Day 3: Building What Lasts
MJ here, I have two stories today:
How Nathan Benderson Park, a world-class rowing venue, came to be from a leftover construction site fishing hole
The longest partnership that raced in the lightweight women’s double event: Erin Roberts and Hillary Saeger. Enjoy.
Erin Roberts (stroke) Hillary Saeger (bow)
It was mostly hidden from I-75:
An 1800 meter puddle with trees sticking out of it. A few fishers knew about it this pond made in the aftermath of roadway construction through Sarasota, FL. Sometimes building highways tears apart working-class neighborhoods, and sometimes it leads to world-class rowing venues.
I guess it depends.
Dragos Alexandru knew it was 1800 meters because he’d driven along and measured it on his odometer. The former 1980 Romanian Olympian had moved to Sarasota in 2002 after immigrating to the US in the 1980s, becoming an American citizen in 1990, and working in Manhattan as a systems engineer.
He started coaching at Sarasota Sculling in 2002. Sarasota Sculling fractioned and part of it split into Sarasota Crew, notable in that it later paved the way for Sarasota Crew to become what it is today, and for the Scullers to continue with their work. This work today involves hosting the Peruvian lightweight women’s double that will be heading out this weekend for the America’s qualifying regatta in Brazil with the goal of qualifying their boat for Tokyo.
At the time, seemingly all the rowing in Florida was saltwater. Saltwater can wreak havoc on the metal parts of the boat. Additionally, for a venue to host the World Rowing Championships, among other specificities, the water has to be fresh water and free from currents. It also must be at least 2200 meters to allow for the full 2000 meters for racing.
With international experience, Dragos had an eye for these sorts of things. He also had an eye and vision for seeing this potential.
He tested this new venue with a few local regattas. As reported in the Herald Tribune, in he called the county permitting office, to get a permit to run a local race. They did not know the “North Metro Park” lake existed. Alexandru shared with them, “I’m sitting in front of it.”
Around 2004 Alexandru’s son, George Alexandru joined his coaching staff. He was a dynamic piece of the Scullers. Then in 2007, Alexandru lost his only child, then 23-year-old to a car accident in September. It brought him “to [his] knees”. Coaching kept him on track because he had a daily purpose “to wake up in the morning and go coach.” Developing this lake into a world-class venue became another more long-term purpose.
In late 2007, he invited the Canadian National team to Sarasota for a training trip, part of which was on this lake. The Canadian National Team coach told him, “Whatever you do, do not mess up because you have one of the best possible options for a racecourse in North America.”
Alexandru said it took patience to explain the sport to the local officials who could help make this happen. This work would require a unique series of public and private partnerships. Rowing was around but not well known in Sarasota. Sarasota Scullers was established in 1991. Alexandru explained this isn’t kayaking, or canoeing, or dragon boating. This is rowing. It took patience and a million meetings. “This was before zoom!” he laughs. He worked with the county. He worked with FISA. He worked with developers. He got the county out to other rowing venues in the southeast US to see that their venue could compete if given the resources to properly develop as a venue and he got FISA to Sarasota.
Alexandru and his dog would go in a boat around the lake to remove the trees that were still on the bottom of the lake from the highway construction. “I had to go in and cut some branches. Which can be a trick when you have alligators all over the place.”
(Today, if an alligator gets over 6 feet, they are removed from the park. The venue has never had an incident.)
They tested the lake with some college and high school regattas. The college regattas were a little smaller and focused, but the high school regattas were larger. “High school kids came with everybody and their brother. So [in 2010] there was a much larger race probably 36 to 40 teams, plus the mother, father, grandparents, and the local dog.”
“That was a big production. And what happened is people figured out that this is a new vehicle if you wish to affect our town.” They measured the economic impact of that high school regatta and found it to be around $3M including hotels and restaurants.
The SRQ airport was around 15–20 minutes away. With development, shops and hotels could become within walking distance. This stood out to Alexandru because many venues, domestic and abroad can be in the middle of nowhere.
In 2013, FISA approved the bid for Nathan Benderson Park to host the 2017 World Rowing Championships.
2013–2014 was when Erin Roberts, winner of today’s (Wednesday, February 24th) lightweight women’s double repechage, began rowing out of Riverside in Boston, MA.
In 2015, a great deal of seat racing and scrimmaging matched Hillary Saeger with Erin in the double together for the Pan Am trials. By then Hillary had raced on the 2009, and 2011- 2014 National Teams in the lightweight quad.
They ended up not racing at Pan Ams that year, but together at the World Championships in the lightweight quad taking 6th. The margin for that qualifying quad race was tight.
In 2016, Nathan Benderson Park held the 2016 US Rowing Olympic trials. Erin and Hillary placed 2nd in their double.
They stuck together in 2017 for the National Selection Regatta for the World Championships for the lightweight double. They lost to a newly formed composite from Potomac and Vesper: Emily Schmieg and Michelle Sechser.
The 2017 Worlds Rowing Championships were in Sarasota that year at Nathan Benderson Park. Alexandru's dream had come to fruition. Cara Stawicki and Jillian Zieff raced on their first national team in the quad. Mary Nabel got 3rd in the single. Emily and Michelle got 3rd in the lightweight double.
The economic impact for Sarasota and Manatee counties was $18.6M
The Erin and Hillary story will pause here for a moment as 2018 was a “strange year” when Erin moved to Hong Kong for work. (She also pulled a sub 7 minute 2k on the erg at Crash-B’s.)
For Nathan Benderson Park, 2018 held the World Rowing Masters Regatta where Alexandru Dragos also raced in a pair, double, quad, and mixed 8+
The 2019 U23 World Championships were at Nathan Benderson when Olivia Farrar appeared at her fourth consecutive U23 World Rowing Championship and took Bronze in the LW4x. Grace Joyce earned 6th in the LW2x.
Nathan Benderson had opened the doors and the world-class athletes had come.
The Erin and Hillary story picks back up. In Hong Kong. In 2019, Erin and Hillary raced together in the Coastal Women’s double “CW2x” (5th) and the CW4x+ (6th) at the World Coastal Rowing Championships in November. And they planned to race Olympic trials together again in 2020.
Erin got to Florida from Hong Kong. And then everything was canceled. On the experience, their coach and coastal rowing teammate, Christine Rubino said, “I know, everyone went through great lengths last year to be here, and to make it work, and they got canceled. And it was bitter, and Erin had to fly back to Hong Kong…Nobody really knew what was gonna happen, or if Erin was going to make it back into the States.”
2020 was indeed an unpredictable year for all. Erin eventually made it back, and in December, they decided to go for the 2020 trials again.
Today, Wednesday, February 24th, they qualified for the semi-final from the repechage.
On their partnership, Hillary says, “We both have similar attitudes towards racing. We both like to go out there and have fun and throw down the best we can. And then at the end of the day, you know, whatever happens, we finish it together, and are happy with finishing it together ’cause we’re both really good friends.”
And Nathan Benderson Park is still used by fishers too. There was one today at the 250.