Indian River Rowing Club board member Shotsi Lajoie sees a lot of parallels between her experiences as a rower on the first Women’s Rowing Team at Notre Dame and that of Vero Beach High School graduating senior Ruby Hollinger, who was instrumental in developing VBHS Crew and will be attending Notre Dame in the fall.
The story really harkens back to the 1960’s Cultural Revolution, a precursor of the Women’s Rights Movement. By the end of that decade and into the next, the nation’s top all-male colleges and universities began to go co-ed. Notre Dame was one of them, admitting women in the fall of 1972; they made up just five percent of the student body.
With few athletic opportunities open to them, the women took it upon themselves to create their own clubs, unfunded by the school. The Women’s Rowing Team, formed in 1973, recruited Lajoie from St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame’s female affiliate, to row with them.
After their very first year the team took home the First Place trophy at the Midwest Sprint in Madison WI, beating established teams from University of Wisconsin and University of Minnesota.
“We were about the happiest people; we knew that we were making history that day,” said Lajoie. “They had programs for years and years and had indoor practice facilities. We had old equipment and duct tape. We never thought we’d beat them, and we won. This is definitely the hero’s journey.”
Members of that fledgling team, now calling themselves the NDames, flew in from all over the country last weekend to train for The Head of the Charles Race, the largest rowing regatta in the world, held in Boston each October.
The NDames were joined by Hollinger and other members of the IRRC Youth Crew, including Ellie Weibel, whose grandfather attended Notre Dame. Both girls coxswained the rowers; their role to steer, direct and motivate.
“It’s like a coach on the water,” explained Hollinger, who plans to coxswain the Men’s Rowing Team at Notre Dame. Ironically, the men’s team is now a club, which she hopes will leave more time for study than the women’s team, which is varsity.
“I love the team aspect; having to all row together requires a strong bond with everyone,” said Hollinger. “One of the things I’ll miss the most is my team here, because we’re really close.”
“She pretty much spearheaded the recruitment of girls to formulate the first girls’ team here; she’s currently the captain,” said Lajoie of Hollinger. “So she’s rowing with women who also started a team. I think that’s kind of fun.”
The alumnae group was formed in 2012 with the planning of the university’s Title IX 40th anniversary celebration. “Everybody was making a big deal about it. Notre Dame wanted to fill in the early history of women’s sports because nothing was written down,” said Lajoie, adding that she and her teammates were asked to contribute stories, race times and anecdotes.
After being invited by the men’s alumni club to row with them at The Charles, they geared up and held their first training camp here in 2013 and raced that October.
“So now we’ve made this a tradition. And now here’s Ruby doing the same thing we did,” said Lajoie. “She ended up being the leader of a brand new sport – and it’s also self-funded.”
And like those early teams, the Vero girls are pushing beyond all obstacles in their own way – this April, after their very first year, the VBHS Freshman Girls Four Rowing Team won the Florida Scholastic Rowing Association (FSRA) State Championship.
