Jump from club to varsity status not easy for women's crew

The boats might not have arrived on time. The boathouse might not be exactly perfect. The team's conditioning might leave something to be desired. All in all, the women's crew team is still lacking a few things.

But it has something that no other crew team has had at Duke: varsity status, and of the things the team lacks, enthusiasm is not among them.

"It's really exciting right now," coach Robyn Horner said of the team's first varsity season. "It's been exciting for me because the kids are all so excited about it, and they've been absolutely great about doing whatever [the coaching staff] tells them, really jumping in with both feet."

Turning from a club team into Duke's 26th varsity program hasn't been all smiles, but growing pains are something to which this team is quickly becoming accustomed.

"It's a big change, but one everybody has been looking forward to," sophomore Lily Clark said. "It's so much better organized. It requires from us a greater commitment, but it's one everybody has been anxious to meet."

With the move to varsity, Horner's primary emphasis so far has been on physical conditioning and year-round training, something that the club team was unable to do.

"The biggest thing they'll notice is the more demanding physical requirements," Horner said. "But they won't have to spend their time doing administrative things like they have in the past. It's definitely going to be more of a commitment, but one they have been and will be great about making."

And the results of that commitment are beginning to show. Following the first rounds of erg tests last week, Horner was pleased with where her team stood in its preparedness for the season.

"It would take a great high-school athlete to [row on the varsity boat], but it could be done," she said. "It's a challenge I've made to the varsity rowers, to see if they can hold their spots, but right now we're not looking for heavy freshman contribution until the spring."

Although the next weeks will be important, the focus for this team still lies in the spring. Joining the newly formed ACC women's rowing conference, which includes fellow first-year program Clemson, second-year program North Carolina and national power Virginia, NCAA bids and ACC championships are already on Horner's mind. The primary goal for this team, however, is simply to learn what it means to be a varsity team.

"From the fall we don't have specific performance goals, we just want to get a lot of race experience," Horner said. "While the fall is important, it is the spring that is our focus. Of course I really want to win in the fall as well, but it's the spring and the ACCs I'm concerned with.

"Right now, we need to just be sure they know the difference and the changes that have happened. It's a different story being a club athlete and being a varsity athlete... we're not quite there yet, but we've got a good point to begin from to build toward being a national power."