Rowing coaches from throughout the region fill the hall at the Wyandotte Boat Club.
BY SAMANTHA ELLIOTT
A year ago, the Grosse Ile rowing program joined together with the Scholastic Rowing Association of Michigan and the Wyandotte Boat Club to host a coaching clinic for Michigan rowing coaches.
The event was such a huge success in its inaugural year that everyone came back together and did it again for 2019. But this time, it was bigger.
In just one year’s time, the program expanded to the entire weekend with sessions running both Saturday and Sunday and a special session Friday evening with Washington College consultant, Dr. Mike Davenport.
“The feedback we received last year was encouraging and we knew expanding the clinic would allow us to offer more learning opportunities,” Grosse Ile rowing Coach Scott Sitek said.
Those in attendance learned from quite a diverse panel of presenters that was expanded on from 2018.
“This year, we went outside the state and were extremely fortunate to not only have a great group of coaches with high levels of experience and success, but coaches who are committed to the importance of coaching education, safety and the overall development of athletes,” Sitek said.
In addition to Davenport, this year’s presenters included Bebe Bryans from the University of Wisconsin Women’s program, John Riscitti from the E.L. Crossley Secondary School in Pelham, Ontario, and 2004 Olympic Gold Medalists Jason Read (University of Pennsylvania) and Bryan Volpenhein (San Diego Rowing Club, University of San Diego).
This year the clinic also offered breakout sessions for those in attendance and Sitek said they were very effective.
“It gave our attendees some freedom to take part in a discussion that interested them that was facilitated by each of our presenters,” he said. “The numbers were even, which is what we were hoping for because it means the topics were in tune with the interests of our attendees.”
Also new this year was a panel discussion on leadership and Sitek said it ended up being his favorite part of the weekend.
“The presenters were given a set of questions asked by our attendees to drive their discussion,” Sitek said. “They were so engaged with each other, it was as if this group of awesome coaches were having a private conversation and we were lucky enough to watch it unfold. It was a lot of fun and gave us all some real insight as to how passionate and successful they are.”
Sitek said he was simply humbled by the contributions of the presenters and their efforts over the weekend.
“While the content of the presentations was awesome, their willingness to learn themselves, engage with our attendees all weekend and the amount of support and positivity, they set an awesome tone from the beginning to the end of the weekend. I’m extremely proud to have been part of this event.”
When all was said and done, Sitek said the weekend was another huge success.
With roughly 80 coaches in attendance, there were many familiar faces from the 2018 clinic and while most were from Michigan and Ohio, there were coaches in attendance from Colorado and Georgia.
“Clinics like this provide us the opportunity to learn how to better develop programs that benefit our athletes as people,” Sitek said. “While we’re always looking for ways to row a little better or get a little stronger, and the content certainly helps us do that, the commitment of our attendees and presenters to a weekend like this is evidence that we’re aware that our responsibility to our athletes goes far beyond athletic development.”