The University of Texas rowing team is easily the most dominant sport at UT that most Longhorn fans don’t know anything about.
“We’ve won NCAA championships three out of the last four years, we’re currently ranked number one,” said head coach Dave O’Neill.
The Horns could have possibly made it four in a row if not for a flock of geese landing in UT’s lane during the 2023 NCAA championship regatta.
If Texas is going to make it four championships in the last five years, they’re going to need some young rowers to step up.
“Coming into this year, I kind of thought this was going to be a little bit of a rebuilding year,” said O’Neill. “I think at one point I put a challenge out there like, ‘hey, if we keep on the pace we’re on I think we’re definitely going to be top four in the country, we can get ourselves on the podium.’ I could tell there were some kids that were like, ‘ugh, top four, that’s not our standard.’”
The Horns return only two rowers off their first eight boat from last season. It’s a team loaded with freshmen and sophomores. But O’Neill says the young rowers have developed quickly.
“Early on in the year there were some signs like, ‘hey, I think we can be pretty good,’” O’Neill said. “We had a really good freshman class and some freshmen stepping up and doing well, we had some really good leadership. So by the time we got to February, it was like, ‘I think we’re going to be ok.’”
As young as the team is, two upperclassmen are leading the charge for the Horns.
“Sue Holderness is the stroke of our first eight right now and she's turned herself into one of the best rowers in the country,” O’Neill said. “Marg van der Waal, you know, six seat of our first eight, and she might be the best rower, the best division one rower in the country right now.”
Holderness is an example of the depth of the Texas rowing team. As a freshman, she wasn’t even able to make a boat that raced in the NCAA’s. But she worked diligently at the sport and now, as a senior, is finally getting her chance to lead. She’s in the “stroke” position on the boat, the eighth seat, who sets the pace and the rhythm that the entire crew.
O’Neill, like every good coach, has made recruiting the lifeline of the program and he leaves no stone unturned to find the recruits.
“We're recruiting the best,” said O’Neill. “In our incoming class we have the best recruit from Australia coming, the best recruit from - what we think is the best recruit from Germany, the best recruit from Italy. These are the like, literally, the best kids from the country. And there's some good rowing in those countries.”
The Horns may soon have a big advantage to continue to recruit the best.
Earlier this year, Texas Athletic Director Chris Del Conte announced that UT would be adding 200 new scholarships.
Included in the list is boosting the rowing scholarships from 20 to 68. But O’Neill says you have to read the fine print.
“My phone blew up when that was initially announced,” said O’Neill. “There is a plan for increased scholarships over the next few years. Do we ever get to the full 100 percent 68 scholarships with the max? That’s the fine print. We’ll see. CDC, he’s a smart guy. I don’t think he’s going to spend any money he doesn’t need to spend. But he’s certainly committed to being competitive in every sport.”
Even if Texas doesn’t ever fully fund 68 scholarships in rowing, the increased scholarships will still be able to help O’Neill continue to recruit the best. Because rowing isn’t quite the same as football or basketball where a full ride scholarship is a given.
“The first question (from recruits) is, how big is a scholarship? You know, I haven't had someone ask yet, ‘what's the NIL deal?’ That doesn't happen in rowing,” O’Neill said with a chuckle.
Maybe a fourth national championship in five years will bring in some demand for NIL deals with the rowers.
It’s something O’Neill, who is a self-described film buff, says he’s looking forward to seeing how this year’s script will play out.
“Last year's team that was great that would they have their own storyline and their own plots that happened,” said O’Neill. “This year we're writing our own story storylines, and there's a whole new cast of characters and different plot lines, and we'll see how it turns out. Hopefully, it's one of those Disney movies – triumphant, and not an epic tragedy.”
Saturday morning, the Horns host the University of Michigan for a regatta on Lady Bird Lake. The teams will compete head-to-head in four events over a 2,000-meter course, racing in the first and second eight boats, and the first and second four boats. The races get underway at 8:30 am and fans are invited to come watch. The Texas Rowing Center near Austin High will be the best place to see the finish line and hear the call of the races as they progress.
