She’s the Man: Women Coxswains on Men’s Crew Teams

“I was the smallest person in my high school struggling to find a sport that I could be involved in, being so small,” freshmen men’s heavyweight coxswain Jennie Kunes explained.

At 4’11”, Kunes would not strike the average passerby as a Division 1 female athlete, much less a member of a men’s team. However, Kunes and four other Harvard women are key members of the Harvard men’s rowing programs.

SMALL BUT IMPORTANT

Outside the world of rowing, the role of the coxswain is often unknown or misunderstood. Who are the people sitting in the boat, but not actually rowing? What even are they doing?

In order for a boat to make it down the river as quickly as possible, the rowers must be working hard and have their strokes in sync, and the boat must take the fastest course possible.

Although the coxswain does not contribute physically to the boat speed by rowing, he or she is responsible for ensuring that all three of these things happen to ensure the best results possible.

A good coxswain must motivate and inspire his or her rowers to push themselves physically harder than they could alone, feel when the rowers are executing their strokes precisely and efficiently and instruct them to adjust accordingly, and make quick judgments during pieces and races to steer the boat.

“There’s a lot of trust put in [coxswains],” sophomore men’s heavyweight coxswain Jacqueline Goodman said. “You’re the person in charge of where the boat is going to go, the coach’s partner who directs the rowers when the coach is not there, and the one pushing the guys to keep going and get as much as they possibly can out of a piece.”

Another important element of the coxswain is that since he or she is not pulling his or her weight by rowing, the lighter he or she is, the better. For collegiate men’s rowing, both the minimum and maximum weight for coxswains is 125 lbs. Ideally, the coxswain’s weight is as close to 125lbs as possible so that he or she does not weigh down the boat any more than necessary. Coxswains under the weight minimum must carry sand bag weights with them in the boat to ensure fairness in competition.

There are many more college aged women who are around 125 pounds than men. Thus, men’s crew teams often recruit female coxswains and encourage even inexperienced girls of the right build to try out.

The unique role of coxswains encourages individuals who may not otherwise participate in collegiate athletics to be able to complete.

“It’s such a unique opportunity to participate in college athletics when you’re not necessarily built for athletics,” said Kunes. “I did soccer and track in high school… but I was just too small.”

ONE OF THE GUYS

Being a female athlete on a men’s team is a unique situation. However, both coaches and athletes from Harvard’s men’s crew programs have stressed that in the boat, gender does not matter.

“It is all about the personality of each individual coxswain,” Ian Accomando, assistant coach of lightweight crew, said. “If they are a competitor, have a good work ethic and a high level of achievement, then they are going to fit in just fine whether they are a boy a or a girl.”

Female coxswains often specifically choose to work with men’s crews for various reasons, and are comfortable with looking past gender before they even enter the boat house.

For example, Goodman grew up with a brother and always had a lot of guy friends. Besides already being comfortable around guys, she was drawn to the level of intensity that being on a men’s team provided her.

“I get to push myself to match the guy’s intensity and go for more when they want to go for more,” Goodman said. “You have to take yourself seriously in order to demand the respect of the guys…. but it’s less about what gender you are and all about how well you’re performing. It’s a lot about being there - showing up to do the work.”

“Heavyweight men go fastest… that was my criteria.” Kunes said.

The intensity and competitive nature of the sport enables gender distinctions to not matter.

“All it comes down to is who can best execute the job,” Accomando said. “The guys in the boat are willing to take criticism, inspiration and direction from anyone. We have no problems in that respect.”

However, even though Kunes always knew she wanted to cox on the heavyweight men’s team in college, when she first arrived at Harvard’s Newell boathouse she was in for a surprise.

At Harvard, the men’s and women’s boathouses are separate. The women’s program operates out of Weld boathouse on the Cambridge side of the river, while the men’s boathouse is across the river in Allston.

“In was a weird situation at first when I realized that the boathouse was made specifically for men,” Kunes said. “There are no women’s locker rooms. There’s a little closet that has probably ten lockers in it that the coxswains use and there’s a bathroom next to it we can use, but it’s the public restroom.”

Regardless of gender, one of the most important qualities of a coxswain is the bond he or she builds with his or her boat.

“There’s a lot of relatability between each coxswain and their boat because you grow with the rowers and understand what the technical changes and the sort of motivation that works best to make that boat go fastest,” Goodman said. “The most important thing for a coxswain is that you relate to your boat well and you find your community within your boat.”

Specific scenarios such as showering, travelling, and having to find time outside of practice to work out do pose additional challenges for female coxswains.

When the team travels, the coxswains room together, separate from the boys; and Accomando joked about how the one place thing the female coxswains are excluded from is the “shower banter.”

“People ask me a lot ‘do you work out with the guys?’” Goodman said. “No I don’t personally. Some coxswains do, but I run. I really like running. So when I’m actually coxing, I’m just sitting there, which means there’s an extra initiative that I have to take since I have to budget in time outside of practice for working out whereas all other athletes get their workout in during practice.”

However, despite these challenges, the experience of being a female athlete on a men’s team is extremely rewarding.

“Both being a cox and being a girl on a team really forces you not to take your status as a teammate for granted,” Jennie said. “It might seem easy to separate yourself from the team, so instead you have to never let off on being motivated and truly invested. Ultimately this is a good thing since when you follow through with that it makes you closer to the team and the team better.”