Will Hoogendyk IV, Campus Carrier sports editor
Inter-collegiate club sports are as any athletic activity in which a team competes with other colleges but does not participate in a sport sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Across the nation, colleges can compete in non-traditional sports like Spikeball, curling and even water skiing. Many club sports even have their own awards and national championships. The longest standing athletic club at Berry is the Berry College Viking Crew, which has been rowing since 1989.
Richard Reimer, a freshman who joined Viking Crew this semester, has already seen the close camaraderie the team shares.
“The thing I’ve enjoyed most about being on the team is the family its become,” Reimer said. “As we’ve done early morning workouts together and started up with our Saturday morning meetings, it has really become a second family here on campus.”
This second family that Reimer describes is one made up of students from varying levels of experience both in the gym and on the water. The rowing team is a diverse group of students athletically, bringing experience from many different disciplines of sport to the table. Despite these differences, Reimer loves how his teammates are able to encourage and motivate each other toward a common goal.
“I wouldn’t be able to do these things on my own,” Reimer said. “But knowing that I’m doing it here with my team for my team, I’m able to push myself further and do better.
Rowing is an extremely challenging sport both physically and mentally. During competitions, boats will consist of either four or eight members who must row in harmony to be successful. The club’s current President, senior Ella Jane Miller, is responsible for overseeing and planning team workouts that focus on perfecting the team’s communication and teamwork skills.
“For rowing, you have to be completely in sync with your team or else your race won’t go good, [and] your boat will turn sideways,” Miller said. “It requires a lot of trust in one another and communication and lots of team bonding.”
The team practices three times a week in the Cage from 6-7:30 am and completes drills to help with form, endurance and strength. They perform time and distance-based workouts on ERG machines which help simulate on-water action as a means of training. The experience they gain in the gym is vitally important to helping them out on the water, as communication and synchronization become much more difficult on the water.
Joseph Shimko, a Berry graduate, is taking over coaching duties this season and will be responsible for helping new and existing crew members translate their knowledge from the ERG, into the boat. He has served as the club’s president for the last year and a half and brings 12 years of rowing experience to the coaching position.
“I liked being president, but I’ve always had more of a coaching aspect mind,” Shimko said “Now since I am in this position, I am most excited to be able to take that role and focus on that alone.”
While Shimko has always had a desire to coach, the dynamics of the club in past years have not always allowed him enough time to do so. Shimko first joined Viking Crew in 2020, when the team started to feel the effects of COVID.
“A lot of people my freshman year during COVID were seniors, and they graduated, so that left us with two people going into my sophomore year,” Shimko said.
Since then, it has been a slow process of growth and development as the team sought out new members. Starting last year, Shimko has witnessed the increased interest and involvement with the club from its new members.
“It wasn’t anything that we were doing differently, it was just finding the right people that were into it and wanted to stay,” Shimko said.
The expansion that started last year has carried over to this season with the team increasing in size considerably. 17 new members signed up after seeing the Viking Crew’s booth at the Involvement Fair last month.
While the team has not yet been able to get out on the water this semester because of maintenance and weather concerns, they are exploring a more permanent solution for storing their boats at nearby Grizzard Park in Rome.
“We are looking into possibly building a boathouse over maybe the next year [as a] long term project,” Miller said. “Something to keep our boat sheltered while it is there.”
With the search for a boathouse comes the possibility to start practicing on the water during the week rather than just Saturdays. This would continue to help lay a foundation of experience and knowledge for novices to draw on once the team starts competing. The team typically trains and conditions in the fall to prepare for regattas and competitions in the spring. The first event for the team is typically the Tennessee Indoor Rowing Championships in Chattanooga where rowers participate on ERGs rather than boats. After that, the team will gear up for scrimmages and competitions against schools across Georgia and other states in the Southeast.
Until then, the team’s next event is their annual ERG-A-Thon on Oct. 28. The team will have ERGs set up outside the Cage where people can come by and row for a chance to win raffle prizes and meet the team. The event will be from 5-8pm, and anyone is welcome.