Title IX Celebration: UW's Storied Coxswain Tradition
April 18, 2023 | Men's Rowing
Leaders of the Pack
One thousand meters into the 2009 IRA Varsity National Championship final, the race was slipping away: Pac-10 Champion Cal, and a resurgent Stanford team, were locked in a race for the lead and were slowly drawing out, Washington trailing in third almost a length back. “We still had contact but we all knew it was now or never,” said Katelin (Snyder) Guregian, the 2009 men’s varsity coxswain.
Guregian, one of the most decorated UW coxswains in the history of the program (2-time Varsity IRA champion, 2-time Olympian, 2016 Olympic Champion and five-time World Champion with the USA Women’s Team), would end up calling a power move and her Washington teammates responded; drawing even with Stanford in twenty strokes, the crew would claw back Cal in the final 200 meters in an incredible comeback win for the ages. “That team believed. All of us trusted each other completely. I can still remember it like it was yesterday,” said Guregian.
Focused, intelligent and fiercely competitive, Guregian is not alone as a highly successful female coxswain from the men’s team. In fact, the inclusion of women coxswains on the men’s team has been a part of the program for over forty years, when Dick Erickson first opened the door to women as part of his expansive armada in the early 80’s. With the opportunities made available through Title IX for women to compete in varsity athletics, Erickson welcomed any coxswain, male or female, who would commit to the team. “It was Title IX that really opened the door for women to join the men’s team, and created the opportunity for both the athletes and the coaches to widen the competition for the coxswain position,” said Michael Callahan.
Bob Ernst took the helm of the men’s team in 1988 (after coaching the UW women to six National Championships from ‘81 – ‘87), and began elevating women coxswains into his top boats almost immediately. In 1989, Roberta Shinbo became the first female to win a varsity letter on the men’s team and by 1990, Kristin Bailey – a sculler in high school and coxswain on the women’s team as a freshman – was leading the JV team on the men’s side. “One of the biggest strengths we have right now on the men’s team are these two coxswains,” Ernst said in 1993 about Bailey and varsity coxswain Mike Chudzik. “They are both super competitors, both juniors and both locked in absolutely the closest competition we’ve had at coxswain since I’ve been here.”
Bailey would go on to lead her JV crew to the Pac-10 Championship in 1992, and in 1993 would become the first female coxswain at Washington to win an IRA Championship. That year was the first appearance by a Washington crew at the IRA in twenty-one years, Ernst sending his JV’s as a reward for an undefeated season, where they would pull off the stunning upset over Northeastern to win it. “It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime boats,” said Bailey recently. “There are few sports where you have nine athletes together like that and there were times it was like magic… they were incredible athletes, and we had that trust and that humility that comes with being together that long.”
She continued: “There were four female coxswains in 1993… we felt like trailblazers but we were respected as teammates, and there was no sexism with Bob or any of the coaches. Sometimes it was strange to be a woman on the men’s team just because of the gender differences, but the reality is when the goal is excellence, you’re going to be hard on each other anyway. We were constantly being challenged, but that was no different than anyone else, and it was only to become better as a team.”
Kara Schocken Aborn – another high school rower turned men’s coxswain – took over the JV coxswain position in 1994 (Bailey referred to her as a “dynamo” in the coxswain seat), and in 1995 became the first female elevated to the varsity boat at Washington. Asked in a 1995 Seattle Times article how she fit in, she noted “I forget most of the time that I am different. Maybe it’s just easier for me to relate to the guys... [and] it’s much easier just to yell at them.” That met the approval of 1936 Olympic legend Bob Moch, who was quoted in that same article stating, “A coxswain has to have certain qualities, and she’s got them...”
“It was a point of pride for me to be a first,” said Aborn recently. “I played tackle football in middle school, so I was used to being the only girl on a team. I knew what to expect. My mom was the first female ski patrol at Crystal Mountain and raised us to not see gender as a barrier. So when I was out at practice I just was part of the team, I felt like one of the guys.”
“Bob (Ernst) really respected me as a coxswain and as an athlete and as a member of the team. He was serious about practices and our conditioning, and the importance that every minute we put in was valuable, and you have to be your best every minute… it was challenging. You felt the weightiness of the history and the level of talent and the expectations. Bob conveyed that in everything we did, his love for the sport and the team came through all the time. Knowing he had expectations for us really helped keep the team focused and committed to making it.”
Marc Schneider, stroke of the 1995 Varsity and bronze medalist in the 1996 Olympics, remembered Kara as “a natural in the boat… her confidence and consistency stood out as well as how smart and quick to adjust she was. Bob had high standards for how people treated each other, and both Kara and Kristin got to where they were based on their merits. They were both phenomenal coxswains... both were fun to be around and brought a dynamic to the team that would not have been there had they not been part of our team.”
Following the mid-90’s, the team and coaches actively encouraged women to try out for the men’s team as coxswains, with Melissa Collins joining the team in 1995, after a standout career in high school at Greenlake. By the spring of 1996 she was coxing the men’s Varsity 4+ to the Pac-10 Championship, and in 1997 was leading the JV8 that stunned the IRA National Championship crowd by winning the event, joining their Varsity and Freshmen teammates in the historic 1997 Sweep of the IRA. “That was just a great group of guys,” Melissa said recently. “We were a really tight group and they really put it together in that race.”
In the fall of 1997, Melissa was asked by Jan Harville if she was interested in competing for the Varsity position on the women’s team. With Bob Ernst’s blessing, Melissa joined the women, and in the spring of 1998 was coxing the women’s Varsity 8. “I had mixed feelings about that switch, but the guys were supportive… I had learned so much from them, particularly that everyday intensity,” Melissa said. “But 1998 was a great year to cox the women; it was a group of really talented and dedicated athletes, and every practice they worked to get better.”
“There was a lot of pressure in 1998 to repeat the magic of 1997. But I remember that NCAA race as one of the very few races that felt like it was perfect from the beginning”, Melissa said. “We were in control of our race the whole time. Every time I called a move they would respond. The goal was we were going to row our own race and not worry about anyone else and that's exactly what they did. That boat - and that race - was amazing.” She would finish her career in the Women’s Varsity 8 in 1999, becoming one of only a handful of student-athletes at Washington to letter all four years (two with the men, and two with the women), and the only one to win a National Championship for both the men’s and women’s teams.
Women continued to flourish as coxswains on the men’s team at Washington, with Guregian becoming the first female coxswain to lead the Varsity 8 to National Championships in the Varsity Challenge Cup at the 2007 IRA, and then again in 2009. “At the core of it were my teammates and my coaches” said Guregian recently. “I remember being with these guys that were so talented and they treated me with so much respect… they understood how to make me better. Our conversations were as equals; it made me feel more confident and gave me the mindset to learn. When someone respects you that much it makes you want to step up, and it made me want to step up for them.”
Rob Gibson, captain of the 2009 Washington team and 2012 Olympic silver medalist, recently reflected on his time at Washington with Katelin as his coxswain. "Katelin was arguably the best coxswain I ever rowed with. She knew exactly how to take command of a crew and make calls with precision and confidence. It was very clear that Katelin wanted to win National Championships as much as anyone, because of this she held our team to a higher standard every single day. Katelin also had an uncanny ability to understand what motivated each of her rowers to push their bodies to the limit. During the 2009 IRA race final, Katelin held our crew together with poise, even as we found ourselves a length down at the 1000m mark, before unleashing her trademark tenacity, which propelled us to becoming IRA Champs that day. Winning that race is one of the proudest moments of my entire rowing career"
For the 2023 season, there are currently four women coxswains on the team, including first year coxswain Lilly Kurtz. Kurtz, a four-year coxswain in high school at Holy Names in Seattle, joined the men’s team because, “I like trial by fire – I sought to take myself out of my comfort zone, challenge my knowledge and understanding of rowing, and learn from some of the best coaches, rowers, and coxswains in the sport today. I get to face myself every day on the water in a very raw manner, which I see as nothing but a gift.”
“My favorite part about being on the team,” Kurtz continued, “is having the opportunity to be with some of the strongest and most committed people I know – both on and off the water – and collectively searching for swing and that next level of speed every day. I think above all, I feel an incredible amount of gratitude and respect for the female coxswains in the past that paved the way to not be bound and defined by gender, but rather by how and what I can contribute to the team.”
For Michael Callahan and the rest of the coaches, the goal remains focused on building fast crews. “As we take a look back at the positive influence Title IX has had on our program here at Washington, we have had women – highly successful women – on this team for long enough now that it would not be the same if they weren’t here," said Coach Callahan. “That makes men’s rowing unique, no doubt about it. But it is something we highly value, not only because it can often bring a different perspective, but because competition, regardless of gender, makes us better. And there is no question that throughout my time here, that has proven to be true.”
