By Kevin Noonan
Jesse Wakeman loved sports and wanted to be member of a team when he started his sophomore year of high school. But Wakeman is the first to admit that even though he’s a decent athlete, he was not exactly an All-American. And since his high school was Salesianum, where the competition for playing time and even roster spots is intense, Wakeman found himself on the outside, looking in.
So, he looked for an alternative to traditional sports and found it at an unlikely spot — the Christina River.
Wakeman decided to take a shot at rowing and joined the Wilmington Rowing Club, although, at first, he was literally and figuratively just dipping his toe into the water.
“I went to the boathouse and tried it,” Wakeman says. “Then I showed up the next day and the next day and the next day … And before I knew it, what started out as an experiment turned into a passion.”
Eventually, that passion turned into a job. Wakeman, who graduated from Sallies in 1996, is executive director of what is now the Wilmington Youth Rowing Association (WYRA), which has its headquarters on the Christina River in Wilmington, at 500 E. Front Street. And he and the other coaches are trying to get other kids to do what they did — grab an oar and see if they like it.
That recruitment is necessary, because there’s no such thing as Little League rowing. So, unlike kids who start playing tee-ball and soccer when they’re 4, rowers usually start in their teenage years, when they’re already playing other sports or involved in other activities.
“That’s the challenge: getting kids to try it for the first time,” Wakeman says. “It’s not a mainstream sport, so a lot kids are like I was — they’re hesitant because they don’t know anything about it. It can even be a little scary.”
One of those kids was Wakeman’s daughter, Liv. Now a junior at Padua Academy, Liv Wakeman says she was never into sports — she ran some track and played some tennis, but admits “I was just never good at any other sport.”
She assumed rowing would be the same, but she humored her father and tried her hand at it, albeit reluctantly.
“When I first started, I tried so hard to hate it,” she says. “I really didn’t want to do it, but then it just kind of grew on me. I was never a sports person before, but there was just something about it — I finally found something for me.”
WYRA likes to claim it has something for everyone. It has several classifications for male and female competitors, and the average rower is 10-18 years old. But there is one big difference from high school sports — everyone gets into the game, no matter their skill level.
“It’s really the ultimate team sport, because there are no benchwarmers,” says Tristan Salvadori, who first climbed into a boat when he was a student at Wilmington Friends School and is now the head women’s coach at WYRA.
“That’s definitely part of our recruiting tactics,” adds Salvadori, 33. “There are a lot of kids who want to play football or baseball, but maybe they’re not good enough to make the team, or if they do make it, they have to sit on the bench. And nobody wants to do that.
“So, we get some kids who aren’t super athletes, but we can teach them how to put a blade in the water and stroke and they can excel at rowing. And everybody gets a chance to complete, no matter how many rowers and boats we have. Plus, it’s very challenging physically, it’s really a great workout. More importantly, they make new friends and have a great time while doing it.”
There’s another benefit to rowing — Jesse Wakeman, who couldn’t make traditional teams at Salesianum, earned a rowing scholarship to Mercyhurst University. He says the fact that rowing isn’t a mainstream sport and doesn’t draw a lot of competitors means there are more college scholarships available, especially for women.
Making A Splash
WYRA began in 1989 as part of the Wilmington Rowing Club and was incorporated as the Wilmington Youth Rowing Association in 1994. It was initially housed in a small shed and trailer, but in 1998 WYRA purchased and renovated the old Pusey and Jones Machine shop near the Amtrak train station, thanks to support from local businesses and foundations, as well as the City of Wilmington and the Riverfront Development Corp.
The founders and spiritual leaders of the WYRA were the late Faith and Gordon Pizor. Gordon was a long-time rower who wanted to bring the love of his sport to kids, especially under-privileged ones, and Faith served as executive director of WYRA for 27 years. Today, WYRA’s boathouse is named after them.
“Because of their influence, when I became part of [WYRA] I immediately felt like part of a brotherhood, part of a community,” says Mike Hall, head coach of the men’s team. “There’s a definite culture in the rowing community and I think more and more kids, and their parents, really like that part of it.”
Hall went to Monsignor Bonner High in Drexel Hill, Pa., and like so many others who get into rowing, he was skeptical at first. And, like so many others, he soon grew to love it.
“The coaches I had and the guys I competed with made me realize that I had something in me that I didn’t know I had,” Hall says. “To me, it was all about the culture and the camaraderie, and that’s all kids are looking for at any level. They just want to be part of something that’s special, and I found that in the boathouse.”
Ronan Hamasaki wasn’t necessarily looking for that, but he found it, anyway. Hamasaki, a junior at Tatnall, played baseball and basketball, but his mother — who rowed for Colby College in Maine — urged him to give her sport a try. Like Liv Wakeman, he was initially hesitant.
“I was nervous the first time, because I really didn’t want to do it,” Hamasaki says. “But once I started rowing, I discovered that it’s really fun, so I kept on doing it. All of the people involved were great and I bonded with them pretty quickly.
“It was a bit of a challenge at first, but once I started to row it became a lot more fluid and natural. I’m a competitive person, and when you win a race it’s the best feeling ever, because you did it as a team.”
Rowing has two seasons, which last from late February until the second week in June, when the U.S. Rowing Youth National Championships are held in Sarasota, Florida.
WYRA crews compete all over the country, but most of its racing is done in the Mid-Atlantic region. Teams have competed in the prestigious Henley Regatta in London and for more than 20 years they’ve raced in the Head of Charles in Boston, one of the top events in America.
“Our main mission right now is to get the word out about rowing, to make sure people understand what the sport is about and all the benefits that go with it — and there are a lot of them,” Jesse Wakeman says. “And, really, the biggest benefit of all is that it’s a lot of fun.”
— Visit WYRA.org or call 302.777.4533
Above: A young crew during a workout on the Christina River. Photos courtesy of WYRA.
Kevin Noonan has written about Delaware and Delawareans for more than 45 years. He and his wife, Suzi, live in Arden and are the parents of two grown children and the grandparents of two growing-up-too-fast angels. He has no interesting hobbies to speak of, but is generally recognized as one of the finest air guitarists in the tri-state area.