A Brief History of Alabama Rowing
The Black Warrior River was the scene for the historic inception of Crimson Tide rowing in October 2005. Then, Director of Athletics Mal Moore, accompanied by former University President Robert E. Witt, stood on the river's bank and announced the addition of rowing to the varsity lineup.
With the scenic river behind them, rowing was going to the next level by becoming the 21st varsity sport at the University of Alabama.
Laying The Foundation
For over 20-plus years, the sport of rowing had been growing in the Tuscaloosa community and on the national scene. At the Capstone, club rowing began in 1987. Mainly a social club whose intentions were to go out and have fun – among team members there was little, if any previous rowing experience or real desire to succeed on the water.
A few athletes with rowing experience joined the club in 1997, bringing with them a desire for change. The team adopted a more competitive attitude, spent more time practicing, and began expanding its fundraising efforts.
In 1998, Larry Davis and wife, Vicki, moved to Tuscaloosa so she could take on a new job, leaving the former rowing coach looking for local work. When news of the University's co-ed club rowing program's need for a coach came to light, it seemed like a comfortable fit for the former University of Virginia rower. In January 1998, Davis was introduced as the team's volunteer coach.
"Like any club that has never been organized or supervised, there was a learning curve," Davis said. "Many of them had never been in a competitive sport before."
In the meantime, Associate A.D., Marie Robbins and others in the athletics department at Alabama were having discussions about adding a 21st varsity sport. There were a number of candidates to fill the slot, but Robbins, the Tide's senior woman administrator, could not get past the stories she was hearing about a successful club that was making the best of its limited resources a little way up the Black Warrior River.
"We started to delve into the issue about 2003," Robbins said. "We began to talk about the opportunity to add an additional sport for women and provide additional participants the opportunity to compete."
With a program and sport already in mind, it seemed natural to Robbins and those at the University to elevate the program's coach as well. Davis had turned rowing into a grassroots success on campus, building up a team of college students that was bringing home numerous medals, as well as back-to-back points trophies at the Augusta Invitational in Augusta, Ga.
"We looked at a lot of coaches internally and externally and ultimately at the end of the day we decided that coach Davis, in terms of local knowledge and familiarity with the club program and local operation of the river also had a wealth of collegiate experience under his belt," Robbins said. "For coach [Mal] Moore, Larry's loyalty to the university was helpful in that for 10 years he worked in addition to his paid job to volunteer and coach these young ladies who had come out for the club team."
Davis' resume included head coaching jobs at Marist College and the University of Alabama-Huntsville as well as an assistant coaching spot on the 1983 U.S. Men's National Rowing Team. In February 2006, Davis would be able to add one more school to that already impressive list.
For a school with little experience in rowing a seasoned coach like Larry Davis was the obvious answer, Robbins said.
"With Coach Davis, it's local knowledge," she said. "Having been here for 10 years helps those of us with less knowledge about the sport."
Starting Out
The transition from club to NCAA Division I proved challenging. The team was forced to move on without former club athletes who could not adjust to the commitment necessary to varsity-level rowing. Davis set up a challenging first-year schedule to help with the transition, including competitions against notable Division-I crews such as Notre Dame and Cincinnati as well as Murray State and Creighton, two schools that had previously beaten Alabama's club team.
"There was no fluff in the schedule, but there were some teams I thought we could beat," Davis said.
To the surprise of many in collegiate rowing, they did just that, defeating past foes Murray State and Creighton and coming from behind to beat the Bearcats of Cincinnati. Alabama medaled in all four events at the Head of the South Regatta, winning two of them. The Tide also beat schools such as North Carolina and Duke while giving Notre Dame a bit of a scare, holding close to them in a couple of events.
Success came quickly to the first-year program despite unfamiliarity with the sport by both the athletes and the athletic department's support staff. Rowing was a sport that Robbins and her colleagues had to learn the nuances of - things such as what equipment and facilities were necessary and how many staff members to hire were among the initial challenges.
"The biggest challenge is attitude," Davis said. "When you're dealing with walk-ons, I think a lot of people don't understand the sport and how much hard work is involved. When you take somebody who is used to a club mentality, the varsity level is much more intense. It takes athletes who are driven, dedicated and committed. It takes a lot of hard work, focus, discipline and sacrifice.
"What I'm asking the students to do is move a boat over a mile and a quarter distance as fast as they can, which means they're running flat out for somewhere near seven minutes," Davis said. "It's enjoyable in one way, but it's very painful. It's not something your average person is going to want to do."
In the classroom, seven rowers earned 2007 Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Scholar-Athlete Award, while nine earned a place on the Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll.
The Tide followed up a successful first season spring with an extremely successful fall, opening the season with a pair of top-three finishes and a silver-medal finish all at the Head of the Charles Regatta.
A gold-medal finish followed at the Hobbs Island Regatta in Huntsville. The team continued to excel in the spring of 2008, winning race after race during the dual-meet season, including a program-first sweep against UNC on their home water at Chapel Hill. Strong dual meets propelled Alabama into the 2008 postseason, where they earned a silver medal at the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Championships and finished second overall at the SIRA Championships, a major accomplishment for such a young program. At the Dad Vail College Championships, Alabama continued to take big strides, reaching the Grand Final of the Novice 8+ race, taking fourth overall. Individually, Bryn Crawford became the first UA rower to earn a place on the Collegiate Coaches Rowing Association's All-South Region team.
In the classroom, nine rowers earned the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Scholar-Athlete Award while 16 were named to the Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll.
The Tide kept stride and continued its winning ways, carrying over into its third season, a season emblazoned in bronze, silver and gold. Success came early as the women earned a pair of bronze medals and seven top-10 finishes at the Chattanooga Head Race to open the season. In their second race of the season, the squad split up with the varsity crews heading to Cambridge Mass., for the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta and the novice crews heading to Huntsville, Ala., for the Hobbs Island Regatta. Both teams experienced great success with the varsity squad placing 10th, beating 35 other teams at one of the most competitive races, while the novice crews brought home first and second place in the Novice 8+ race. The Tide earned five top-three finishes, including a pair of gold medals, at the Head of the Tennessee Regatta. Closing out the fall season, the novice squad performed exceptionally well, bringing home three medals - a bronze, silver and gold - at the Head of the Hooch Regatta.
As the 2009 spring season got under way, Alabama made major strides, achieving success in meets against the likes of Clemson, Kansas State, Tennessee, North Carolina and Southern Methodist. The success against these established crews propelled the team to the postseason, earning two Grand Final berths at the SIRA Championship Regatta. As they continued through the postseason the team would see two crews head to the semifinals and one boat head to the petite finals at the Dad Vail Regatta. The girls advanced four crews to the finals of the South/Central Sprint Championships to cap off a very successful season.
"This season was a transition where most of the club athletes were gone and we didn't have as many seniors," Davis said. "We increased our boat speed but we also toughened up our schedule. It was probably a little frustrating for the girls because we were going faster but we weren't seeing some of the wins that we saw the year before because we were now rowing a lot of the top-20 teams in the United States."
Academically, nine rowers earned the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Scholar-Athlete Award and 24 UA rowers earned a place on the Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll.
Growing The Program
From joining Conference USA to enjoying their first gold medal at the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships, Alabama rowing's fourth season was a season full of firsts. The first group of four-year seniors provided the Crimson Tide with the most experience at the highest level since the program's start, which paid dividends right away with a bronze medal in the Club 8+ competition at the Head of the Charles Regatta early in the 2009 fall season. Alabama closed out the fall with a gold-medal sweep of the Secret City Regatta races.
Alabama started the 2010 spring season off with a sweep, taking first place in all of its races in a home dual meet against Kansas State. The Tide secured another first by taking gold in the Varsity 4+ at the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships.
At the 2010 South/Central Sprint Championships, Alabama earned a place in the finals of all its races. The South/Central Sprints also served as the first Conference USA Rowing Championships, marking the first time that Alabama participated in a conference event. The Tide finished sixth in C-USA while junior Laura Skaggs earned All-Conference USA honors.
On the academic side of the ledger, Alabama was one of only two teams with three rowers on the Conference USA All-Academic Team as seniors Stacey Ogle, Bailey Sanders and Katie Spohr all came away with the honor. Other classroom accolades included 11 rowers, the most of any team in the nation, earning the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Scholar-Athlete Award. A program-best 27 Alabama rowers earned a place on the Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll.
The Crimson Tide's fifth season was a quantam leap forward, including top honors at a national regatta and winning a trio of gold medals from the SIRA Championships.
"The 2010-11 season was a huge step forward for us," Davis said. "It was big in terms of knowing what it takes to be competitive and then being able go out and execute it. I think in the past we might have had an idea of what it took to be successful, but that was the first time we were able to bring it all together and execute on a consistent basis.
Alabama posted a huge win at the 2011 San Diego Crew Classic, an event billed as "America's Premier Spring Regatta," when its First Varsity 8+ boat took first place in its race, winning the SeaWorld Cal Cup. Alabama's squad was among more than 4,000 rowers out on Crown Point Shores on Mission Bay.
"We attacked a bit more than we did in the prelims and had a more aggressive race plan in finals," Davis said after the race. "The Varsity 8+ dug down a little deeper and did what they were capable of doing. They made a really good move about midway through the race, pulling ahead, and really pushed through the third 500."
Following its success at the San Diego Crew Classic, Alabama's Varsity 8+ was named the inaugural Conference USA Boat of the Week as well as Row2K.com's Crew of the Week.
Alabama followed up their 2010 Varsity 4+ SIRA Championships gold medal by repeating the feat in 2011, as well as bringing home gold in the Varsity 8+ and Second Varsity 8+ races, in the midst of rough weather conditions.
"To sweep all the Varsity Open races is a really big step forward for our program," Davis said after SIRAs. "There aren't too many programs that have done that, so we were pretty happy with that."
The Tide was looking forward to carrying its success into the 2011 Conference USA Championships, but the April 27th tornado that ripped through Tuscaloosa cut the academic semester and the rowing team's season short. It also trimmed a dual meet with Clemson and the Tide's second appearance at the C-USA Championships from Alabama's schedule.
"We were certainly disappointed to not be able to carry our success into the postseason, but it was still a very good year for us," Davis said. "To be able to go and travel across the country and compete at a very high level against teams that are making it to the NCAAs, and to turn around and not only win one race but the three open championship races for varsity women at the SIRA Championships, shows that we learned how to execute in a high pressure situation at a high level."
Senior Alissa Kranz earned 2011 All-Conference USA honors and became the second Alabama rower to earn CRCA All-South Region honors. On the academic side of the ledger, Alabama became the only team to put three rowers on the Conference USA All-Academic Team each of the first two years of the program when senior Jessica Allaway, Kranz and junior Stephanie Varner came away with the honor in 2011.
Other classroom accolades included eight rowers earning 2011 Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Scholar-Athlete Award honors and 17 rowers earning a place on the SEC Academic Honor Roll.
Allaway also earned the 2011 Brad Davis SEC Community Service Award, which earned her a $3,000 postgraduate scholarship while the team received the athletic department's community service award for the fourth year in a row.
Despite having a team slowed by injuries, Alabama's sixth season provided the young program a clinic in fighting through adversity.
In their first race of the 2011-12 fall season, the Chattanooga Head Race, the Tide earned two medals, taking gold in the Novice 8+ race and silver in the First Varsity 8+ race. Alabama also medaled in the Club 8+ race at the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta.
The 2012 spring season showed improvements, with the Novice 8+ boat taking first place at the Oak Ridge Invitational and the Second Varsity 8+ finishing second.
Returning to the San Diego Crew Classic, Alabama again saw success with the First Varsity 8+ posting fifth- and sixth-place finishes and the Second Varsity 8+ posting a sixth-place finish.
The Tide had a solid showing at the Conference USA Championships, finishing just one point out of sixth place to take seventh overall on Melton Hill Lake. Senior Leigh Ann Terch earned All-Conference USA honors.
On the academic side, Alabama placed two rowers on the 2012 Conference USA All-Academic Team, marking the third year in a row that the Tide placed multiple athletes on the list. Senior Stephanie Varner earned her second consecutive unanimous selection while junior Canella Tinker made her debut.
Other classroom accolades included five rowers earning the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Scholar-Athlete Award, while 17 Alabama rowers earned a place on the SEC Academic Honor Roll and 23 were named to the C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll.
At the beginning of the 2012-13 season, in its seventh appearance at the prestigious Head of the Charles regatta in Cambridge, Mass., Alabama won a bronze medal in First Varsity 8+. The Tide also won gold in the First Varsity 8+ at the 2012 Head of the Chattanooga and bronze at the 2012 Head of the Hooch.
In the spring, the Tide won six total races at the Oak Ridge Cardinal Invitational and posted wins in the First and Second Varsity 4+ on the Black Warrior River against West Virginia and Central Florida.
In its first appearnace at the Knecht Cup Regatta, Alabama won the Second Novice 8+ while the Second Varsity 8+ took third.
At the fourth Conference USA Championship, and the first with 11 teams, the Tide took 10th place. Senior Tabitha Coleman earned All-Conference USA honors.
On the academic side, Coleman earned a place on the 2013 Conference USA All-Academic Team.
Other classroom accolades included seven rowers earning the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Scholar-Athlete Award while 17 Alabama rowers earned a place on the SEC Academic Honor Roll and 28 were named to the C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll.
With construction of the brand new facilities under way, the 2013-14 season would be the final year in which Alabama Rowing launched from the north side of the Black Warrior River. The Tide opened its fall season on a strong note, earning first place finishes in the Collegiate 8+ and Novice 8+ at the Chattanooga Head Race. In total, 12 different boats would earn top ten finishes throughout the fall. In the spring, Alabama would take home a combined 34 top-three finishes at the Oak Ridge Cardinal Invitational, Knecht Cup Regatta and Dale England Cup.
Senior Lynsey Marshall was named to the All-Conference USA team at the league's championship on May 17 and Ashley Allison was named to the C-USA All-Academic Team. In total, a program-record 14 team members earned the C-USA Commisionner's Medal with 43 named to the C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll and 18 named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll.
The 2014-15 season began the program's transition to the Big 12 conference and marked the opening of the brand new boathouse on Manderson Landing and training facility at the Student Activity Center at Presidential Village. Improvements in the facilities parallelled improvement on the water, as the team enjoyed a successful fall and spring. At the prestigious Knecht Cup Regatta, Alabama's Varsity 4+ took home a silver medal in the Grand Finals, marking the first time at Tide boat had medaled in a grand final at the event.
The season culminated in a fifth-place finish at the Big 12 Championships, the highest finish in program history. In total, Alabama qualified for five Grand Final races, totaling 22 points. Senior Melissa Etter was honored as Alabama's representative on the All-Big 12 Rowing team.
In the classroom, Alabama had a then-program high 12 CRCA Scholar-Athletes and qualified 25 rowers to the Academic All-Big 12 team.
Alabama's success on the medal podium continued immediately upon the start of the 2015-16 season, where the Crimson Tide won four events and medaled a total of 11 boats at the season-opening Chattanooga Head Race. A pair of top-20 finishes at a very windy Head of the Charles race in Boston and five event victories and 13 medals at the Head of the Hooch rounded out a succesful fall season and set the stage for more success in the spring.
After opening its spring with an exhibition race against Eastern Michigan, the Tide posted event victories in the First and Second Novice 8+ at the Cardinal Invitational, with none of Alabama's boats finishing any lower than fourth in their race. The Tide then split its squad between two seperate events, sweeping Drake at home while a selection of Varsity 8+ and Varsity 4+ rowers won seven of its nine races at the Lake Natoma Regatta in Sacramento, Calif.
Alabama's Novice crews continued its success with a silver medal at the Knecht Cup, marking the second-straight season in which Alabama has medaled in a grand final at the event. After sweeping SMU in Tuscaloosa on senior day, the Tide headed back to Oak Ridge, Tenn., for the Big 12 Championships where they competed in three grand finals and earned a pair of medals in the First Varsity 4+ and Third Varsity 8+.
Alabama also qualified 35 to the 2016 Academic All-Big 12 team, with the Tide accounting for six of the 10 honorees that posted a 4.0 grade point average. After the season, Alabama posted a program-record 17 CRCA Scholar-Athletes, the second-highest mark of any team in the country.
The Tide opened its 2016-17 season with a five-race sweep at the Chattanooga Head Race, a program-first. The fall season culminated in another program-first with three medal finishes at the Head of the Hooch, including two bronze and a silver.
Early dual meet success in the spring set up the Tide for a stellar all-around showing at the FIRA Rowing Regatta in Sarasota, Fla. There, Alabama won six races and posted nine top-three finishes with no boat finishing lower than fifth place. The Tide capped its spring with a fourt-place finish at the Big 12 Championships, netting a trio of event medals.
The team's success on the water was mirrored by its success in the classroom. Thirty Alabama rowers earned Academic All-Big 12 recognition, including a league-leading six with a 4.0 GPA. The Tide led all Division-I programs with 14 CRCA Scholar-Athletes and posted its highest team GPA in program history.
