Rowing Offers Kids More Than Recreation

WASHINGTON - "I want to see a little more aggression over there. We're not doing much work," Linda Miller, coach of the Wilson High School boys varsity crew team, yells to the boys as they row out in the Potomac River on a rainy Wednesday afternoon.

"Pull a little harder," the former Olympian and national and world rowing champ coaxes the dozens of boys. "Make it strong. Get a good rhythm going."

On this particular day, the only crew team in D.C. schools, is making its final practice before national competition.

"Stroke. Accelerate," Miller calls out, encouraging the team. "That's it. There you go. Keep it going. Keep it going."

The calm waters of the Potomac River through Georgetown make rowing a popular sport for high school and college students in the area.

"This area is considered a junior rowing hot bed," says Miller.

But the competition between local teams extends beyond high school rivalries.

With teams attracting 100 or so members each, and parents footing the bills for the $25,000 boats through booster clubs, rowers are finding themselves up against a boat storage problem.

The expansion of the Swedish Embassy on the waterfront next to Thompson Boat Center displaced some of the rowing shells docked outside at Thompson's. The boat center is a popular spot for boat storage for Georgetown and George Washington University, as well as high schools and private rowing clubs.

Georgetown University is trying to negotiate a land swap with the National Park Service -- swapping land farther up the river for land near existing boathouses in Georgetown. If that happens, the storage crunch at Thompson's will ease.

But for now, the loss of storage space has Miller wondering about the future of the sport that's attracted some 2,500 local teens.

"Especially with the Swedish embassy building there, it's really, really tight. The question is how big do you let these programs get? Do you let them continue to attract more and more students as they are and grow? Or do you put some kind of a cap on the number of kids?"

Miller hopes it doesn't. The former T.C. Williams High School rower sees rowing as a sport that teaches accountability, dedication and focus while exercising the body "like a floating leg press."

"It teaches a lot of discipline. If one person doesn't show up for practice, the whole boat can't go out," she says. "These kids are learning a lot more than how to row a boat. They're learning about how to work together."

And they're working together, gaining an appreciation of the Potomac, in a river that she believes is cleaner than it was during her high school days.

"The idea of swimming in this river 10 or 15 years ago was a proposition that would be met with serious concern for your health. Now people swim in it all the time."

Miller would love to see the waterfront dotted with smaller boathouses.

"This is such a productive use of the river. You can't ask for a better way to use the river than to have a bunch of high school kids learning how well they can push their limits and where they can push their limits."

Yet, Miller says she would like to see more done to clean up the Potomac River.

"After it's been raining here, you see a lot of garbage and trash coming down in large quantities. It's troubling to see that."

(Copyright 2005 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)