They came in all shapes and sizes, about 80 strong, men and women, many of whom didn't know bow from stern, an oar from a hockey stick. But they had answered the siren call for the rowing team they were starting up at Philadelphia University.
At that meeting during the first week of September, Chris O'Brien, Philly U's head rowing coach, surveyed the group of the fit and, well, not so fit, and turned to his assistants.
"We have a lot of work on our hands," he told them.
And that was fine by the 27-year-old O'Brien, a Dad Vail Regatta gold medalist as a coxswain on Villanova's lightweight eight in 2001. He had been working tirelessly just to get to this point, walking the halls of the small private university in the city's East Falls section, tapping athletic-looking students on the shoulder and asking them if they were interested in rowing.
"I'd walk around campus, through the dining hall and one building after another," O'Brien recalled yesterday. "If I saw someone who looked like an athlete, I'd say, 'Hey, do you play a sport on campus?' If they said no, I'd ask them if they'd like to row. That was it. I'd say we got eight to 10 people that way."
Thus, the foundation for the fledgling crew program at Philadelphia University was in place, along with five eight-oared shells, one four-oared shell, and a lot of patience from O'Brien, whose first day of instruction to his prospective team was a lesson in Rowing 101. This is a boat. This is how you get into the boat. This is an oar. This is how you stroke an oar.
"Our goal was not to try to go over the top the first year," O'Brien said. "The main thing was to stir up interest. I felt we needed a good number of kids to start the first year of the program, and I thought we did a good job getting 80 to come to that first meeting."
From that 80, 43 remain, mostly because of the demands on time and body such a strenuous sport involves. Among the 43, only two rowers - freshman Maureen Agnew and junior Emily Boruta, both from the Midwest - had experience.
A highlight for the Rams' women came during the Bergen Cup on the Schuylkill the last weekend in April, when they took first place in the freshman eight. The men were runners-up to St. Joseph's in the same event. By design, the crew's fall schedule was light, but it also took part in the Murphy Cup on the Schuylkill and the Knecht Cup on Cooper River.
