For Hopewell Valley Central High students Olivia Chila and Angelo Guarino, rowing is much more than a sport. It is somewhat akin to heaven on water.
The fact they are successful just makes it that much more heavenly.
Chila rows for the acclaimed Mercer Rowing Club in West Windsor and has performed well enough to earn a scholarship to Boston University in crew-crazed New England. Guarino strokes for Swan Creek Rowing Club in Lambertville, and in each of the last two years was selected by his coach to row at the prestigious Head of Charles Regatta in Boston, which has been the largest regatta in the world since 1965.
Both athletes feel their achievements are the by-product of a rapturous addiction that goes well beyond being just a competition.
“The impact this team has had on my life is tremendous,” Guarino said. “Rowing does take a lot of work, but even when I’m not directly with my team, this sport brings a new motivation that only some people can grasp. It has most definitely changed my life. It has changed me socially, it has changed me physically and I think this sport tends to change a lot of people.”
Chila, a HVCHS senior, is one of those people.
“Ever since joining Mercer, rowing has become my life,” she said. “I love every second I get to spend on the lake, and being surrounded by such strong and driven people every day has allowed me to grow in so many ways.”
Olivia began rowing the summer of eighth grade thanks to a chat she had with her family, who had a beach house in Margate. A conversation came up about crew “and that opened my eyes to what rowing was and the next day my dad had me enrolled in a summer program.”
The program was called, of all things, the Chicken Dippers in Ventnor. Despite the name, Chila didn’t squawk about it and in just one summer proceeded to learn enough basics that provided the skills to join Mercer’s highly successful club.
“Once I found my place in their program, my love for the sport grew and it went from there,” she said.
Chila was a three-sport athlete until her junior year, playing soccer and basketball along with rowing. Following her summer with the Dippers, she did not get back in a boat until the spring of her freshman year. After rowing in the Novice boat in 9th and 10th grades, Liv was called up to varsity at the end of her sophomore year. She was part of the U17 4s that took 12th place in the nationals.
From there, Chila was devoted year-round to rowing and found her niche. Along with the national events in Sarasota, Florida, her boats took first in the Philadelphia Frostbite race and second in the Row For Cure.
“I thrive in highly competitive environments,” she said. “So while Mercer was certainly a change from the Chicken Dippers, I loved it right off the bat.”
In Chila’s junior season, Mercer rowed with 8-girl boats throughout the fall but opted to split into the 4s for Nationals. Live coxed for the Varsity 4 in the spring and Mercer finished 10th in the nation.
This year it is back to prioritizing the 8s. Chila rows in seat 5, which gives her the role of “being the powerhouse.”
“The middle four is responsible for supplying the strength,” she explained, “while the stern and bow pairs are more technically oriented.”
Chila considers racing for the Varsity 4 last spring as her biggest rowing highlight so far, saying, “I had the opportunity of stroking the boat which was a learning curve at first, but once I got the hang of it I fell in love with that seat (the stroke seat is the front rower, which sets the pace for the rest of the boat).”
She now takes her talents north, where rowing is to New England like football is to the south.
“After learning about all of the opportunities at Boston University, as well as seeing their amazing team culture, I knew this was the school for me,” Chila said. “Boston has everything I was looking for, with an outstanding business school and such a strong, diverse community.”
Guarino is looking for the same type of thing, but candidly admits “I’m nothing extraordinary in the sport of rowing. Especially being that your ability in this sport is almost entirely about strength. So I’m nothing recruitable being that I’m competing with guys twice my size. But I still hope to be able to join a team if I can.”
Regardless of the future, he has shown enough strength and skill to row in the most recognizable rowing event in the world. After joining Swan Creek at age 15, Guarino was pleasantly surprised to be selected to the 2022 Head of Charles race with just one year of experience.
“The people (coach Tony Gambescia) selected were not only the role models for the team but had such athleticism it was hard to fathom how I could ever reach where they were,” Angelo said. “Swan Creek is a much smaller club than some others so we only get to send one boat of the absolute best rowers on the team, if we even get a boat in that race.
“Even just starting as a rower, everybody knew that this race was notorious for being one of the greatest races in the world. So being selected for the 2022 race with only a year’s experience was shocking to me.”
In his first Charles race, Guarino was in the bow seat of a 4 boat, and in his return trip he had a stroke seat at the other end of an 8 boat. “This really showed in my eyes how much I’ve grown as a rower, coming from being at the bottom of the boat to being the guy who leads it.”
Swan Creek finished 72nd in Guarino’s first trip, and 84th in the second.
“Regardless, I’m happy with how the race went and the work we put in, not only at the race but leading up to it,” he said.
Asked what the experience was like competing in such a high-profile event, the Hopewell Borough resident felt the glamor surrounding the race was secondary to the actual work going into it.
“At the end of this race and almost all races, me and my boys usually remember just about nothing of the actual experience,” Guarino said. “You spend 15 minutes in the worst pain of your life, ready to die for one another so your mind almost goes numb to the point where you can’t even think at all. You’re just pulling for the boys in your boat, then all of a sudden you wake up and it’s the end of the race.
“The race is exhilarating, but when it’s time to start, my head is focused within the boat on perfecting every stroke and drilling the blade through the water with all my might.”
All that being said, the aura of the event was not lost on Angelo during his first trip to Beantown.
“As exciting as it was, it was also horrifying since it was the first time for all of us,” he said. “It was quite overwhelming seeing just how many boats from various regions of the world they could cram into one river. The second time around was definitely less stressful.”
Angelo began rowing in August prior to his freshman year, just after turning 15. During his first year with Swan Creek he rowed mostly in the 4 seat in the 8s, and moved up to the bow in his second year. Late that season, he was moved to stroke seat in the 4s and remained there through the summer. Now in his third year, Guarino resides in the 8s stroke seat.
He was honored to be named the club’s Most Valuable Oarsmen after his second season.
“Receiving the award before becoming a junior was a pretty big deal for me, as there are many older kids at the club who still haven’t received this award,” Guarino said. “I was told it was for my grit when fighting for my first race at the Charles. (Gambescia) said he took me over some of the bigger kids because when it came time to fight for the spot, he saw me pulling as hard as I could despite whether I even had a chance at winning or not.”
Guarino’s loyalty and dedication also came into play, as he never missed practice and came every day ready to row in any boat he was assigned.
But while receiving an individual award is nice, it is not even close to what the sport actually means to Angelo. It is all about his boatmates.
“Every race, I’m with my boys in that boat is a highlight to me because when we all have a common purpose to give all we have for each other, it doesn’t matter to me whether we win or lose,” he said. “It’s the best feeling ever to feel like there’s no better place you can belong. There’s no particular race I can think of (that stands out). This team in its entirety is the highlight of my life.”
Chila feels the same way. It’s what makes them successful and it’s what fulfills their passion.
Hopewell resident Olivia Chila in action with the Mercer Rowing Club crew team.,
