This entire year I worked my ass off in hopes to improve as a rower, and I thought that my improvement would show if I moved up a boat, to the 2V. I'd been in my coach's 'second boat' for two years now, and I wanted to see what being in his 'first boat' was like. (We have one coach for the 1V and then another coach for the 2V and 3V.) I was in the 2V for a week when an injury in the 1V prompted some shifting of personnel, and I won a seat race over another member of the team.
Being in that boat was uncomfortable. I felt very much like a guest in the boat, as did my roommate who had also moved up, even though we knew that at least one of us was permanent for the 2V. We had both won our seat races fair and square, yet we did not feel like we belonged. My roommate and I were put in 3 and bow, respectively, and when we and 2 seat (who had seat-raced in a few weeks before) tried to make comments about our start, we were blatantly ignored by the stern. When we tried to address it off the water, we were kind of shrugged off and dismissed.
After the 1V member returned, I moved back to the 3V, and I instantly felt more comfortable. I was no longer in the stern, but the communication between the bow and stern felt comfortable on and off the water, and after my week and a half on the 2V, that's all I could ask for.
I kept asking myself why I was so happy to be back on the 3V, since I'd been working all year to try for the 2V. I realized we work better as a team. We're not the most technically skilled as a boat, and I guess we don't have as much power as the higher boats either, but even though we've had people move around, we've worked well together. If we do well, we do well together, and if we fuck up, we fuck up together and use the next week to improve and put our fuck ups behind us. Our coxswain and stern team listen to the people in the bow, and there's no sense of hierarchy based on what seat we're in. I think because of this, we've improved to a point at which we feel somewhat competitive with our 2V, and that's a feeling I don't think any 3V has had at Tufts, ever.
Last year, our 3V had quite a bit of attitude and wasn't willing to work as hard as we should have until the very end of the season, when we pulled through and rowed our asses to grand finals at ECAC's. It was a surprise, but it worked because we realized how determined we were. Every day up to that point, however, felt stressful and we felt largely ignored by our coach and entitled to the attention. Looking back now, we worked hard as needed to be somewhat respected, but we should have worked harder for the coaching. We didn't realize that until the very last regatta.
Last year, every boat was a solid choice. The 1V was a solid 1V, the 2V was a solid 2V, and the 3V was a solid boat of the rest of the team that wasn't eligible for novice. This year, that's less of the case. The 2V and 3V are competitive with each other, and we've shown that in our seat races and hard work. The 3V is full of people who are slightly less fast than the 2V. It's technically "the rest of the team that didn't make it to the 2V," but it doesn't feel that way because we've all worked hard to at least try for the 2V, as opposed to last year when we were definitely not competitive with them by any means.
I'm very proud to be a member of Tufts' W3V, and I don't think I would feel that way in the 2V. I think we in the 3V have a great attitude, and even though we're not the most amazing technical rowers, I feel more part of a team with that boat than I do with the 2V, which is interesting because to some degree I have closer friends in the 2V off the water. I don't find the 3V behavior shameful or lacking in sportsmanship, and I don't feel insignificant in the bow. There's no drama, and the issues we have are strictly technical, not emotional. For me, being an athlete isn't just being technical and powerful. It also means having good sportsmanship with competitive teams as well as your own team. I never felt that in the 2V, but I feel it very much in the 3V. Each of us rows as hard as we can to make our boat as efficient as we can, and that's all I can ask for. That's what makes us a boat worth being in.
