Q & A With Bridget Fowler

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Bridget Fowler, a senior rower from Atlanta, Ga., recently checked in with VirginiaSports.com to talk about the season so far. The rowing team takes on Tennessee and Central Florida beginning at 9 a.m. at Lake Monticello on Saturday, April 11. Fowler has rowed with the Varsity Eight in the first three regattas of the season.

Question: Talk about last weekend’s race vs. Ohio State and how the team is looking to bounce back against Tennessee and Central Florida this upcoming Saturday.
Fowler: Last weekend’s race against Ohio State was pretty disappointing for me. I think we were all looking forward to a good race but in the end Ohio State got us by about two seconds. It wasn’t that great of a race and I think we have so much more speed than we are showing right now so that was a bit frustrating. We just didn’t get into our rhythm. What was positive about last weekend was after the Varsity Eight raced, both the Ohio State and UVa Varsity Eight and Second Varsity Eight did a couple of 500-meter pieces and my boat (Varsity Eight) made some good changes that let us get some more speed.

Question: How did you get into rowing? What is your first or favorite rowing memory?
Fowler: This is pretty funny. I actually was in marching band in eighth grade, which is a fall activity, and there was a girl on color guard with me who had rowed before. Her mother called my mom before spring season of eighth grade and said I was tall and that I should try it so my mother actually made me do it. And at first I absolutely hated it. Hated it. But as I did it longer I started to get faster and figure things out and started to actually have fun. The team I was on was a club team so I was able to meet kids from about 15 other schools so it was great to meet such a wide variety of people. As for the favorite memory, I honestly have so many different ones but one that stands out for me was at the NCAA South/Central Regional during my second year. I was in the Second Varsity Eight and both Virginia and Minnesota won the two heats and semifinals, so we were looking forward to a really good final. Minnesota got out on the start and led us for probably about 1,400 meters but we walked back on them and ended up beating them by about two seconds. I haven’t really had many races like that where everyone in the boat just committed everything they had to coming back when we had been down for so long.

Question: Talk about a typical week of practice before a home event and how you all will prepare for Saturday’s competition.
Fowler: Although I love when we get to go to other race courses, I actually like when we have home events because we don’t spend a day traveling. We can then have a good practice at home and just get a little bit more time to click together. This week, for example, is going to be pretty hard. We have a 2K test today (Monday) followed by a long, hard row in mixed eights. Tomorrow morning we’ll do some competitive pieces and we’ll probably spend a couple more days this week seat racing and trying to make some fast line-ups for this weekend. Then on Friday we’ll probably do some steady state with some shorter speed work to help us feel race pace and work on our starts and sprint. It’s nice because we can go all the way through the week hard and not have to worry about traveling and everything that entails.

Question: Talk about Lake Monticello as a rowing venue and do you feel a “home-course” advantage when you compete there?
Fowler: Lake Monticello is a great race course. It is actually in a gated community, which is gracious enough to let us use the lake, and the body of water is about 2,100 meters long so it is the perfect length for the course. I don’t know if I feel like we have a home course advantage when we race there though. When people come here to race us they throw everything they have at us, just like when we do when we go to other teams home course. The one advantage to racing on our home course is we all know the course pretty well so know the landmarks and where we are throughout the race. I’ve learned through my years here to not take anything for granted and not to expect any kind of advantage anywhere.

Question: As a senior, how have you changed since starting school at UVa if at all?
Fowler: I think since I’ve gotten here I’ve really matured as an athlete. I’ve learned what it means to really go hard and to push your personal limits. Especially in the sport of rowing, because racing is so painful, there are so many times when you are just in complete agony and think to yourself I just can’t go any harder, I don’t know how much longer I can last and I feel like I’ve learned somewhat how to push through that pain and boundary and reach a level I didn’t necessarily know I had.

Question: How much did you know about Virginia’s rich rowing tradition before you made your decision to come here?
Fowler: I knew that Virginia’s rowing team was traditionally very fast before I came on my official visit but didn’t know the history really. When I came here to visit the school I learned so much about the team and program and the standards that are held. And actually the year I graduated from high school, Virginia won a national championship in both the Second Varsity Eight and the Varsity Four so I knew I was coming into an exceptional program.

Question: What else played into your decision to attend UVa?
Fowler: Once again I have my mother to blame. I was looking at some schools on the west coast and she wasn’t very happy about that. I’m from Georgia and she wasn’t crazy about the time difference and how long it would take to get out there. So her compromise was that if I was going to apply to some California schools then I would have to talk to Virginia, who was recruiting me. At that point I wanted out of the south and did not think that I would like UVa but I came here on an official and just completely fell in love with the school and the team. It is such a beautiful school and it is such a highly regarded school. I remember at one point [head coach] Kevin [Sauer] was talking to everyone on the official individually and he asked me what I was thinking in terms of what colleges I was leaning towards and I told him that I came here not expecting to like it and didn’t want to like it but much to my chagrin I absolutely loved it here. I hated that my mom was right, yet again.

Question: What is your major and career plans?
Fowler: I am an anthropology major. I think I am going to be one of those graduates who goes into a field that has absolutely nothing to do with their degree! But I love the anthropology and archaeology classes that I have taken and think that the subject is so fascinating. I’m not sure what career path I am going to go down but I hope to do the AmeriCorps program next year and do a year of service, hopefully in the Washington, D.C., area. After that I would absolutely love to work at a non-profit that deals with women’s issues or something similar. I interned at one last summer and had such an incredible experience.

Question: Looking ahead to the ACC Championships, what do you think it will take to win a school-record 10th straight title?
Fowler: Having already won nine-straight ACC titles I feel like there is some pressure on winning a 10th, as it would be the new school record. But I think it is something we are capable of if we continue doing what we are doing and have a great race when the flag drops. There are only six schools in the ACC that have varsity rowing programs but the caliber of rowing and racing has grown dramatically over the past couple of years so there are definitely teams out there that will be gunning for us and will give everything they have to take the title. There should be some good racing!

Question: What is the best part of Virginia rowing?
Fowler: I mean as clichd as this is, I think the best part of Virginia rowing is my teammates. They are all such incredible people and there is such a mix of different personalities that is awesome. They have absolutely made my collegiate rowing career the great experience that it has been. We’ve had our ups and downs but throughout it all we push each other and challenge each other on a daily basis which is incredible. I feel like they also create such a strong support system that I know my team will be there for me unconditionally.