Robyn Horner is understandably excited about making the jump from Division III to coach the inaugural edition of Duke's new women's rowing program.
She'll be even more excited when she finds out who is on her roster.
Horner was named head coach in late June and since has had just a few months to prepare a schedule, order equipment and set up practices-all without the luxury of knowing who will be on her team.
"It's a little funny right now because I don't know what my team's like," Horner said. "It's an interesting mix of trying to take what's already there, and sort of move it up a notch as quickly as we can. I see that as more of a challenge then actually being at Duke.
"It's going to be a matter of pulling the team together, communicating with them what my expectations are, them knowing that they're going to have to adapt and I'm obviously going to have to adapt to a new group. We'll see how quickly we can bring the level up and then go with it."
Horner expects part of her 45-woman roster to be made up of last year's club team, which had 20 rowers. In addition, she said about 60-70 percent of her novice rowers will come from campus, with the rest of the team composed of incoming freshmen. Horner said she knows of at least eight new freshmen who rowed varsity in high school. Duke will likely field two varsity eight and two novice eight boats in the fall.
The former Williams College head coach is not worried about moving from a Division II/III program up to the top. At Williams, Horner compiled a 180-19 overall record in three years and led Williams to a No. 1 ranking among New England Division II/III schools last season.
"I am excited about it and I know it's going to be a different experience, but I also think the difference in coming to a Division I program that's already established to one that's not quite established yet makes it a different type of jump," Horner said. "Obviously Duke has very successful sports teams, but in the past, crew has not been competitive with the other varsity programs because they've been a club program."
One of Horner's goals is to have everything in place before the team's first meeting Sept. 7 so that the returning rowers will feel that the program truly has taken a big step up from club to varsity status. For instance, their practice schedule will be much more consistent. Horner expects the Blue Devils to practice at Lake Michie, about 25 minutes from campus.
Their schedule will feature regattas both near and far. Duke opens its fall season Oct. 3 at the Head of the Ohio in Pittsburgh. Horner also hopes to schedule dual races with North Carolina, who is in its second year. Other ACC schools include established power Virginia and Clemson, who like Duke is starting its first season.
"I know that we're going to be able to make some huge improvements this year," Horner said. "My personal goal is to see us be on top of Clemson. What we're trying to look for is to drive close to UNC. We'd like to at least get to them this year if not try to exceed them.
"It's hard for me to say without knowing who we have, but it's probably unlikely that we're going to go head-to-head with someone like Virginia this year."
For now, Horner is focused on just getting everything in order. She has written a letter to her potential rowers, ordered equipment and set the schedule. Then the physical work begins as Duke's 26th varsity team prepares to open its season.
"My expectation is the harder we work, the better we're going to be," Horner said.
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