Denise Aquino, Row New York’s Director of Community Rowing, taught her first rowing program at Binghamton University in 2010. What started as a volunteer coach position led her to teach masters and youth programs for two summers in Anchorage, Alaska. (Wistfully, she recalls “Twenty-four hour days of pure sunshine and calm lakes….”).
Such spontaneity provides insight into Denise: she seizes opportunities when they present themselves, and rowing was one of those opportunities.
Denise became intrigued by rowing in high school when a classmate of hers was a participant in one of Row New York’s early programs. But like many of our coaches, she developed her skill and love of the sport while in college. Despite a frame of 5’0”, she was determined to be a rower––and not “just a rower”, but an A boat rower. As she put it:
I worked my butt off, I was stubborn and refused to be relegated to a coxswain due simply to my stature. We attended eleven practices per week and I attended every single practice for four years.”
(Eventually, she did try her hand at coxing, but on her terms!).
The hard work rowing demands and the opportunities it presents speak to Denise. She stresses both aspects of the sport to her community of rowers––whether the middle schoolers she coached for three years, or the adaptive athletes and veterans she currently works with.
“Regardless of your gender, whether you are a Vet, a person of color, with a disability or not, high or low income, you should be afforded this opportunity.”
Row New York provides accessibility to a sport that traditionally is out of reach to under-resourced communities, and this mission resonates with Denise. It’s always made complete sense to her that rowing can be used as a tool for students from low-income communities as a way to college. As a queer woman of color, Denise has applied the skills she developed through rowing to her own academic work, and attests to the power of the sport and the success of the mission.
“Row New York’s mission was my always my compass.”
