Avery Boulware, Campus Carrier Sports Editor
Over 30 students attended last week’s tryouts for the 2015-2016 Viking Crew. Only 13 of those students were returning members from past seasons. The numbers for the rowing team have ebbed and flowed over the past few years, but is still an ever-growing presence in the Berry community.
“We’re really excited, it should be a good season,” Senior Emily Melchior, president of Viking Crew, said. The team owns four functioning boats at the moment, which allows for at least sixteen students to participate in races.
The team keeps their boats in the boathouse at Ridge Ferry Park. For practice, the team starts on the Oostanaula River and rows an average of 10 miles to the Coosa.
Viking Crew is a club sport and is not registered in the NCAA, which means the team functions differently than a normal college team. “We have a different officer structure; we have secretary, president, treasurer, but we have two vice presidents, one takes care of logistics for races and registration, and one takes care of marketing,” Melchior said.
There are several reasons Viking Crew has not been registered as NCAA. “First of all, it’s a pain to get certified,” Melchior said. Registering would also upset the balance of women’s and men’s sports here at Berry: because of Title XI, there must be an equal amount of sports for both genders. Since there is no NCAA certification for men’s rowing, crew will remain a club sport at Berry.
Getting certified would also require a significantly larger amount of funds than Viking Crew has at the moment. Because rowing in general is such an expensive sport, rowers have a hard time raising excess funds. “A four-man racing shell [boat] can cost upward of $20,000, and that’s just standard issue, nothing fancy,” Melchior said.
Despite being a low-budget team, the Viking Crew team competes with some of the largest universities in the South, including Alabama, Auburn, FSU, Georgia, Tennessee, UTC, and Notre Dame. Teams with sufficient funds from the West, including Ohio and Oregon, also travel past the Mason-Dixon line to take advantage of the ideal racing conditions. “It’s really nice…a small team from Rome, Georgia being able to compete against all these big schools,” Melchior said.
Equal opportunity seems to be a driving force to the Viking Crew athletes. The mission statement of Viking Crew, found on their website, is “to promote athleticism, team work, time management and leadership through the sport of competitive, collegiate rowing, available to all Berry College students regardless of experience level or financial ability.” It is especially apparent in the nature of the sport as a whole. Melchior said, “Men and women compete on the same level. Regardless if you’re a Division 1 or Division 3, NCAA or Club, everyone participates in the same race.”
To find out more about Viking Crew, and to find their regatta schedule, visit their website, http://berrycollegevikingcrew.weebly.com.