Rowing may not have been Jackie’s first love having played just about every sport that was available to her by the time she graduated high school. But it was the sport that truly stuck. She walked onto the women’s rowing team during her freshman year at the University of New Hampshire, made the cut and never looked back.
Her enthusiasm for rowing helped to propel her through college, provided encouragement to become involved in starting a community rowing program while living in Ohio, and brought her back to the east coast to coach rowing at Smith College; Jackie was offered a full ride at Smith to coach their women’s team and to earn her master degree in Exercise and Sports Sciences. In the fall of 2016, Jackie left Massachusetts and was hired by Row New York as the Manhattan varsity coach.
When asked about her coaching philosophy, her response was that it is always evolving, but the one constant in her approach is the absolute need for respect– both from, as well as for, her athletes. And that respect she believes is something you have to earn.
“It’s hard to gain respect from a group of teenagers if you are a dictator.
So I sit back, observe, and listen. Only then do I make suggestions. And when they start to see that your suggestions improve their performance, that’s when you earn respect.
I ask a lot of my student-athletes. I expect them to show up on time and to come prepared to every single practice, four sometimes five times a week. If they are late, and I understand it happens, I expect to see them running to practice, not walking. And for my part, I will not let them out a second later than 6:30. ‘I will respect your time if you respect mine’.”
As far as an ‘end goal,’ come graduation, Jackie wants each of her athletes to walk away with a strong understanding of what it means to be part of a team, including a sense of responsibility. As the team matures from novice to varsity, she expects them to work well together and transition responsibility from the coaches to the team. By the time these kids graduate from high school, the program will ultimately be driven by the student-athletes. This means teaching, encouraging, and even disciplining, becomes the responsibility of the entire team.
Jackie responds thoughtfully:
“I’m trying to foster the same environment that a college coach might want in terms of both academic and competitive excellence. Ideally, I would like to see more of our kids row in college because it can provide a bit of stability and a sense of family in order to survive that first year. Not all of our student-athletes want to continue to row, and that’s ok.
But I am making sure that they get the right training so that they succeed if that is what they choose.”
