Row, Row, Row Your Scull At Boys, Girls Club Clinic

4-9-10

By LAURA COX


Rowing: some people know what it is, and some people think it’s like canoeing.
“Rowing is different than canoeing,” said Andrea Thies, a two-time Olympic rower and head coach of Cooperstown Crew, “the boats are much different, there are much longer oars, and you do not ‘paddle;’ there is different terminology.”
Thies, along with several accomplished rowers and coaches from Cooperstown Crew, will lead a free rowing clinic for high school age boys and girls 2-3 p.m. on Sunday, April 11, at the Oneonta Boys and Girls Club.
“It’s a great opportunity for kids to get a chance to try something they haven’t, something they never thought they could do,” she said.
It wasn’t until her freshman year at Cornell University that Thies gave rowing a try. She had never really participated in organized sports, but considered herself an athletic and “outdoorsy” tomboy.
The rowing coach approached her at freshman orientation and put on a hard sell, bragging that the athletes on the team had the highest GPA of all the sports. It took her a while to warm up to the idea, but eventually she made it to an introductory meeting and it became something she fell in love with.
“You never know until you try,” said Thies.
Her senior year – 1989 – Cornell won the collegiate national championship. After college she packed her backpack, hopped on a bus and moved to Boston where there was a training center. She wanted to try out for the national team.
Thies didn’t make nationals the first year, so she started to row in individual races called sculling – previously she was on an eight person boat. The next year she made the national team and competed with them in Vienna, Switzerland, Argentina, Czech Republic, Austria, Spain, and traveled all throughout Europe and the United States. She competed with the national team 1991 to 1996.
In 1992, Thies made the Olympic team for the races in Barcelona. She became ill and had to pull out, but stayed on as an alternate. In 1996, she finally got to compete in the Olympics when the games were in Atlanta. She competed in “double and quads” and the Olympic team came in 8th place.
After the Olympics the rower went into a career as an environmental consultant, but she started working with youth and kids and coached at the collegiate and high school level.
 In recent years, Thies has formulated plans to get rowing going in Otsego County and this clinic is just a start.
“When I proposed the idea to the Boys and Girls Club I had a response from them within 24 hours. They said they love rowing and would love to help,” said Thies. “They really are a facility designed for young people. You walk in and it’s all about kids and kids don’t have to feel like they are in the way of somebody.”
Petrea Delbert, from the Oneonta Boys and Girls Club said, “We are always thrilled to offer new programs to the youth of our community, and to be able to have this caliber of athletic experience and excellence in the Club’s tradition of affordability make this program that much more exciting.
At the clinic teens will learn the basics of rowing using rowing machines called rowing ergometers at the club. Several machines have been loaned to the club for use by University of Albany. The goal, for students who complete the program, is to row this summer on the water and have the opportunity to race this fall at regattas across New York.
For more information about the rowing programs at the Oneonta Boys and Girls Club, visit the Club at 70 River St., contact Petra Delbert at 432-1133 or at www.oneontaboysandgirlsclub.com.