St. Charles rowing club hosting special event Saturday

Once Sarah Spurling picked up an oar, she's always looked back.

A member of the St. Charles Rowing Club - a 30-strong group of 15- to 18-year-olds who launch at Fox River Bluff East and will row along 8,000 meters or for as long as water levels safely provide - the St. Charles East senior was out on a training run when she saw friend and classmate Ally Hernandez rowing on the river.

Spurling had dabbled in swimming in middle school and played softball, ending that between her sophomore and junior years in high school. She'll hit the batting cages from time to time, but once she started rowing last March, she got hooked. She likes the fitness aspect, the camaraderie.

"You're more unified in a boat," Spurling said.

She's just the type of athlete Chris Meldrum wants. President and junior director of the 20-month-old St. Charles Rowing Club, the Detroit native said: "I am looking for the kids that are looking for something unique and out of their comfort sport. It's not an easy sport, which is why we row 15- to 18-year-olds. Our goal is to get them into the best physical shape that we can and hopefully we can engage them on a pathway to college to row."

Rowing isn't for everyone. That's one reason those who crew in high school have significantly greater odds landing financial assistance to compete for college squads.

"I get more emails from college coaches looking for rowers than I know what to do with," Meldrum said.

According to a chart she sent the Daily Herald, based on 2010-11 participation statistics by the National Federation of State High School Associations, 55.50 percent of girls who rowed in high school received college scholarships for rowing. The boys figure was 17.88 percent. Both led all sports in gaining assistance, though the numbers - 2,144 girls, 2,193 boys - paled in comparison to most sports on the roster.

"Rowing is bigger out East," Spurling said, "but it's made its way to the Midwest."

Meldrum found that out. Her own son, St. Charles North graduate Gordon O'Brien, is rowing on scholarship for the Marietta College Pioneers in Ohio. She said another of St. Charles Rowing's first members, Sam Schweitzer out of St. Charles East, is rowing for the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

Spurling would continue in college but she was intent on studying special education at Mississippi. After competing outdoors with the club in Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Tennessee and Ohio, she said she'll keep rowing "as much as I can elsewhere."

Another St. Charles East senior, Maddie Paliganoff, is one of three coxswains with the St. Charles Rowing Club. She'll continue that at Penn University - on the men's team. At 5 feet 4 inches she's a little tall for the job but her weight is right in their wheelhouse.

"They need someone around 120 pounds," said Paliganoff, who describes the job of coxswain as like a coach in a boat.

She played soccer, softball and tennis until high school, then pared it down to tennis. A friend suggested she give rowing a shot, but Paliganoff remained unconvinced since she lacked the size and muscle to really make the boat cruise.

But there was that one person up front, who barked orders, controlled the tillers and looked upriver while the rowers faced rear. She's been with the club the summer before her junior year.

"Once I got in the boat I noticed that there was someone steering and in charge," she said. " ... They're the brawn and we're the brain behind the whole operation."

The Fox River isn't yet ready for rowing. During the offseason rowers train and compete indoors on the ergometer, or erg. Sometimes college offers are considered simply by these 2,000-meter stationary blasts - such as the item we wrote Feb. 6 about former St. Charles East student Joe Sterner, who trains out of Miller Rowing in St. Charles, winning his bracket at the Indianapolis Indoor Rowing Championships.

Meldrum's club will host its first indoor erg event, the St. Charles Indoor Rowing Event, from 8 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Saturday at Fox Valley Fitness in Geneva. Cost is $25 at the door, which is good for multiple times.

So far about 50 masters and junior rowers will get a shot at their 2,000 meters ("it's all about 2,000 meters in rowing," Meldrum said), which Spurling said usually takes between 6 and 9 minutes. Spurling's personal best is 8 minutes, 29 seconds. In Indianapolis Sterner went 6:19.2.

"This event is about awareness, engagement and showing the community that there's another opportunity out there beside ball sports and field sports," Meldrum said.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com

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