{"107161":{"#nid":"107161","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Rowers Set Out on Land for Start of Season","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003EOn Saturday, Feb. 11, the crowd on the rowing machines at\nthe Campus Recreation Center may look a little more serious than usual as the Georgia\nTech Crew Team hosts its annual Atlanta Erg Sprints indoor rowing competition. Each\nyear prior to the spring season, rowers convene at the CRC from around the Southeast\nto race against the clock at Tech\u2019s nationally recognized athletic facility.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s a good chance to see where you\u2019re at for the season,\u201d\nsaid Corey Drozdowski, former president of GT Crew and a mechanical engineering major.\nThe event is run by GT Crew alumni, and rowers from Emory,\nVanderbilt, Berry and other Southeast schools will travel to Atlanta to\nparticipate.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EIn the land-locked city of Atlanta, it may seem far-fetched\nthat the Institute could have water sports teams. Even more surprising may be\nthat GT Crew has thrived since 1985.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EIn 2011, the men\u2019s novice and varsity teams placed first in\nvarious races at the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association (SIRA)\nchampionship, along with the women\u2019s varsity team. The men also had teams place\nfirst at the 2011 Dad Vail, the equivalent of a club rowing national\nchampionship, with women\u2019s teams placing second. This spring, about 50 students\nwill spend several hours on the water each week, taking to the CRC to continue\nhoning skills in the off-season.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cPracticing in the dark in the winter is hard,\u201d said Nick\nRussell, GT Crew public relations and recruiting officer and an aerospace\nengineering major. \u201cIf a coach can\u2019t see you to correct errors on the water,\nit\u2019s not worth being there \u2014 reinforcing bad habits on the water makes things\nhard to fix.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe team employs five coaches through membership dues, with\nequipment largely funded by the Student Government Association. Drozdowski is\nquick to acknowledge support the team has received over the years, including crew\nalumni, current advisor Rich Steele and former advisor Rosalind Myers. In fact,\nthe team even has a boat named in Myers\u2019 honor.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EOutside of campus, GT Crew partnered with Panama City Beach last year to encourage tourism in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. PCB\nwelcomes the team for spring break each year for a week of three-a-days\ntraining, marking the beginning of its requirement to remain sober until after\nthe last race of the season.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThey like us coming because we\u2019re not just going down there\nto party,\u201d Drozdowski said. However, the team doesn\u2019t lack in having its own\nfun. Members are prone to shave abnormal facial hair patterns and rack up\nwinnings in shirt bets, a tradition among crew clubs where the winning team\nreceives a shirt from each losing team at national competitions.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe have a lot of shirts,\u201d said Alyssa McKay, a GT Crew public\nrelations officer and architecture major. The hope is to grow that collection\neach year, as well as to earn medals at Dad Vails and bring more pride and spirit to the team.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOur goals as a team are to bring home as many medals as\npossible from major regattas, while also helping improve our community by being\nrespectful, productive people,\u201d Russell said. \u201cCoach Rob [Canavan] actively\nencourages us to have acts of community service that can range from helping an\nold lady cross the street to serving in a soup kitchen.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGT Crew hosts its annual indoor Atlanta Erg Sprints rowing competition.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"GT Crew hosts its annual indoor Atlanta Erg Sprints rowing competition."}],"uid":"27469","created_gmt":"2012-02-06 17:41:30","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:11:40","author":"Kristen Bailey","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2012-02-06T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2012-02-06T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"106211":{"id":"106211","type":"image","title":"GT Crew Varsity Women","body":null,"created":"1449178174","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:29:34","changed":"1475894723","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:45:23","alt":"GT Crew Varsity Women","file":{"fid":"193972","name":"head_of_the_hooch_184.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/head_of_the_hooch_184_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/head_of_the_hooch_184_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":5744038,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/head_of_the_hooch_184_0.jpg?itok=_wBvatS0"}},"106221":{"id":"106221","type":"image","title":"GT Crew Row for the Cure","body":null,"created":"1449178174","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:29:34","changed":"1475894723","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:45:23","alt":"GT Crew Row for the Cure","file":{"fid":"193973","name":"head_of_the_hooch_069.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/head_of_the_hooch_069_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/head_of_the_hooch_069_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":7062264,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/head_of_the_hooch_069_0.jpg?itok=voO0T1lv"}}},"media_ids":["106211","106221"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.atlantaergsprints.com\/","title":"Atlanta Erg Sprints"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.gtcrew.com\/","title":"GT Crew"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"22681","name":"gt crew"},{"id":"22711","name":"rowing club"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:publicrelations@gtcrew.com\u0022\u003ENick Russell\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EGT Crew\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:kristen.shaw@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EKristen Shaw\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications and Marketing\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}