Cruise control

Lake Purdy is a perfect spot for rowers to practice, but Birmingham doesn’t have a youth rowing or crew team. Downtown Birmingham resident Lara Embry sought to change this with the creation of the new program, Birmingham Area Youth Rowing, or BAYR. 

According to Embry, the lake is “gorgeous, and has very little recreational boating.” Although it isn’t a river, which is commonly used for rowing practices and races in other cities, it’s still an expansive body of flat water.

“And here, we’re sitting here in Birmingham, the largest population in the state, and we don’t have a rowing program,” she said. “To me, it just made sense.”

Embry first entered the rowing scene when she attended Smith College in Massachusetts. Although she had never heard of the sport while growing up in Alabama, she found a love for it and pursued the sport. 

“I learned rowing was how you got on the water,” she said. 

She later moved to Florida, where she stayed involved in the sport and helped coach the junior’s program. Upon returning to Alabama, she found an adult rowing program but nothing for potential younger rowers. So, with the help of well-known and former Olympic rower Ted Swinford and head coach Veronica Cross, she made her own, which has since attracted students from all over the Birmingham area, including Mountain Brook.

“I was interested in rowing because I knew it was a great full-body workout,” said recent MBHS grad Anne Curtis Giovanelli, “and it’s a relatively new sport for the area.” 

Embry said she initially started the program to have a place for her kids to row, but it also holds great scholarship opportunities. 

“This is a sport that has more scholarships than rowers,” she said. In fact, after being operational for about a year, BAYR has already had college recruiters reach out.

“The SEC has exploded with rowing programs over the past 10 years,” she said, which is partly because the sport is a Title IX offset program. 

And often, rowers haven’t been practicing since elementary school, unlike many other athletes for collegiate or professional teams — this is a sport than can be picked up in middle school or high school. 

Embry said middle school is typically the earliest a rower may start, partly because they have to know how to swim and be responsible around boats and partly because they have to meet a height limitation.

“Rowing is essentially lifting weights fast while sitting on your butt and going backwards … over and over again,” she said. She described the rowers as a human lever system, acting as one to propel the boat. “[The rowers] have to be at least 5’ 1”, 5’ 2”, to reach … Now, it’s like this is a whole sport where most everybody’s entry point is freshman year in high school.”

Giovanelli began as a high school senior last year during the fall program and said the intensity of the sport surprised her.

“Initially, I was shocked about how challenging it was,” she said. “Crew is often described as a sport with low impact stress on the joints, which makes you think it’ll be easier, but it’s a lot harder than it looks.” But being out on the water is one of the best parts about the sport, she said.

“Lake Purdy is just far enough outside of Birmingham that it’s calm and peaceful out on the lake,” she said. “I also enjoy the team aspect of crew.”

Because rowers can work in groups of two, four or eight, they must be able to work together and listen to the coxswain, or the person who sits in the front of the boat and yells instructions to the rowers.

Right now, Cross said the program is divided into recreational, intermediate or competitive groups, although they are looking to restructure into a middle school and high school format. The middle school program would be open to beginner and younger rowers as a way to learn boat handling and basic rowing skills, while the high school level would be the more competitive program. 

Typically, athletes use the fall as a way to build endurance and compete in longer events and later compete in sprints in the spring. And, all rowing is done in either a sweeping or sculling format.

When sweeping, rowers only utilize only one oar each. Embry said there is a slight difference as to how the athletes may hold themselves because they can favor one side, and rowers can compete in a pair, four- or eight-person team. 

Sculling is similar to sweeping but involves two oars moving together, which helps the athletes develop a sense of balance and build their muscles more symmetrically, Embry said. This is what much of the BAYR program focuses on. Sculling can be done in sets such as singles, doubles or quads, all of which are available for practice and racing depending on the number of athletes.

“The goal for our [recreational] program is to have them figure out how to take a proper stroke,” Cross said. “Once we’re out on the water, it’s just trying to make sure everyone has a lot of fun.” 

When the athletes have progressed enough, they can race in competitions in nearby cities such as Chattanooga or Huntsville.

Even though crew can be very challenging, they are hoping for the program to grow and include more local rowers. 

“I would like this program to ... have a stable base of families that are invested and excited about the program,” Embry said. Although a common misconception is that crew is an elite sport, she said that is quickly changing as it is spreading to communities all over the country. Eventually, Embry said it would be great to see local schools entering the rowing world as well. 

Giovanelli, who will be attending Auburn this fall and wants to be a member of their club crew team, hopes too that one day BAYR athletes make it to the collegiate stage.

“I hope that one day, a BAYR rower goes on to get an NCAA rowing scholarship,” Giovanelli said. “Because rowing isn’t something that has been in Birmingham for a long time, having a rower from our area go into collegiate athletics would put Birmingham on the map and might encourage more people to join the program.”

For more information about BAYR, visit bhamyouthrowing.org.