Rowing Is Making Its Own Opportunities in Ever-Changing Conditions

The University of Louisville rowing team was just days away from the start of its 2020 season when the lockdowns started. The squad hasn't competed officially since.

And while that was difficult for the Cardinals along with the rest of the collegiate rowing world to deal with – it even marked an unexpected end for many student-athletes – Head Coach Derek Copeland views it as an opportunity rather than a setback.

"COVID now offers a lot more variance," Copeland said. "Use to be that there were a few things that predicted rankings, like predicted speak. But now there's a whole lot more: how you dealt with COVID, how you trained on your own for eight months and how adaptable your team is.

"You'll see shakeups like you've never seen in the NCAA and in the ACC, in particular," Copeland said.

Copeland says the Cardinals plan on taking advantage of that shakeup with a new attitude and updated culture that the coaching staff went so far to update the gear their team will wear this year to match.

And while that journey will start later than expected after an event scheduled at Southern Methodist in Dallas was cancelled due to inclement weather conditions, the start is now undoubtedly around the corner as the Cardinals are scheduled to begin Spring Training on March 3 with competition at the Oak Ridge Cardinal Invitational set for March 13-14.

"In early competition, you try to get as much experience as you can and sort of test the water, so to speak," Copeland said. "That would have been SMU if we had done it. Then there is Oak Ridge and the last weekend in March, maybe even that first weekend of April, that's sort of that tune up. Every week you get a little bit more serious."

Copeland added that the UofL-hosted Oak Ridge Invitational will provide the Cardinals and other competitors a chance to participate in an environment that contains all the bells and whistles of a championship even without the risk of losing favor with NCAA Committee members due to its early placement in the season.

"It's not a very high-stakes race, but it's a high-experience race," Copeland said. "We'll have drones, the starting docks, the motorboats that will be around, everything will be the same. And anybody who is there, they don't have to wait a month to see some of those features."
Things will ramp up as UofL prepares for and competes in the Big Ten Invitational back at Oak Ridge, Tenn., then a trip to Ann Arbor, Mich., on the first weekend of May to put the finishing touches in preparation for the ultimate event of the season, the ACC Championship in Clemson, S.C.

During that time, the Cardinals will be putting in the groundwork in attempting to earn at-large bids for NCAA Championship races, with the ACC Championship providing an opportunity for them to earn automatic bids.

As for the groups that will be competing for the Cardinals this season, Copeland is confident in the group he has a whole, but where they will fit as pieces of the hopefully-winning puzzle are still yet to be determined.

There are five boat classes that compete throughout the season and at the ACC Championships: the V8+, 2V8+, V4+, 2V4+, and 3V8+. The V8+, 2V8+, and V4+ are known as NCAA boats as they compete at the NCAA Championships in May. At the ACC and NCAA Championships, each boat is worth a certain amount of points. The V8+ is worth the most and the points move down from there. Each boat competes within its own boat class, so the V8+ will race other V8+'s.

As such, the Cardinals are ultimately competing amongst themselves for spots on the V8+ squad based on their skill, strength, competitiveness and cohesion with each other.

"We put our top girls in the top boat, then the next eight and etc.," Copeland said. "You keep moving everybody to the best seat you can. With (athletes) opting out, we'll be cutting to close to have all the boats at (the ACC Championship), but I'm sure we'll have them. We've always cut it pretty close."

Some of the athletes competing for sports on that V8+ boat include junior McKenzie Sweeney, senior Violette Legrand and junior Claudia Figueiredo.

Legrand, a captain on the team, has potential to earn All-American status if things go her way this season, Copeland said.

"Violette has been a pretty good award-winner and deservedly so," he said. "A lot of things are coming together for her."

But nobody is guaranteed a spot on that V8+ boat, and every athlete on the team contributes to the Cardinals' success.

Copeland's biggest takeaway from the preparation his team has put in to this point is that the bar has been set far higher than it ever has been previously.

"You're only as good as your average performer," Copeland said. "The first difference anyone who is watching would notice is that the average has been raised quite a bit. That part of the program has leveled up. Their average amount of work is significantly stronger than it's ever been."

It might be a strange season with less traditional preparation than ever, but Copeland likes his team, and he definitely likes where it's headed.

But the Cardinals are on their way, by his estimation. And the 2021 season will mark another significant step in that journey.

University of Louisville Athletics

Rowing Is Making Its Own Opportunities in Ever-Changing Conditions

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