The Rockies Rowing Club already made the news this week with the story of Katie Clark heading off to compete in New Zealand, but in addition to that, they have sent three of their members off to the BC Summer Games this weekend.
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Emily Sartorel, Erienne O’Grady and Jordan Adams from the Rockies Rowing Club in Cranbrook, alongside Avery Bruin and assistant coach Jesse Harold from the Nelson Rowing Club, are currently competing at the Summer Games in Cowichan, B.C. Together they represent Zone 1.
They all have different levels of experience heading into the games, but they have all been working as hard as they can to prepare. Sartorel, who has been rowing for around four or five years, said, “I’ve been training since the ice came off the lake, because you obviously can’t row when there’s ice on the lake. It’s just something that we’ve all been working towards and we’re all super excited for.”
Their coach Roberta Rodgers has been rowing since 1975, when she was living in Edmonton and in the Naval Reserve. The local rowing club came and made a presentation and told everyone that if they wanted to get involved to leave their phone number.
“I gave them my phone number and the rest is history,” said Rodgers. “I fell in with the sport right away, it was something about the movement of the boat through the water and if you use peripheral vision, because you keep your head up you use peripheral vision and you can see the water rushing by the boat and it just was a really interesting experience.”
The Rockies Rowing Club started in 2001 and Rodgers has been involved since 2003. In 2014, with her kids grown up, she decided to devote more focus and energy to the club and get more competitive with it.
“The BC summer games were happening that summer,” she recalled. “We had four young ladies come down to the club, one of the parents said hey these girls are interested lets get them going so taught them to row through the month of May, took them to some regattas and ended up at the Summer Games.”
One of those young rowers was Katie Clark. Rodgers talent and commitment to the club and its rowers is obvious from looking at their performance and the gratitude and respect they all show her. When asked how she feels seeing Katie head off to New Zealand and three of her rowers heading to the BC Games she replied:
“It’s really hard to answer that question because in my mind I think of the time and energy that coaches in the past put into my time learning and rowing and so for me it’s a pay it forward these youths an opportunity to experience something that I experienced and if they choose to move forward like Katie has and Danielle did, if they make that choice, then I honour them for that because at some point it’s not mine anymore it’s their’s, so that’s how I feel about it.”
The Rockies Rowing Club is always looking for new youths who want to go to the BC Summer Games. The next Summer Games will take place in 2020.
“And [from] Zone 1 we would like to take a full contingent which is two, four males and four females so far our max number has been four and usually it’s four females, and then three females and one male and now again it’s three females and one male so it would be really awesome to encourage young people to come out and find if rowing works for them.”