Program Spotlight

Steady on the Water: Teen Rowers Practice Teamwork and Improve Fitness

Eyes focused on the rower’s neck in front of her, 15-year-old Natalie Uranga bends forward from the hips, her back ram-rod straight. She braces her legs into the shell’s foot stretchers and slides the orange-bladed oar

“That’s it, Natalie. Keep that left elbow out, there you go, now hook it straight. Atta’ boy, Phil. Charley, now don’t start getting all Rambo on me,” Julio Viyella, director of Team Row, motors alongside the “Open Water” in a launch boat, shouting encouragement and instructions through a megaphone. These teens, along with another group on shore awaiting their turn to row, are enrolled in Team Row’s Summer Camp, funded with a $23,600 grant from The Children’s Trust.

Viyella and several staff assistants, rowing fans home from college in Miami for the summer, are teaching rowing basics to teens in this summer camp, operated by Adults Mankind Organization. In its second year, the camp has accommodated 68 students this summer, mostly at-risk youths, in two, two-week sessions.

“We’re really trying to help fulfill the demand for fresh, innovative sports and hope to leave the doors open for any kids who want to continue with rowing,” Viyella said. As a boy, he broke his leg playing junior football and looked for a non-impact sport. He started rowing and “was hooked within a month.” Today, 21 years later, he’s more enthusiastic than ever.

“We really want to grow the sport. There’s so much coast line, so much water not being used,” said Viyella, who rowed on the UM college team, then went on to coach at the University of Tennessee.

Team Row operates from the City of Miami Rowing facility on Key Biscayne, and the kids row in the Miami Marine Stadium Waterway. Their vista includes the shimmering Rickenbacker Causeway, skyline of multi-colored high-rises, and a man-made island lush with sand pines, saw palmetto and scrub oaks. It’s not usual for dolphins to swim near the boat or to see tarpon leaping into the air – sights these kids from downtown neighborhoods would not see if not for this program.

Ana Someillan, the executive director of Adults Mankind, met Viyella at their daughters’ ballet school. The organization has operated since 1986, focusing on developing job training for youths. Since Someillan took over, however, the program has begun to emphasize social skills. Viyella’s enthusiasm was contagious, and rowing offered the perfect sport and opportunity to stress teamwork.

Teen Row will be funded by The Trust as an after-school program in the fall. It will add a literacy component to its current focus on fitness and healthy lifestyle. The program will be modeled on Row New York, a New York City-based program that serves at-risk adolescent girls. Young women in that program have made excellent gains in terms of increased physical strength, heightened self-esteem, improved over-all fitness, weight loss and better eating habits.

Uranga, 15 and who attends the International Charter Schools in Coral Gables, has become an overnight rowing fan.

“When my mom told me about it, I wasn’t that into it,” Natalie admitted, “but now I really love it.” She attended the first two-week session and then was delighted to learn she could help out in the second session and earn community service hours. Natalie plans to join her high school team that uses the same City of Miami Rowing facility.

Rowing has long been considered a sport reserved for the wealthy and privileged. In South Florida and in many parts of the country, it remains largely undiscovered – though Team Row is helping to change that by making the sport more accessible to kids like these. Because it’s still in a growing stage, many opportunities abound – especially for young women, according to Viyella. He pointed out that 10 percent of the girls who attended the camp last year, later joined rowing clubs or their school team.

The best thing about the camp, according to 12-year-old Kevin Perez, is “that the staff treats the kids with so much respect.” Perez learned about the camp through the Shenandoah City Park program in his neighborhood. The challenge and the adventure appealed to him.

A 7th-grader at Shenandoah Middle School, Perez especially enjoys math and science. Rowing has taught him more about angles. By shifting the angle, he changes the leverage and must apply more or less power. For more speed, you have to reach out further, and pull back longer and harder, he explains.

Youths gather at 8:30 a.m. for the half-day camp. They start with stretching. For those kids with weight issues, the exercise helps them become more aware of their bodies. Then together the kids carry their boat from the boathouse to the dock and enter it in the water.

Together. A key word for rowers. Once in the eight, the name for an eight-man racing shell, teamwork continues to be critical. On the water, they drill – three on the square, three on the feather – practicing to row in unison. Line-ups are juggled so that nearly every day teens row with a different group. They become aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses, but especially that overall success depends on teamwork.

“If you decide to scratch your head, the rest of the boat feels it,” Viyella shouts to the crew. They’ve been on the water for 45 minutes and some of the teens’ faces are grim. They are clearly tired.

Viyella urges them into the homestretch of their row. He shouts to Alex Montes, the coxswain of the shell: “Refocus them technically.”

Alex, a staff member this summer along his brother Jeff, sits in the stern of the “Open Water,” wearing a cox box. The microphone and headset amplify his voice to speakers in the boat and, like a jockey, he counts a steady rowing cadence.

“Carlos, you have to anticipate, don’t react, that way you all move together. Better. Better,” Viyella shouts across the water. Then, when one of the rowers glances toward him. “Don’t look at me. I’m just a heavenly voice that appears once in a while.”

Article written by Michael R. Malone, The Children's Trust