The Tennessee rowing team is preparing to build on the most successful year in the program’s history, according to rowing coach Lisa Glenn.
Rowing may float in obscurity in East Tennessee, but Glenn said she hopes the team’s continued success will lead to more support.
“We know rowing isn’t in the foreground here in East Tennessee,” Glenn said. “We had a good year last year. Continuing that success will only help others understand how hard these girls work.”
The Lady Vols compete in the fall and spring, and are coming off a landmark year in the program’s history. The spring season saw the first-ever NCAA rowing championship appearance by the Lady Vols, who finished 16th in national competition, 14th in the final national rankings.
Breaking the barrier should make returning to the championships easier but will push the team to work harder, Glenn said.
“We have set the bar high for this team,” Glenn said. “But we should be strong with most of our team coming back and the experience under our belts.”
Seven of the nine members of Tennessee’s varsity eight boat will return. Among that group are two All-Americans, juniors Kaitlin Bargreen and Chelsea Pemberton.
Bargreen is the first Lady Vol ever selected to the first team, while Pemberton was a second-team selection.
“I am proud of Katie and Chelsea and very positive about the things we are doing and the places we are going as a team,” Glenn said.
But while she was proud of both athletes, Glenn made it clear rowing is not an individualistic sport.
“You cannot get All-America honors by yourself in rowing because the win/loss record of your crew is an important selection criterion,” she said.
“The character and hard work of all nine student-athletes who raced the varsity eight must be mentioned. They had to step up and have the success to enable the accomplishments of Katie and Chelsea to be recognized.”
To see that the Lady Vols don’t drop off in performance in the 2003-04 season, Glenn brought in new assistant coach Shannon Daley. Daley has served as Duke’s first assistant and program coordinator for the past five years and will only push the team more, according to Glenn.
“I’m very excited to have Shannon joining us,” Glenn said. “She will bring a good amount of experience in recruiting and coaching competitive Division I athletes, and I’m looking forward to her making a positive contribution.”
With several positive pieces in place for the Tennessee rowing team, Glenn said she foresees a nice year ahead if the team maintains the work ethic of the previous year.
“You can’t rest on what you have accomplished the year before,” Glenn said. “We will be doing the same things we did last year to prepare … hopefully those methods will prove to be successful again.”
