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The Tulsa Rowing Club Juniors team is providing opportunities for local young people to get active and compete on a national scale.
Most Tulsans have only experienced the Arkansas River by crossing a bridge or watching it from the shore. But for more than 40 high school students, the river water acts as their practice field.
For two to three hours a day, five days a week, the Tulsa Rowing Club Juniors team leaves a boathouse just north of the 21st Street bridge and glides in unison up and down the river in a fleet of rowboats.
The club is a melting pot of students from high schools all over the Tulsa metro area. And, surprisingly, the ratio of boys to girls is almost identical.
“It’s the ultimate team sport,” says Anna Royce, Tulsa Rowing Club Juniors girls’ varsity team captain and Holland Hall sophomore. “Everyone has to work together to make the boat go fast. It’s definitely a huge time and physical commitment, but our team has really strong bonds. They’re almost like a second family to me.”
Royce — who once lived in Boston, where the popularity of rowing is comparable to that of football in Oklahoma — became interested in rowing in Tulsa after she met Neil Bergenroth, a Holland Hall teacher and the Tulsa Rowing Club Juniors coach. Royce, like her teammates, hasn’t stopped rowing since.
“We call that the ‘row bug,’” Bergenroth says. “Once you’ve caught it, you’re looking at a lifelong career in the sport.”
In addition to gaining strength and confidence, Bergenroth says he has seen kids who have lost up to 40 pounds after just a few short months of rowing.
“We’re getting them off the couch and getting them physically fit,” he says. “It’s nothing like being on a soccer or a football field. They enjoy being in the boat and the sounds and the feel of the river. Moving quick and moving together is quite a bit of teamwork, and they enjoy pushing themselves.”
Many team members didn’t click with the trendier school sports, but they felt an instant affinity to rowing. Bergenroth understands. Although decent at running and swimming, he was unable to hit a ball with a racket. He started rowing on the Thames River in London when he was only 13, and by his junior year in high school was a member of the Great Britain Junior National Team. He later rowed for Boston University, one of the country’s most elite rowing teams.
When Bergenroth moved to Tulsa with his wife in 2002, he found a small group of eight to 10 Tulsa Rowing Club Juniors practicing by the boathouse. Although the club had existed in various forms for about 10 years, it didn’t appear to hit its full potential until Bergenroth came on the scene.
“The kids started to get more competitive, so we started to contact the press and put the word out,” Bergenroth says. “We started with nothing and now have $100,000 worth of equipment through fund raising. The ability for growth is there. It’s neat to be able to build something and develop a sport you love to do and share that with other kids.”
The training has paid off. Some team members have traveled as far as Boston for the biggest rowing event in the country, and the team has competed on a national level for four years. Most recently, the varsity girls’ eight-boat team won second place at regionals and the boys’ varsity team won first.
But soon these rowers won’t have to travel to coastal areas for opportunities, Bergenroth says. The U.S. Rowing Association is building an Olympic training center in Oklahoma City, expected to open this summer. The year-round program will cater to athletes from all over the country. This not only gives Tulsa students more opportunities, Bergenroth says, but also could bring similar developments to the Arkansas River.
“They’ve not done this in half measures,” Bergenroth says. “I’m hopeful that the people in Tulsa can look at Oklahoma City and see what a great example they are building.”
To date, Tulsa Rowing Club Juniors team members have received scholarships to schools such as Yale University, Gonzaga University, The University of Oklahoma and The University of Tulsa. The Tulsa Rowing Club Juniors is currently working to create a scholarship fund to make the sport accessible to all Tulsa students, no matter what their socio-economic background.
