Senior Will Pointer found himself on the water with his friends, abandoned, sinking, and slightly concerned, but luckily for Will, this was just an average crew practice. 

“[My friends and I] were rowing, and our old coach had abandoned us a little bit,” Will said. “He’s not our current coach anymore, but after he left, we started sinking because it was raining and the waves were coming over and into the boat. So, our boat was filled to the gunnel with water, and we were trying to make it back, but it was only 20 degrees out, so we were really struggling.”

Will has been doing crew since he tried it for the first time freshman year. Since then, he has had a lot of time to gather many stories similar to that one that are fun to look back on and laugh at now. 

Will explains that prior to joining the team in the winter of his freshman year, he had always had an interest in it considering his sister was also part of the crew team before she graduated, so once he found out a lot of his friends were also going to join, it was an easy decision for him. 

“At first, it was kind of hard because I didn’t actually realize how much work goes into crew,” Will said. “It’s a lot more conditioning than one would expect and a lot of cardio in general, but there’s also a lot of really good people on the team, and the upperclassmen were really good at helping everyone out during the tougher practices.”

Will explained that even though some of his seasons got a little messed up due to COVID-19, he still made goals for himself over the years to keep himself motivated and get to the point he’s at today as a senior. 

“I have a lot of goals for me and my boat,” Will said. “I have this quad that I’m in with three other guys on the team, and we really want to go to nationals this year, so I’m really working towards that and trying to be faster for them. We really make sure we are working hard every practice and always focusing on getting faster each time.”

In addition to the conditioning aspect that helps them reach their goals, Will feels that it’s also really important to make sure he is building good relationships with the other people in his boat.

Luckily for Will, this hasn’t been much of a problem considering all of the guys in his quad are part of the same friend group and get along really well both during practice, and also all the times they hang out outside of crew. 

“We’re all pretty close,” Will said. “We hang out a lot since we’re all part of the same friend group, so we’ll hang out and do a bunch of random stuff like watch movies, and sometimes do stupid stuff. Once, I was on a sled with one of the guys getting dragged by a car through a neighborhood, and I actually hurt my hip pretty bad, but we just have fun doing stuff like that.”

Having good relationships makes the feeling of accomplishing their goals within crew that much better because he gets to celebrate with his friends, which Will explained as one of the best feelings as well as a way to make a lot of great memories. 

“Last year, I think it was at Midwest,” Will said. “My boat thought we had no chance of placing, but we ended up getting second or third place, and it was such a great feeling, and it really pays off in that moment and you just feel really proud of yourself, and also all the work that you’ve done with the guys in your boat. That relationship with them becomes even stronger.”