AROUND CAMPUS
MONDAY, AUGUST 18,2008
27
New boathouse for rowing team excites team, prospective members
The team's upgraded home from a 'cage' is more comfortable, puts faith back into rowing team.
BY CASE KEEFER ckeefer@kansan.com
Inclement weather has frequently inconvenienced junior rower Stacy Rachow during the past two years.
If it was raining too hard or was too windy, the rowing team either had to leave its Burcham Park headquarters and come back to campus to work out or wait to see if the weather would calm down.
That's not the only nuisance the team had to deal with. Rain created puddles in the outdoor cage where Rachow and her teammates would have to go daily to get the boats out for practice.
"Your socks would get all wet," Rachow said. "It would be freezing outside so you'd have wet socks and you'd be rowing. It would be a pain."
Rachow has dry socks to look forward to — and a lot more — before the spring season begins for the Jayhawks. That's when the rowers will move into their new $6 million boathouse at Burcham Park, Second and Indiana streets.
All the team's boats and workout equipment will be stored there, making it a more comfortable place to practice. The 2,000-square-foot building will also contain a locker room, study room and team room.
"This is a tribute to the people that believe rowing is going to be an important part of the athletic future at the University of Kansas," Chancellor Robert Hemenway said at the boathouse's groundbreaking ceremony.
But it's not only the University's rowing team that will benefit from the new facility. The KU club crew team will also have access to the building and will store its boats there.
Will Hecht, president of the club crew team, said the club already possessed credibility for its tradition and performance. But with a brand new facility to show off, the team has more to look forward to than ever before.
"It's going to help our membership a whole bunch," Hecht said. "Because whenever we actually show people the place we call home, it just makes us seem that much more legitimate."
While the club team hopes to impress incoming students, the University squad hopes the boathouse
courts rowing recruits. Rachow said one of the most exciting parts of the new facility was that it would provide something for coach Rob Catloth to sell to prospective team members.
In addition to its indoor amenities, a unique infrastructure accompanies the boathouse. It's being designed to be able to withstand floods of up to eight feet so that even if the Kansas River rises to a higher level than normal, everything inside will be safe.
Rachow can't wait to move in. Everything about the building sounds exciting to her. But more than anything, she said her teammates were happy that after nearly 15 years, the Kansas rowing team has a building of its own.
"They are all just really excited to have a place we can call home other than a cage." Rachow said.
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
The new boathouse reinvigorates the rowing team and is an upgrade for what members called a 'cafe'.
- Edited by Matt Hirschfeld
WWW.KANSAN.COM | THE UNIVERSITY DARY KANSAN