STANFORD, Calif. – Of the 36 sports at Stanford, all but one enjoyed at least one competition before the seasons were canceled March 12 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The exception was men's rowing.
That means that Ted Sobolewski, who was hired as the Farwell Family Director of Men's Rowing on July 2, 2019, won't coach his first regatta for the Cardinal until 15 months into his tenure – and only if next season begins as scheduled, at October's Head of the Charles.
The season was supposed to open April 4 with the Stanford Invitational on the Redwood Shores Lagoon. Instead, men's rowing is the first Stanford program to go a season without an official competition since 1945. That doesn't mean the year was a total loss. It's just that the progress cannot be measured.
"The work we did in January and February was really positive," Sobolewski said. "We were definitely starting to see things come together.
"We were starting to string together three, four, five, six good practices in a row, while working different technical elements of the stroke. Guys were really able to identify that and build on it.
"There was a real sense of enthusiasm around the team through the progress we were making as a team and the guys were making individually. They were stepping up."
Sobolewski was enthused about the freshmen, such as Flynn Traeger, and the veterans.
"They were putting themselves in position to have a really good spring," Sobolewski said. "There was a a real sense of enthusiasm. The unfortunate side of it is without racing, you really don't know what that means. It's all internal.
"That's the tough part. It's a little bit of a purgatory for us. Things were going OK and we never really had a shot to actually see what that meant."
Sobolewski was encouraged by the early first and second varsity eight lineups and by the likelihood that he'll have sophomores Peter Chatain and James Wright here for potentially three more seasons. Chatain and Wright joined junior Nikola Lilichenko on the selections for the U.S. under-23 national team camp.
Lilichenko and junior Trey Holterman were named captains for next year's team by their teammates.
Though Sobolewski has no race to point to as a season highlight, he does have a stretch of training that comes to mind.
"We had an unbelievable winter in terms of conditions: relatively flat water, relatively warm, not much rain. We had some awesome mornings where we could row way out on the bay and out to the bridge."
On one of those ideal late February mornings, two boats of fours worked on drills and technique until Sobolewski looked at his watch and realized time was growing short and they needed to return to the docks, about 10,000 meters away.
"We were way out there," Sobolewski said. "We essentially just turned around and started rowing."
Working different stroke rates, the two boats began to battle side by side. Back and forth, neither could gain an advantage over the other.
"One of the big goals we had this year was to create a competitive environment from the top of the team to the bottom of the team," Sobolewski said. "There's got to be that competition in terms of every stroke, just guys staying in it, not letting the boat fall behind, trying to inch their bow in front, because that's what we do in racing."
"We were working on that a lot, but it's hard to create. But this piece, for whatever reason, everybody was just really competitive and locked in a battle all the way back. I just let them go, and they kept battling."
It was a sign to Sobolewski, that the team was primed. If nothing else in a lost season, at least they had that.