McMaster’s 5:30 a.m. athletes: the rowing team
C/o Yoohyun Park
Meet a McMaster sports team who finds themselves with very minimal media share — the rowing team. They were founded in 2002 and are composed of varsity, junior varsity and novice teams. The rowing team attends numerous regattas, the most recent one being the invitational regatta hosted by the University of Guelph.
With the lack of media attention comes a few problems for the team, the largest one being a lack of incoming members. Jacob Bresolin is the captain of the men’s rowing team.
“Definitely without having a lot of media coverage and not much attention, it’s hard to keep numbers up and keep people interested in rowing. And definitely it’s a big turn off when you tell them that we have to wake up at 4:30 in the morning,” said Bresolin.
Sarah Oresnik, the captain of the women's rowing team, further echoed this message, conveying the difficulty of member recruitment, especially through the pandemic.
“With COVID, we’ve had a couple of years of students graduating, so we lost a lot of our varsity members, and we didn’t have novice teams for at least a year,” said Oresnik.
The novice teams are made up of those who have an interest in rowing but have never rowed either competitively, or even at all.
“The way novice works is it’s for people who have never rowed before and have never rowed a race in their life before, and we train them for a year and teach them how to row a race. And then if they come back for another year, they have the chance to be on the JV or varsity team straight out of novice,” explained Bresolin
While joining the team may be easier, having the will to stay on it is much harder.
“I think keeping your cool and staying in time are the hardest parts about it,” said Bresolin. “And basically staying focused and keeping yourself from getting frustrated when things don’t go right. Especially when you’re in a boat with a lot of people, there’s a lot of factors that you can’t control.”
Oresnik agreed and explained her mentality regarding the sport.
“When you get frustrated, [you have to] focus even more, keep your head in the boat, follow the swing of the person in front of you,” said Oresnik.
However, according to Bresolin, these hardships build great relationships.
“Being at practice is another way that we actually build our team spirit and our team bond, just by rowing together every morning. The struggle builds friendships,” commented Bresolin.
"Being at practice is another way that we actually build our team spirit and our team bond, just by rowing together every morning. The struggle builds friendships."
Oresnik agreed, “Yeah, you’re all going through the same experiences, and it really brings you together.”
The rowing team’s next race is the weekend of the second of October, and will be hosted by Brock University in St. Catharines. In preparation for the event, the team will be heading to Trent University for an exhibitional race on Oct. 2.
“This weekend, we are heading up to Trent University to row a bit of a longer race, it’s called a head race. It’s about five kilometers down the Trent course. . . It cuts through the campus, so it’s a really cool race. There’s a lot of energy at this regatta, so it should be a fun time,” explained Bresolin.
During the pandemic, athletes never stopped training, so the recruiting process had to adjust to a new normal amid the restricitions
Graphic by Esra Rakab, production Coordinator
Throughout the pandemic, many students had to go through many new experiences in their everyday school life, from remote learning to digital club experiences and much more. Above all else, student-athletes have possibly seen the most change in their school lives, as not only was their regular season cancelled, but their practices had to become something completely new to make sure they continued training and got better.
One of the biggest adjustments that new athletes have seen during the pandemic is the altered recruitment process. In typical years, coaches would have meetings with potential recruits, show them the campus, have them join the team for practice and whatever else they feel is necessary to help improve their odds of landing more talent.
However, this year, the recruitment process bore no resemblance to the past.
However, this year, the recruitment process bore no resemblance to the past.
Matthew Rugosi — a new commit to the McMaster men’s volleyball team — discussed the process that he experienced and some major differences from what he originally expected.
“It was definitely different than what I was expecting . . . My brother went through the same recruitment process [years earlier] and he got to visit the McMaster campus and talk to the coach and practice with the team,” said Rugosi.
As Rugosi discussed the experiences and interactions he had and the recruitment process he was put through, the student-athlete expressed that he originally expected a campus tour with the head coach and an opportunity to practice with the team — but unfortunately received none of the above.
“I had to figure it out on my own and see how I like the campus. Before COVID, I was talking to [head coach] Dave Preston and he had me come to one of the games so I could see the game live. That was probably the most interaction I got in person with them,” explained Rugosi.
Rugosi missed out on many typical aspects of the recruitment process. For many athletes, it is a once-in-a-lifetime event to be recruited by university teams. To miss out on all the enjoyable parts of the process is devastating. From understanding what a typical practice looks like, to exploring the campus and figuring out the general vibe that a school holds, all these aspects play a big role in the recruitment of an athlete.
Rugosi was fortunate to have some level of familiarity with the team given that he had an older brother who was rostered, but even then the interactions he had were limited, forcing him a difficult time selecting a school. For Rugosi, it came down to head coach Preston.
Rugosi remarks that Preston being a main factor on why he chose McMaster was because he really cares about his players and appreciated his coaching style.
“Another reason why I chose McMaster is because Dave Preston went out of the box and wished me a happy birthday, which none of the other coaches did. I thought that was something really cool and unique,” said Rugosi.
“Another reason why I chose McMaster is because Dave Preston went out of the box and wished me a happy birthday, which none of the other coaches did. I thought that was something really cool and unique."
Matthew Rugosi
In a year with limited interactions, anything personable can go a long way, and clearly, in this instance, it made a big difference. Recruitment processes are very different than ever before, so every move is vital for schools in their efforts to get the best talent on their team rosters.
