Rowing is one of the biggest parts of my life, and I noticed over the past few months since we have been on summer vacation I haven’t written about it as much. But now that I’m back at school and training with my teammates again, it’s consumed most of my time- and that’s in the best way possible. Rekindling a passion for something that I feared was lost in tough months of training over the summer has been an exciting journey to start, and in transitioning back to my college athletic schedule, I’ve found new words to write about my sport.

This week I want to write about coxswains. When you talk to someone who is unfamiliar with the sport, coxswains are one of the main things they ask about. Usually, they refer to them as the little guy yelling at the end of the boat. To a rower, that could be offensive, because we see the truly vital job coxswains have firsthand. But as I’ve gotten used to it, I’m more interested in talking about their job with people who aren’t familiar with my sport.

So let’s jump right into it. A coxswain doesn’t just yell, and a lot of the time they don’t yell at all. Coxswains are girls who are built smaller or are shorter and usually, they realized that the small seat in the boat and their likely vocal and excited personality made coxing a good fit for them. Or, they were girls who wanted to row but found a better fit in coxing.

To be a coxswain means to take full responsibility for the boat, getting from dock or shore to the race course or practice area on a body of water, and then back safely. You are in charge of steering, you motivate the girls through your microphone and headset, you take time, you make calls for certain changes in the boat, you help put boats away, you control a race, and you’re the heart and soul of a boat full of girls when they struggle to find their heart and soul during the painstaking moments of a race. I probably forgot a number of their responsibilities because it really seems like they do it all, so to my coxswains and former coxswains I apologize.

Coxswains are the energy of a practice, a race, and of the team. I find that sometimes their abilities, their roles, and their jobs go unnoticed or underappreciated. While it is simply factual (and every coxswain I know talks about this too) that rowers are doing the working out and training physically the mental job and the responsibility is one I couldn’t handle, truly. Some coxswains even take the time to work out with us or on their own, and outside of this, their job is extremely stressful.

So I wanted to use this opportunity to say thank you. To every coxswain who has worked with me in some way, I owe you a whole lot. I’ve had some incredible coxswains during my time racing. To Lydia, who coxed my first ever championship boat, I’ll never forget your determination. To Keely, who coxed me on my return to rowing after injury, I’ll always cherish your passion. And to Dani, who coxed me for the majority of my freshman year of college, thank you for reminding me daily why I love the sport of rowing.

Every coxswain deserves to be thanked. I can’t even count the number of times a coxswain has approached me during an ergometer, or rowing machine, training exercise and instilled in me the confidence I couldn’t find in myself to keep going. Their job is often a struggle and takes guts of another level. They are under tremendous stress because they are responsible for not only safety and being a true and unwavering leader but for motivating us in unique and effective ways. I will always remember various calls and phrases they use, and the way they take ownership of a group of girls, mentally and emotionally holding us on their backs, is remarkable. These are girls who will go places in life but in our lives as rowers, they mean so much. They are our conscious and our hope to hang on to when training gets hard or a race seems impossible. And when we bring home a medal, it’s no wonder why we hoist them into the air to celebrate- after all that they do to carry us across the finish line and through every part of our lives as rowers, we owe it to them.

So to every coxswain that I’ve met, on my team, and in the world of rowing, here’s to you- thank you, and please don’t ever stop doing the incredible job you do. To the world, you might just be the person yelling at the back of the boat, but to rowers, you’re so much of the fuel that gets the boat across the finish line.