W. Crew coach races team

Penn women's crew coach Carol Bower will be watching her team very closely as the Quakers compete in the Head of the Charles Regatta this weekend in Boston. Bower, however, will not supervise from the shore. She will be watching from the boat immediately behind the Quakers. A member of the 1980 and gold-medalist 1984 United States Olympic teams, Bower will race with her former teammates on Sunday against the Quakers and about 40 other teams. She retains vivid memories of her days as an Olympian. After training for about five hours every day for several months, Bower was invited to attend the Olympic selection camp in 1984. "I gave up my whole summer," Bower said of the amount of time her training schedule took. The Olympic coaches tested her rowing skills on specialized machines and in the boats. Out of hundreds of candidates, Bower and seven other women were selected to represent the United States in the 1984 Olympics at Los Angeles. After her selection to the team, she continued her rigorous training schedule for another month and a half. "[Everything from] low-intensity long work to high-intensity short work [was part of the training]," Bower said. After months of intense preparation, the time finally arrived for the anxiously-awaited race. "My legs were shaking," Bower said. "This was the last race [of my career]. There's no way you can completely prepare yourself for your last race." Evidently, she prepared herself more than adequately as Bower, and her seven teammates, captured the Olympic gold medal. "The first words that came to my mind was 'We did it,' " Bower said. Bower hopes that the Quakers will also be able to "do it" on Sunday at the Head of the Charles. Bower expects Penn to perform well after capturing first place in all three races of the Navy Day Regatta last week. "They had to learn how to stay ahead even though they were twice as tired," Bower said. She insisted that some of the team members compete in two of the Navy Day races in order to boost their stamina for the Head of the Charles, a more grueling race. "We were dead tired," senior co-captain Melanie Onufrieff said. "Navy pushed us. They weren't going to give us an easy race." Indeed, Navy did push the Quakers, as Penn finished only 2 seconds ahead of the Midshipmen. "We worked very well together," senior co-captain Sonia Johnson said of the Championship Eight, the boat on which she and Onufrieff raced. Johnson also acknowledged that the rest of the Quaker boats raced well. The Youth Eight, comprised of less experienced rowers, finished fourth in the same race. Moreover, Penn won the junior varsity race and the four-person race. "I feel that we're going to do better than last year [in the Head of the Charles,]" Johnson said of last year's 19th place finish out of around 40 to 50 boats. Bower expects the Quakers to do well this weekend. She believes that the Championship Eight and the Youth Eight, led by Kathy Cochran, will have a successful race. Indeed, Bower will have an active role at the Head of the Charles. Although competing against her Quaker squad, she expects that her boat will not pass Penn's. If it does, the Quakers should plan for a rough practice on Monday. After all, if anyone knows what a rigorous practice is like, Carol Bower does.