As most sports require students to stay on school grounds for practices long after school hours, junior Hannah Bivans is on a team that requires a large body of water, a racing boat, and an hour commute to her practice. For over a year, Bivans has participated in the sport of rowing, also known as crew. She wanted to participate in a sport, but she was discouraged to find that most sports offered at CHS require previous experience. After researching sports that do not require previous experience, Bivans discovered rowing which only required determination.

Rowing is a sport in which athletes sit in a racing boat or shell, and use oars to propel the boat forward. Bivans quickly learned that rowing takes hard work and determination.

“Rowing looks really easy but it’s a full body workout,” Bivans said. “You do a lot of work with your legs, core, arms and back. If you work on your strength and are determined and prepared to win, then you will succeed.”

In the middle of her sophomore year, Bivans applied to a rowing club, where she first learned how to position her body and the oars before going out onto the water. Bivans remains committed by making an hour’s drive to Marina Del Rey for practices five days a week from Monday to Friday. Her rowing team is successful nationwide and competes against some of the best teams in their age group. The team usually competes against rowing clubs from nearby cities, but they will also partake in the US Rowing Youth National Championship in Sacramento and the US Rowing Club National Championships in Tennessee from July 16 to 20.

Bivans not only benefited from rowing as a form of exercise, but has also learned many lessons from it that she can apply to all aspects of her life. Rowing requires balance, physical strength, flexibility, cardiovascular endurance, and mental strength. A large part of rowing is dependent on the rowers mentality and teamwork in order to succeed.

“To row you need to have the right mindset. Rowing is like a sprint. At one point you’re so exhausted that you feel like you can’t go any longer, but you have to convince yourself that you’re not tired and push yourself past your limits,” Bivans said. “You learn to work on your own individual strength but you also learn to work on a team. In rowing you can only win if you’re in sync with your teammates.”

Bivans encourages others to challenge themselves and to stay in shape by participating in rowing. Rowing is one of the oldest Olympic and intercollegiate sports and many colleges and universities have rowing teams at a competitive level.

Bivans is currently looking at colleges such as UC Berkeley, Loyola Marymount University, and Oregon State, where she hopes to continue her career in rowing.