Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Sweet Home High School graduate Sean Martin was on the highest-placing Washington State University boat at the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association championships two weeks ago when his four-man boat placed first in its division.
Martin and his team stayed with his parents, Craig and Willa Martin of Sweet Home, on their way to Sacramento, Calif., for the Pac-10 conference championships last weekend Martin and his eight-man varsity boat finished seventh. At the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships, also held over the weekend, Martin and the four-man lightweight boat finished fourth and the eight-man lightweight finished first.
Seven Pac-10 schools have teams, Coach Arthur Ericsson said. The powerhouses are University of Washington, Stanford and Cal Berkeley. UCLA, USC, WSU and the University of Oregon have club teams.
Half of WSU’s roster is lightweight, Ericsson said, so his team gave the lightweight boats some priority in the WIRA championships. The team entered nine of 10 events, medaling in four of them, three in the lightweight categories.
They took first place in the varsity lightweight four and second in the lightweight eight. Martin was on both boats. WSU also finished third in the novice lightweight four and second in the varsity four.
The team was looking to catch the Cal varsity lightweight four boat last weekend, Ericsson said. Cal beat WSU by 4.81 seconds, about the length of a boat, when they raced earlier in the season.
Ericsson praised Martin, who was a swimmer in high school, in his third year on the team.
“You just never question that he’s going to give everything,” Ericsson said. That’s common amongst rowers though. By the end of the season, those who remain are dedicated rowers.
Martin is on the varsity eight boat, Ericsson said. He’s a lightweight, but “that’s not stopping him from representing our top boat.”
That’s his swimming background, Ericsson said. “Those guys know what it means to keep going and going.”
Boats are designated by the number of rowers. A lightweight four has four rowers and a coxswain, for example. The team also has two-man boats, which do not have a coxswain, the person who steers the boat. Each boat also has someone designated “the stroke.” Martin is the stroke on the lightweight eight. The stroke sets the stroke rate and rhythm.
“You’ve got to be mentally tough sitting in that position,” Ericsson sad. “I always put someone in that seat that has close to perfect strokes.”
Martin is the treasurer for the rowing club at WSU, he said. The club has a budget of about $100,000. Of that $20,000 comes from the school programs budget while $80,000 is raised by the team itself in the off-seasons.
The team competes in long-course – 5,000 to 6,000 meters – events in the fall and short-course, 2,000 meters, in the spring.
“It’s a labor of love,” Martin said. “We fund-raise almost every weekend we’re not racing. We all love it. It’s an amazing sport.”
Nothing teaches teamwork more than trying to get eight guys to row in unison, he said.
Martin said he got into rowing after his father told him that a lot of rowing teams try to recruit swimmers and suggested he check out rowing as a sport.
The next week, he received a flier in the mail recruiting rowers.
“Three years later, here I am,” he said. Competing four years in the WIRA, he was on the best-placing boat ever for the school, and it all comes down to teamwork.
Team was always emphasized in high school swimming, Martin said, “but this took it to a whole new level.”
The team becomes almost like family with all the time they spend working together, working out, traveling and practicing, he said. The entire team includes about 40 people.
Martin, a junior, is majoring in communications with an emphasis in advertising. He graduated from SHHS in 2004.