The K-State Wildcats rowing team’s fall season starts this Saturday with the Head of Oklahoma regatta in Oklahoma City.
This weekend is one of just two regattas that the Wildcats have in the fall before entering a long winter training period, followed by the spring season. Head coach Patrick Sweeney said he believes that this opening race gives his team some vindication for the training they’ve gone through since the start of the school year.
“They’ve done six weeks of training, and this sort of gives them the ‘this is the reason why we’re doing this,'” Sweeney said. “It’s sort of a little boost and then we get back into the training.”
The rowers on the team share Sweeney’s view in that this weekend will provide a relief from weeks of intense training and get the team acclimated to actual competition.
“It’s a break instead of going from the first day of school all the way to spring break with straight training,” senior Aly Bronder said. “It definitely gives us something to shoot for in the fall.”
One of the most exciting parts about the rowing team’s season is that it will be the first in their brand new training facility, located just east of Bill Snyder Family Stadium. The team is scheduled to move into the building in the near future.
“It’s actually sort of a breath of fresh air into the program,” Sweeney said. “It’s sort of given it that spark because we got to a point where we knew what we were doing and we were making progress slowly, but we were sort of plateauing out. This sort of gives us that next kick up.”
Sweeney said that the new facility will help rejuvenate the rowing program, including efforts towards recruiting athletes.
“Over the next three or four years, we should see the program get better,” Sweeney said. “We’re going to be going out and recruiting kids who really want to be here and see the facility.”