TEN QUESTIONS WITH...

Over the last six years, we have increased the size of the team to approximately 60 student-athletes. It breaks down to about 15-20 kids in the lightweight program and 40 or so in the heavyweight. This year, we will race with four to five heavyweight crews and two lightweight crews. In the past, we have usually raced in about three or four. I think this (growth) is going to continue because going into next year, we already have 60 names on our roster without adding walk-ons, and I think that is exciting.

You have gone from coaching silver medalists in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles to teaching UB student-athletes, many of which are walk-ons, the fine sport of rowing. What is the best part about being a coach, at any level?

The absolute best part about being a coach is being able to work with young people, at any age level, and assisting them to be the best that they can be. I feel that my experiences really allow me to help athletes get faster. Athletes are not just born, they are made, and I know that that is true in our sport because we get kids who are walk-ons who do not have the highest skill levels coming into college, but they are athletes. If you can take these athletes, motivate them and make them work hard, it is unbelievably rewarding. There are people who want to be fast, at any level, and that’s the fun of it.

In 2003, you became head coach of the rowing program after having coached primarily the varsity program in your previous years. What is the difference between the varsity and novice program?

Your varsity program is only as good as the novice program, the recruits you have, and the walk-ons that you develop. We seem to be recruiting better athletes and attracting better walk-ons. We have got sophomores and freshman that are among the strongest members of our team, so the relationship between varsity and novice (with the novice being first-year people) is extremely tight and correlated. As head coach, it is absolutely important that you know every student-athlete and encourage them to be the best that they can be. We have a unique position in our sport, where we don’t have second-stringers or bench players. It is a real attraction to our sport because they all get to race and compete.

During the fall, your varsity program faced nationally ranked Harvard-Radcliffe, Cornell and Syracuse at the Head of the Genesee Invitational Regatta. Despite the national recognition those programs have received, the Bulls raced their way to a third-place finish, ahead of the ranked squads. After having some time to look back, how would you assess the fall campaign?

I think the fall campaign did a tremendous amount for us in helping us to believe in ourselves. You can ask athletes to work hard, but the athletes need to see some tangible feedback in terms of results of racing. We are also very fortunate that the fall season allows us to lay the foundation physiologically and psychologically for what we do in the spring. It is an adjustment in terms of where you go from rowing three miles to rowing 2,000 meters. There is an adjustment there, but it is always a positive one. It’s easier to make the adjustment down to shorter distance from a longer distance.

With the spring season right around the corner, the team travels to Oak Ridge, Tennessee to compete against Louisville and Syracuse on March 9-18 in spring training. How does a rowing team properly train for a spring season?

The first thing that we have to deal with is the fact that we go from being on land to being on the water. We race Louisville after being on the water for three days. We do not have one of the things that all Division I schools in the east have and that is an indoor tank. That makes the adjustment for us a little more difficult, but it is just a matter of recognizing the fact that we may not be at full race level preparation in those early races. Having said that, the early races are seen more as scrimmage races than they are seen as actual competitions. We want to do well, but there is always that fallback. If we do well, it’s a bonus because we know that we have not had a lot of water time.

Your son, Andrew Wieler, joined your coaching staff in 2004 following a brilliant four-year career at Northeastern University that include a sixth-place finish at the NCAA National Championships. Your other assistant, Elizabeth Ostermeier, rowed at George Mason as a walk-on and developed into a standout rower. She has also trained with the US Rowing Women’s Sculling team. How important are they in the overall training of the team?

Andrew and Liz are very important to the program. They both bring special qualities and talents to the coaching staff. Andrew and I work directly with the heavyweight athletes, and Liz works with the lightweights. The lightweights have allowed us to increase in squad size and give the smaller athlete a competitive venue. They compliment me and they make my job easier. Andrew’s tremendous recent experience as a top-level athlete has really helped the technical development and the special relationship that he has as a younger person with the younger athletes. Liz also is a top-level athlete and is doing the same thing with the lightweight squad.

Every year, you and your coaching staff actively pursue new talent from outside the rowing world through open tryouts available to any female student on campus. What do you find to be your biggest challenge in coaching student-athletes without a lot of experience?

The biggest challenge is to find out, as quickly as we can, if they have the work ethic to make a good rower and if they have the athleticism to pick up the sport. We get strong kids who are short and stocky, and we get kids who are tall but who are not strong. We always need to decide quickly, within the first four to six weeks, before we ask them to continue. There is immediacy to this and that’s why it is important that we put knowledgeable people at that coaching level so that they can act quickly and bring them along. But they are an integral part of the program, as some of the best rowers we have are walk-ons. This even holds true at the national team level, as almost a half of their squads are filled with kids who did not start rowing until they were in college. It does not mean that they are not fantastic athletes; it means that with the proper commitment to the sport of rowing and the year-round training that they can pick up the technique part within a two-year period and become great rowers.

Last year, the Varsity Eight took home the Harvey Cup trophy with a win over Eastern Michigan for the first time the annual Harvey Cup Regatta’s three-year history, named in recognition and memory of former Associate Athletic Director and Senior Women Administrator Nan Harvey. How important was it to take home the trophy on our home waters of the Tonawanda Creek?

It was extremely significant to the program, to our athletes, to the Harvey family, and to the University. It is the only program in the Mid-American Conference that has another rowing program, and we want to be able to beat them. It has a high priority. In the overall scheme of things, it may not be as important, but it is important for UB and our team.

Rowing is the only varsity program at UB that is not represented by the Mid-American Conference, let alone any conference for that matter. Does not having a conference affiliation hurt the program in any way?

It does because our athletes do not get the recognition in terms of all the conference awards, the rower of the week awards, and all of the other kinds of things that all the other athletes get here. You need these kinds of intermediate recognitions to reward athletes, and let them know that they are on the right track. For us, the ultimate recognition is national, but we belong to a conference of independent programs called the METRO CUP, and we have done very well in that conference.

What has been your favorite moment as a UB head coach?

To me, I’ve felt very fortunate that I’ve been given the opportunity to work with my son, Andrew. I think that having the opportunity to work with him and help him to grow into being a very fine rowing coach has been very special for me. I want to thank the university for facilitating this, and allowing this to happen.