8 Competitive Desire

Volume XXIII // No. 1 // FINAL // February 2021

Tiffan Macon, 2012 co-Captain, ‘Competitive Desire’ page 8

02 Inside This Issue & SARA Boards 03 Dear SARA Friends ... 04 Backsplash News 07 Winter Silence 08 Competitive Desire 10 Hooked On Rowing 12 Learning Resilience 14 Looking Back, Moving Forward 16 Coach Luke: Spirits Will Be High! 18 Keeping Things Light 20 I Love To Row 22 Who’s With Coach Jason? 25 Social Media Connections 26 Two 5th-Year Aussies Return 28 2020 Virtual E@Ten Eyck 30 Championship Journeys 31 Men’s Crew Endowment Report

Cover Image > L-R: Emma Karpowicz, Tiffany Macon & Carmen Failla

Orange Oar Correspondents: Skyler Rivera, 2022 Louise C. Rath, 2023

Volume XXIII // No. 1 // February 2021 © 2021 Syracuse Alumni Rowing Association WWW.SaraRowing.com SARA EXECUTIVE BOARD

Joseph Paduda ’80

President

Paris Daskalakis ’98

Treasurer

Gillian Carlucci ’14 Secretary

Josh Stratton ’01

VP / Digital Director

DIRECTORS

Charles Roberts ’61 Paul Dudzick ’67 Donald Plath ’68 Kenneth Hutton ’69 Paul Dierkes ’79 William Purdy ’79 Gerard Henwood ’80 Arthur Sibley ’80 Charles Clark ’83 Peter Hilgartner ’84 John Gilbert ’85 Jay Greytok ’87 Colin Goodale ’90 Jason Premo ’98 Lena Wang ’99 Adlai Hurt ’04 Joel Harrison ’07 Ryan Armstrong ’08 Ryan Patton ’10 Mark Vyzas ’10 Gillian Carlucci ’14 Rebecca Soja ’14

SARA ADVISORY COUNCIL

Paul Irvine ’45 William Hider ’62 Edward Kakas ’64 James Breuer ’72 Bryan Mahon ’78 Ozzie Street ’80 Thomas Darling ’81 Andrew Hobbs ’83 Rick Holland ’83 Gordon Hull ’83 Barry Weiss ’83 Emme Entwistle Aronson ’85 Kristin Walker Bidwell ’90 Tracy Brown ’90 Jeff Pesot ’90 Donald Smith ’90 Christopher Ludden ’91 Sylvester Rowe ’92 Joseph Bufano ’99 Skye Michiels ’99 Aliza Seeber ’04

FEEL FREE TO CONTACT US

Men’s Head Coach: Dave Reischman – dreischm@syr.edu Women’s Head Coach: Luke McGee – lwmcgee@syr.edu Orange Oar Writer, Editor & Publisher: – Hugh Duffy – duffyfamily7@comcast.net Orange Oar Writer, Editor: Rebecca Soja ’14

Making the most of it. In this edition of the Orange Oar, you will read inspirational stories from our athletes about how they made it through the most frustrating event an athlete can encounter. You will hear how our coaches kept things together through Zoom calls, team texts and late night phone conversations, adapting to ever-changing restrictions and regulations while somehow continuing to recruit great student athletes.

You will also read about our athletes setting aside their personal anger and frustration to think hard about how a canceled season and COVID-19 restrictions pale in comparison to the murder of Black men and women and our country’s continued inability to acknowledge and solve systemic racism. Not content to make a few statements and proceed on, they committed to continued, persistent efforts to help drive significant and lasting change. I learned a lot this year. How much more mature college “kids” are these days than when I was on the Hill. What my fellow alumnae/i really treasure about their time at Longbranch. How a few committed, talented, and passionate people can change the arc of Syracuse Rowing’s future. And how incredibly lucky I was to land here and somehow manage to row for Syracuse. Reality is Syracuse Rowing came out of 2020 much stronger than it went in. By the time you read this, we will have raised close to $500,000 for the five-year Championship Journey, our initiative to ensure SU Men’s Crew has all the resources it needs to reach the top. Thanks to Peter Henriques, John Gilbert, and Jay Greytok and our partners in SU Development and the SU Athletic Department we will likely achieve our goal of $1 million in pledges over the next five years. SU Women’s Rowing isn’t far behind; a core group is getting organized, learning what worked for the men and adapting those lessons learned to help buy critically needed equipment, pay for travel, and set our women up for their own Championship Journey. Our men and women are not just great athletes and great students. They are thoughtful, caring, passionate, selfless and committed. I am incredibly proud to know they wear Orange.

Bleed Orange!

Joe Paduda SU 1980

Backsplash

From Charlie Feuer (Frosh 1978)

Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania

I run my own consulting firm, CBF Market Strategies, serving the Healthcare industry via Physician Practice and Medical Center administration of Remote Patient Monitoring and Telehealth Services.

Also, I run a hobby / business as an agent for buyers and sellers of Antique and Collector Autos, Trucks and Motorcycles, Bucks County Auto Brokerage, doing all research, diligence, inspection and execution of marketing and transaction.

I stay in touch with as many of “Drew’s Crew III” as possible including Tommy “Guitar” Darling, Bob “Baahb” Donnabella, Andy “Bear” Groch, Dave “The Rave” Pistachio and “Dandy” Drew Harrison.

I believe this picture of a few SU Crew legends on victory day will bring a lot of smiles from the 1978 gang and era. – Charlie

^ L-R Jerry Jacobi, Charlie Feuer (IRA Stewards Trophy in hand), Tom Darling

From Kevin Rung, 1980

Offats Bayou, Texas

I am enjoying life in Galveston, Texas! We have a Texas A&M men & women’s crew here on the island. I am working with an ex-offender transitional housing non-profit in Houston. That’s been keeping me busy.

I’m vaccinated, so I’ll be visiting Westchester County to see my daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren in February. – Kevin

From James Olson, 2012

New York City

My wife April Olson (SU 2013) gave birth to our first son Adler John Olson on December 27, 2020 weighing 7 lb.-3 oz. – James

James rowed the two seat in the 2012 IRA Grand Finals. He works as a Structural Engineer for Arup Group in their New York City office.

COVID-19 has severely affected our Learnto-Row Programme at the Guelph Rowing Club (photo >) in Ontario, Canada. Our Directors decided to make a transition from eights to recreation singles. Our fundraising has been successful and this spring we will have a fleet of stable recreation boats for our beginners. We are keeping separation on the water, for safety and health. We had to recruit additional coaches but as non-paid volunteers we quickly met the challenge. The big issue now is funding a boathouse addition. We live with hope that these days will pass!

* SU 1956 Freshman Crew Back Row L-R: Stroke Larry Hawkins, 7 Bruce Baker, 6 Bob Braue, 5 Jim Edmonds, 4 Nelson Miller, 3 Glenn Vatter, 2 Bill.Laidlaw, Bow Lance Osachey (deceased), Front Row L-R: Dean Kimbell, Larry Weiner, Bruce Ackert (deceased), Walter Kehm. About the bonds of rowing, Walt adds:

Bruce Ackert and I became lifelong friends. He rose to be a Colonel in the Air Force after graduation, carrying out top secret reconnaissance missions. He was also doing atmospheric tests measuring nuclear radiation in the atmosphere. It was his feeling that he contracted throat and thyroid cancer because of all these missions that could last up to 36 hours non-stop.

During his last days on this earth he wrote every day from his naval hospital and talked about our University and rowing days together. It was all about the bonds and friendships that came out of rowing at Syracuse. When I coach our varsity and freshman crews I often refer to rowing and how it can be a lifelong lifestyle and the friends you make are lifelong. Best regards to all. – Walt.

< Walt in his 1X.

Backsplash (continued)

From Brandis (Arcadia) Turner

Park City, Utah Dan Turner, SU 2011, Mechanical Engineering Brandis (Arcadia) Turner, SU 2011, iSchool

Welcome Benjamin Hudson Turner to the Turner family, born on May 5, 2020. In addition to Benjamin’s birth, Dan started a new job at Triumph Gear Systems, in Park City, Utah. The new job led us on an adventure out West. 2020 has been a rocky year for all of us, but we have found joy with our new addition and all that Utah has to offer! – Brandis

Editor’s notes: Dan rowed for the men, and Brandis rowed three years for Coach Kris and then one year for Coach Justin.

^ The Turner Family at Arches National Park, Utah in August 2020. L-R: Jack, Gwen Arcadia (“Gaga”), Brandis with Benjamin, Dan.

From Pam Carey Schrock, 1983

Warrenton, Virginia

I am celebrating 20 years at TransAmerica Life Insurance in their Meetings & Events Department. – Pam

From Joe Paduda, 1980

Skaneateles, NY, & NH’s Upper Valley

Deb and I bought a place in New Hampshire’s Upper Valley; we’ll be here in the winter and in Skaneateles, NY, for the summer. Our daughter’s family is just a few minutes away so we get to see our new granddaughter (Aubrey June Walsh) a lot. I got a few miles in on the Connecticut River north of Dartmouth’s boathouse this fall; great memories of races on a beautiful race course. Great fat biking on the hundreds of miles of trails here in the winter! – Joe

^ Our barn after a winter storm.

From Coach Dave

Winter images of Onondaga Lake’s Outlet and the Ten Eyck Boathouse.

From Coach Luke

A new Empacher racing shell awaits the Women’s return to Ten Eyck.

Competitive Desire

Like most rowing athletes, Tiffany Macon (SU 2012, co-Captain) has a complicated foundation in other sports. She played basketball until her sophomore year in high school when an injury sidelined her. And music was an additional block in her otherwise solid foundation.

Tiffany graduated from the international baccalaureate (IB) program at Franklin High School in Stockton, California. She feels that there was also lots of competition there in academics and music to keep her motivated. Earning the trombone first chair or a coveted spot in the drum line in middle and high school fueled Tiffany’s competitive desires to excel. Enter Joan Rubinger (SU 1999, former coxswain), then-Delta Blades coach, who inspired Tiffany to pursue collegiate rowing by asking “Are you willing to work hard…?”, the corollary would be that Tiffany would see results. Tiffany had sought physical training competition, in addition to the rigors of academics and music, even in an IB program where her classmates were her daily competition to excel and succeed.

Tiffany wanted to obtain an east coast education with a small city feel. New York, Boston and Philadelphia were out. Syracuse and the University of Texas were her top considerations, of many options. Alicia (Kochis) Strodel (2002, former Associate Head Coach) encouraged a fall trip to Central New York, ostensibly to coax Tiffany to visit during the larger fall and combined-spring time period that would occupy Tiffany’s time (not the winter, snow filled season). Tiffany faced many challenges upon arriving at SU. Like all freshmen, she had to look to the upperclasswomen for keys to a successful transition to college life, starting over with humility. And junior year, SUWROW Head Coach Justin Moore raised the proverbial bar, with explicit delineation on the 6K under 24:00 standard to be eligible to train in the top group. Tiffany offers this reflection on achievement and retention of a seat: “Achieving first trombone chair offers a great translation to rowing: once you are there you don’t want to give it up.” And her implied admonishment to challengers: “You have to out work me … ” to get her seat, and “… I am not going to look back.”

At SU Tiffany learned the need to analyze all aspects of her stroke, to fix it, and to be able to compete more successfully as a shorter athlete. Similarly Tiffany advocates tough and honest conversations to fix brokenness. Reflecting that the lingering built-up tensions in America that are all out in the open, Tiffany expresses her heart: “It is time for all of America to understand the racism and supremacy issues that we have. To eradicate the issues, we must first acknowledge the issues and the pain that they are causing.” Like implementing tangible steps to fix her crew stroke, Tiffany advocates honesty in dealing with societal problems: “Hard conversations must be had in order to move forward. Hard conversations lead to understanding and empathy.”

Life now for Tiffany offers some of her same, yet different challenges. As a developing administrator in college athletics (Cal), she notes that there are

Bow Rebecca Soja, Macey Miller, Maggie McCrudden, Tiffany Macon, Carmen Failla, Chelsea Macpherson, Miranda Williams, Emma Karpowicz, Cox Allison (Todd) Van Schoonhoven.

Memories of the 50s & 60sBow Emma Karpowicz, Rebecca Soja, Tiffany Macon, Carmen Failla, Emma Basher, Miranda Williams, Anna Kaszycki, Maggie McCrudden, Cox Allison (Todd) Van Schoonhoven.

not many women of color in the industry, especially in the fundraising discipline. “I do not see myself in spaces that I am in,” she reflects, yet that is what raises her competitive spirit to help create more opportunities for women of color in college athletics development. Tiffany: “Me being present and engaged in spaces that you do not traditionally have women of color will help change the next generation.”

What gives her meaning to pursue fundraising is her passion to help give student-athletes an exceptional college experience. Currently her goal is to help Cal Athletics keep its premier reputation as an internationally-known university that provides ans extraordinary academic and athletic experience. She works with women’s rowing, track & field and cross country, as well as women’s water polo and men’s water polo to help secure gifts for their annual funds. To secure and steward gifts, she works with her coaches and colleagues to tell the great stories that the student-athletes generate through hard work in and out of the classroom and host events surrounding games, milestones, and accomplishments.

^ Class of 2012 Carmen Failla, Keriann (Miller) Jimenez, Emma Karpowicz, Allison (Todd) Van Schoonhoven. Tiffany advises prospective SU student athletes from warmer climates to invest in a substantial winter parka and pair of boots, and “Not just a rain jacket.” Adding, to ensure success: “… take advantage of both the athletic department’s support as well as the academic program’s support.”

Tiffany gives a shout-out to the class of 2012 and her junior year roommates, who “enhanced my experience at Syracuse.” In addition to learning how to live independently, she also learned to live interdependently. “Some of my fondest college memories were living with Carmen [Failla], Rachael [Ogundiran] and Mikala [Almeida] and training and competing all four years with the class of 2012.” “I’m lucky to have college roommates and classmates that I can rely on today,” she adds.

And, rest assured that Tiffany still closes her e-mails with “Go Orange!”

^ Tiffany with her two living grandparents, three parents, five siblings, and uncles and aunts. – The Orange Oar Editor.