People outside of Kalamazoo always ask me "What does Row The Boat mean?". This is more than a saying our football team uses here at Western Michigan University, it is a life style our coach PJ Fleck encourages everyone to live by. It is a simple saying, with a deep meaning behind it. In 2013 when coach Fleck became the coach, he spoke to MLive and said “Row The Boat is a method of how our whole program will fit together,” Fleck said. “It’s also a saying that has such a simple meaning, but there’s so much behind it in terms of a way for the whole community, the whole faculty, administration, players and student body can rally behind something greater than itself."
“I had ‘Row the Boat’ a long time ago, but I never brought it out. It’s very simple when you break it down. There are three parts to rowing the boat. There is the oar, which is the energy behind rowing the boat. There is boat, which is the actual sacrifice, either our team or the administration or the boosters or the audience or whoever is willing to sacrifice for this program. There is also the compass. Every single person that comes in contact with our football program, fans or not, they are all going for one common goal and that is success.” …
“When you literally talk about rowing the boat, you’re facing the opposite direction the bow of the boat is actually going,” he said. “You’re not able to see the future. We’ve set sail and we’ve set our direction from point A to point B, whether it’s right now to win a MAC Championship or be the first person in your family to get a college education or to beat cancer."
“We’re making it global and community-based. Everyone can relate to this. The boat is set in a direction and we’re rowing. We can’t see the future but we can see our past. Our past is the program. It’s the people. That’s what we’re looking at and we’re learning as we go. We don’t know if there’s a waterfall ahead of us, rocks, smooth seas or sunsets. We have no idea. We just have to keep rowing.”
He also just lead our team to the cotton bowl, MAC Championship, and an Undefeated Regular season because he got everyone to RTB together in one direction. To me, Row The Boat is a lifestyle that I am choosing to live. No matter what happens in life I have to put my oar in the water and keep rowing strongly because if you stop rowing the boat, you will not be successful. I am thankful that has come to WMU and have had multiple opportunities to hear Coach PJ Fleck speak because he has inspired me and helped me change my mindset on a lot of things.
