Robbinsville High School students valuable assets to Mercer Junior Rowing Club
Hayley Bork feels it takes a certain mentality to row a boat in competition.
“Everyone who does crew is a little bit crazy,” the Robbinsville High junior said. “They have to be. It’s really hard, it’s time consuming. We practice six days a week, most of our Saturdays take up half the day.
“But you love it. It’s like a drug, but a good drug that’s so good for you. It’s beneficial.”
Bork and several other Robbinsville residents have been equally beneficial to the Mercer Junior Rowing Club, which had strong success at the Mid-Atlantic Junior Championships in May.
Bork was part of the first-place Women’s Youth Varsity 8 team at the regionals, and her boat took fifth place out of over 20 boats at the USRowing Nationals in California in mid-June. Junior Matt Perez served as coxswain on the Men’s Youth Varsity 8, which also won the regionals and qualified for nationals.
In essence, both of their introductions to rowing were a result of inactivity and forceful, concerned mothers.
“I had played baseball and soccer since pre-school age and as I got into middle school and high school I realized I wasn’t very gifted,” Perez said. “I didn’t really enjoy them. It felt like more of an obligation to go to practice or games. In middle school, you either had to try out for the school team or get on to a travel team, and I realized I wasn’t going to be good enough to make the team.
“I sort of felt I was not that great, so why put the effort in? I was looking around and didn’t see any other alternative.”
His mom went out and found one. Worried Perez was not getting enough exercise, she asked around the office if anyone knew of any sports he might try. It was suggested by some co-workers that she check out crew, and Perez suddenly found himself being taken to an event.
“My mom dragged me out to a race that the club was having and forced me to watch,” Perez said. “I didn’t think I would take a liking to it, but something appealed to me. I signed up in eighth grade and I’ve been doing it ever since.
“I was just chilling out, not doing anything. Once I joined the crew team, it flipped the opposite way and I realized I had a talent for a sport and something I can nurture. It’s great to be part of something bigger than yourself and part of a team as committed and willing to do what it takes to win.”
The word “team” comes into play in rowing as much as any sport there is. Everyone in the boat must be in perfect synch to get the maximum push through the water.
“Every single person needs to be doing everything exactly correctly,” Perez said. “It’s not like in soccer or basketball, where you can have one or two star players that can carry the weight. Every person needs to be as correct as they can be. It’s the perfect example that you’re only as strong as your weakest link.”
Bork echoed those thoughts, noting that each rower is connected to the others.
“You really can’t be like a lone wolf or do your own thing, then it’s not gonna work,” she said. “There’s competition between people to be faster but it’s really healthy. You’re constantly trying to be a better version of yourself to better the team.
“When you’re on the boat, it’s not like you’re trying to be the superstar out there. Everyone is trying to be as much together and be as cohesive as you can. And that carries out of the boat. The friends I have at crew, they understand me on a different level than the friends at school because of the time we spend together and the similar mentalities.”
Bork didn’t always have such a mentality. Much like Perez, she was given a motherly shove into the sport.
“The summer before my freshman year, I was forced by my mom to go to summer camp at Mercer Rowing,” she said. “I did not want to go at all. But she wanted me to be active for my physical health. I had never been a sporty girl. I tried soccer, didn’t like sweating. I tried cheerleading but quit because I didn’t like sweating. I even tried to do theater.”
But, hey, those bright lights can make a person sweat too.
So, it was off to rowing camp.
“When I got there, we had to do quarter-mile warm-up run, and I was exhausted. I wanted to quit,” Bork said. “The distance would get further every day. Of course, having not exercised and not ever wanting to exercise, it was bad.”
And yet, she hung in there and returned to become part of the MJRC novice team the following spring.
“I kept saying ‘I’m gonna quit, I’m gonna quit,’” she said. “But in the back of my mind I thought I would regret it. So I stuck with it and ended up loving it.
While Perez and Bork both have a similar love for the sport, they have different responsibilities. Bork rows from seat four. In an eight-person vote, seats three-through-six are called “the middle” and are considered the power of the boat.
It takes plenty of strength and endurance to handle that. Fortunately for Bork, she has gotten over her aversion to working out.
“I love to exercise,” she said. “If I go without exercising for too long I feel like crap. It’s like a release almost to get home from school after being stressed out, being able to exercise. You can sweat out your problems kind of.
“We’re trying to accomplish the same goal so it’s soothing and refreshing to go to crew. You forget about your problems.”
Perez’s role as coxswain is a little less about strength and a little more about strategy.
“I guess the best way to describe it is I’m basically what you’d expect the captain of a boat to be,” he said. “I’m responsible for steering, that’s kind of my main responsibility since the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.
“I’m also considered more of an extension of the coach. If the coach isn’t around I’m the one running the practice. I’m also held responsible for the safety and well being of the guys in the boat. It’s a unique position. You can liken it to a quarterback, coach and cheerleader all in one.”
Perez quarterbacked his team to the nationals as their boat won the regionals, which was the culmination of tons of work.
“To win your regional qualifier race, which there are only five of, is a big deal. I didn’t realize how much it took, now I realize there’s a lot more behind the scenes than just getting where you need to be on the water.”
Bork’s boat got to where it needed to be in a hurry with its fifth place finish in the nationals. Mercer reached the A Flight finals, which are the top six boats from the entire field.
“That was pretty amazing,” she said. “I really had no idea what was possible It’s hard to know your competition until you get there. I thought we could have made the B final. Going into I just wanted to have a real good weekend of racing and be satisfied with that. It turned out better than that.”
Another Robbinsville resident–Rachel Calabro–was part of two silver medal-winning boats that qualified for nationals, as crew continues to catch on in the area.
“Even outside of Robbinsville it’s something slowly but surely gaining momentum,” Bork said. “I know a couple years ago for our Novice camps we had 20 kids enrolled. Now we have 100. It’s getting really popular.”
Robbinsville residents Hayley Bork has found success competiting with the Mercer Junior Rowing Club. (Photo by Suzette J. Lucas.),
