of them is a woman, Katelin Snyder, the coxswain, who comes from Florida.

"She, too, was a world champion in high school who wanted to come to Washington, that's what we're looking for," said Ernst. "Katelin is really, really good, a top-three, all-time at Washington."

Will Crothers, the stroke, rowed on a Canadian team that won a world championship for rowers under the age of 23. So did Rob Gibson, the No. 5 rower, and the bow, Max Lang.

As Ernst explained it, top-notch rowers who stay in Canada don't normally go to college at the same time. The U.S. college programs are more sophisticated and offer young Canadians the chance to excel at both rowing and education.

Two other guys in the boat are transfers, and true to the mystique of rowing, hadn't rowed before college. Amateurs.

Heath Allen, at No. 7, was a cross-country ski racer who transferred from Colorado, and Dave Worley, at No. 4, who played tennis in high school at Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island, transferred from Washington State.

They were drawn to Washington by not only its tradition, but a renewed emphasis in recruiting spearheaded by freshman coach Michael Callahan.

Steve Full, at No. 3, is from Maine and was in Callahan's first recruiting class along with Gibson. Johnson, Lang, Snyder and Crothers were in the second class.

Johnson made recruiting trips to Cal, Brown and Washington.

"I knew Washington," he said. "I loved Seattle, but mostly I just liked the attitude among the rowers. They were in it together. In the end, I wanted to be part of the tradition."

If not start some himself.

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