Testing the waters

Taylor Mattheisen is the perfect example of why someone should never be afraid to try something new. Mattheisen came into Gonzaga with no prior crew experience, but has since earned the spot of coxswain for the men's varsity crew team.

Mattheisen, a junior, met a few of the crew guys at lunch one day at the beginning of her freshman year. "The first thing they asked me was how much I weighed, they needed coxswains," Mattheisen said. "I like the idea of participating in athletics."

The next thing she knew, she was out on the water.

The coxswain who was recruited ended up quitting, so the responsibility was left to Mattheisen and another walk-on. "There was a lot of learning, I am still learning."

Mattheisen competed in swim team and lacrosse for four years in high school, so she was familiar with the dedication and hard work involved in athletics. She said she did not try to hide that it was difficult and a big transition, but overall she is glad that she stuck with it.

"I do miss the athletic part of it, but I am still able to get the competitive aspect. It is really addictive, and I like it."

It is no secret that rowing is a sport that very few can handle due to the early morning hours. She made her way up the ranks by working hard and attending all practices despite the 5:15 a.m. wake-up calls. Earlier this season, Mattheisen missed practice with a fever, and it was the first one she had missed since joining the team as a freshman.

Andrew Krug was a member of the crew team who graduated last year and he admits that he was skeptical at first about Mattheisen's lack of experience. "Taylor's entry into the team was certainly a concern for myself. I have been rowing for just over a decade, so when I met Taylor, I really has no patience for inexperience," he said.

"I was giggly in the boat, and the guys wanted me to get a handle on those things," Mattheisen said. UltimatelyKrug said he ended up "more than pleasantly surprised by her ability to seek help and make the necessary changes."

Mattheisen narrowed her role as coxswain down to three things: She steers with the rudder, she motivates and she critiques technique. "I am like the coach in the boat," she said.

Although it would not seem very apparent, "Voices and backs are the two top coxswain injuries, and I know that sounds funny because we literally sit in a boat," she said. But being hunched over in a boat for hours on a daily basis has its fallbacks. "I do have neck and back issues, but I just take it a day at a time."

Although she attends all practices in the morning, she is not doing the rowing. "I am there for the practices, but I am a motivator and technique fixer," she said. To meet the weight requirements of being a coxswain, she has to work out on her own time, which she says is a challenge.

Mattheisen is also in control of the dynamics in the boat and has to make sure the rowers are focused and working hard at practice.

"Sometimes they can joke around in the boat, and I have to judge when to let them have those moments and when to tell them not to talk in the boat."

She wears a headset and the coach tells her observations he makes from the sidelines, but it is her responsibility to fix it.

"It is all about feel. I cannot see through eight 6-foot-5-inch [guys] and leaning from side-to-side throws off the set of the boat, so I have to go off of feel or what I can see from the blades," she said.

Even though she considered herself a tomboy growing up, it was a totally different dynamic coming from having two sisters and attending middle and high school at Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, an all-girls school in Bellevue, Wash., to spending hours being the only girl on the boat.

"You are on the men's team. You are one of the guys. They do not have a filter around you. It was a blunt transition."

But Mattheisen has also earned herself quite a few tall, athletic older brothers. "Taylor was like the whole team's little sister. Any one of us would help her out at a moment's notice," Krug said.

"They are great guys and they are a ton of fun to hang around," Mattheisen said.

Krug said that when traveling, he would always make sure he was sitting next to "Tay-Tay," and there is the obvious factor that "she is half the size of most of the team, but beyond the obvious volume advantage, Taylor and I had a great time chatting about stupid things, watching movies or coloring," Krug said.