The 2015 RoRy Awards, Part One: Celebrating the Best in Rowing at the Junior Level


You may have heard of the ESPY Awards, ESPN's annual awards series. Well, they are only slightly less prestigious and highly coveted than the RoRys, our annual awards here at RowingRelated.

It may be hard to believe, but it's already time for the fifth annual RoRy Awards, our three-day celebration of the best athletes, coaches, and performances of the season at the junior, collegiate, and elite levels. In accordance with tradition, we're kicking off the festivities with a look at junior rowing—and there was no shortage of inspiration from the junior ranks this year! As we said immediately after the 2015 USRowing Youth National Championships, are we witnessing new dynasties emerge, East and West?

But we digress. Here, presented without further ado, are your 2015 RoRy Award winners for outstanding achievement at the junior level.

RoRy for Junior Sweep Program of the Year: 
Saugatuck Rowing Club
The Saugatuck women were all but unstoppable during the 2014-2015 season, having kicked things off with a splash at the Head Of The Charles (winning and placing two eights within the top eight overall), and continuing their streak of success through junior nationals: Saugatuck not only won the women's varsity eight, but also took the lightweight women's eight—a double-victory to match that of Derek Byrnes' outstanding Oakland team in 2014. And, the SRC second varsity eight once again impressed, placing eighth overall. Congratulations to coach Chase Graham (now at Duke University) and everyone at Saugatuck for fantastic year!

RoRy for Junior Sculling Program of the Year: 
Narragansett Boat Club
It seemed like the sculling events this year were a series of family rivalries, especially on the women's side, as the Kallfelz sisters of Narragansett took on the Sharis sisters of Y Quad Cities in the double. This year, it would be Emily Kallfelz (2014 RoRy Award winner for Junior Female Athlete of the Year) and sister Eliza who topped the podium—the second victory for Emily in the span of roughly two hours. Narragansett also took first place in the lightweight men's double, and NBC's Jack Luby took fourth in the men's single. Also, another NBC standout, Brigid Kennedy, took fifth in the women's single. Suffice it to say, they know their way around a sculling boat on the Seekonk.

RoRy for Junior Women's Coach of the Year: 
Chase Graham, Saugatuck Rowing Club
You might have seen this coming, but it's hard not to pick a guy who responded to a near miss in 2014 with a rare HOCR + national championship season. Graham prepared his team well enough to handle the pressure of the expectations, but coaches always talk about how getting that first one is the toughest—now, thanks in no small part to Graham's efforts, there are more than a few SRC athletes that are veterans of a national championship campaign, as this East Coast club looks to build a dynasty to rival those out west.

RoRy for Junior Men's Coach of the Year: 
Nick D'Antoni, Newport Aquatic Center
What was that we said about it being hard not to pick a guy who leads his team to both a Head Of The Charles victory and a national title? Well, we still love you, Brian de Regt (and hats off for an awesome first season with Oakland), but we had to give the award for Junior Men's Coach of the Year to NAC's own prodigal son, Nick D'Antoni. After taking a year away from junior rowing, coaching in Princeton, D'Antoni returned to Newport, and built a crew that far outperformed many people's expectations (not ours, though), nearly winning the junior men's eight at nationals. Then, D'Antoni coached the men's four to a best-ever, top-five finish at the World Rowing Junior Championships. Nice work, Nick!

RoRy for Breakthrough Performance of the Year: 
Community Rowing, Inc. Junior Men
The men's squad from CRI this year had a breakthrough performance at nationals, earning a bronze medal in a very tight field in the men's varsity eight, placed fifth in the lightweight eight, and scored a national title in the men's pair. CRI also brought a second eight to compete in the varsity event, placing 16th overall. Congratulations to coach Will Congram for building the speed of the program, and leading the CRI men to an outstanding performance on the regional and national stages this season.

RoRy for Junior Race of the Year:
The Men's Eight Grand Final, USRowing Youth National Championships
This was an all out battle to the line, that saw D'Antoni's Newport Aquatic Center nearly topple de Regt's outstanding Oakland crew, only to have Oakland come through in the final 500m with an epic sprint to claim the victory. Check out the waning stages of the race, as the crews rush to the line, in the video clip below.



RoRy for Junior Female Athlete of the Year:
Sofia Asoumanaki, Greek Rowing Federation
This has been a breakout season for Sofia Asoumanaki, whose memorable campaign began at Crash-Bs last March—Asoumanaki's 6:30.2 in the Junior women's category was roughly 13 seconds faster than the Open women's first-place finisher. But the results haven't just been impressive on land—after scoring a silver medal in the JW1x in Rio, Asoumanaki hopped into the double for senior, yes senior, worlds in Aiguebelette. The result? Asoumanaki and partner Aikaterini Nikolaidou took second place overall in a stacked field in France. We'd say that Asoumanaki could be a star in the making, but if we did, we'd be late to the party.

RoRy for Junior Male Athlete of the Year:
Danny Hogan, Oakland Strokes
Not only did Danny Hogan manage to find himself on one of the more controversial ROWING Magazine covers in recent memory (for all the right reasons, at least, having just stroked the Oakland varsity eight to victory in Sarasota), he also stroked the most successful U.S. men's four at the junior world championships to date. It was more than a solid season that capped off a very successful career for Hogan at Oakland that included multiple trips to the podium at youth nationals, and multiple stints on the junior national team. Now, Hogan will be taking his talents to Princeton, joining their men's lightweight team.

And just like that, the first round of rowing's most prestigious awards have already been given to their deserving recipients! Congratulations to all the winners! Tomorrow, we come right back at you with the best of the best at the intercollegiate level, with the tops at the elite level lined up for Saturday.

Keep it locked! And, in the meantime, explore past RoRy winners using the label below.

-RR

Trending posts this month

"I Row Crew" — Rowing in 'The Social Network'

Image
Like many of the rowing faithful, I've been keeping up with the saga penned by Dan Boyne about the filming of the rowing scenes in David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's The Social Network , and I must say I had high hopes going into the film. The first problem I encountered: the phrase, "I row crew." It was uttered so many times before anyone "rowed crew" on the water that I had trouble buying any of it later. It's understandable that the character of Mark Zuckerberg makes that mistake, since he has no idea about the sport. But when the Winklevoss twins themselves utter the phrase several times, one begins to wonder where Boyne was when these lines were not being chopped or changed. Seriously, who says that? As far as the actual rowing goes, the first scene, which has the twins out training in a pair along with the rest of the Harvard squad, is not all bad — it just ends that way. The line, "Those guys are freakin' fast" is certainly every b...
Read more

The 30 Best Rowing Coaches of All Time, Part 3: The Top 10

Image
The top 10 best rowing coaches, including guess who (Photo © Iain Weir / Rowing Photography ) It's time for the third and final part of our 3-part series on the best of the best in the rowing coaching ranks. These coaches not only command respect based on performance, but have also shown the ability to adapt to new circumstances, build dynasties, and ultimately help shape the trajectory of rowing as a sport. Honestly, it would be easy to extend this series into 10 more posts... But we wouldn't do that to you. As we've said before, the hope is that the following may serve to educate and spark discussion, as both an appreciation of history and of the coaching craft. Also note: As we stated in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, there are few women in this list, but that is a reflection of a general underrepresentation of women in the head coaching ranks in our sport—and indeed (as has been well documented ) a growing number of NCAA sports in the United States. ...
Read more

Will It Make the Boat Go Faster? At Marin Rowing Association, Culture is Key

Image
Hands in after training  My alarm goes off—it’s 4:22am.  It’s been a while since I did this. Immediately, I think back to a college dorm room, rolling out of bed and running down the steps to carpool caravan to Marina Del Rey.  Not this time, though. It’s a Tuesday in late September, and I’m heading across the Golden Gate Bridge to Greenbrae, California, where I’ll meet with the Marin Rowing Men’s Masters squad. Fortunately, it’s an unusually warm morning—and when I roll in, the boathouse is already buzzing with activity.  Launch time: 5:10. Heading out into the Bay before dawn The Marin Rowing Association program has both men’s and women’s masters boats competing to win at every event they attend. In the fall, that can only mean one thing: The Head Of The Charles .  The boat that Coach Rodrigo Rodrigues and I spend most of our time with is the Grand Masters eight—average age 60+. But that’s just one of five crews that launched with us that morning. Everyone’s ...
Read more

So, are Naked Rowing Calendars a Thing Now?

Image
Warwick rowers are all in again this year (Photo courtesy of Warwick Boat Club)  The phenomenon started four years ago with the Warwick Rowing men's squad. Then, the following year, the Warwick women's team joined the fray. Now, Newcastle University's men and women are back on the naked calendar train. So, the question is, have rowing and naked calendars become a thing? The above video features the 2014-2015 Warwick women's squad—the third edition of the calendar , and, from the looks of it, the raciest. However, perhaps not so racy as that of the 2014-2015 Warwick men (see below). But raciness aside, all four of these teams have chosen worthy charities and have gone "the full monty" to make sure that those causes have received considerable contributions. The Warwick women contribute to Macmillan Cancer Support —a cause for which Warwick reports it has donated some £5,000. The Warwick men? Sport Allies —a charity that combats homophobia in spor...
Read more

10 Rowing Machine Benefits For All

Image
The rowing machine goes back a long way. There have been various (and some very strange) iterations over the years, but the main benefit of the rowing machine has always remained the same: bringing the full-body training experience from the water on land.  Document Table of Contents: These days, with immersive experiences available through streamable workouts and flat screens (or even tablets and smartphones), the distance between land training and training on the water has shrunk. Of course, it's never going to be a 1:1 feeling from the dock to the boat, and rowers (typically with not-great ergs) are apt to point out that 'ergs don't float.' But again, that doesn't decrease their value to the individual, nor to the sport. Basic Rowing Machines Benefits For the uninitiated in the audience, there are some basic (and some very obvious) benefits to rowing machines, from a broad range of cardio and HIIT t...
Read more