It’s no secret that Canada can get pretty cold in March.
It’s probably the reason Taya Anderson never even thought about the sport of rowing while growing up in Okotoks, Alberta. But when she arrived at Holy Spirit High School in Absecon for her sophomore year, Anderson was looking to be part of a team.
“I moved here before my sophomore year because my mom got into law school at Seton Hall [University],” Anderson said. “When I came to Holy Spirit, I wanted to do a school sport.”
PHOTO GALLERY: Holy Spirit High School Rowing
Her mom suggested joining the girls crew team, but it took some convincing.
“During the first day of school, I met a girl in my homeroom that said she rowed. She told me to come try it. I went, and Coach [Joe] Welsh saw some potential in this really tall girl.”
Anderson, now a senior, is six feet tall and recently committed to row at defending national champion Stanford University. She’s come a long way in the sport, and she admits to being a little naive about what rowing was all about. She said her mom left out a few glaring details about how grueling of an experience it can be.
“In my head, I just saw a boat, like a kayak. I had no idea what it was, and I had no idea what I was getting into,” she said.
Holy Spirit races in both the fall and spring and holds practices at the Brigantine Rowing Club during the warmer months. In the winter, there’s lots of running and training on ergometers to stay in shape. Only the strong survive.
“I just had never been a part of anything like it before,” Anderson said. “It’s so competitive and so grueling that it intrigued me. I’m a pretty competitive person. This is a sport where you can get out a lot of that competitive energy in a really cool way around really cool people.”
In just about no time, Anderson made a lot of new friends at her new school. Anderson was born in Okotoks, a town of about 30,000 people just south of Calgary. She then moved north to the Edmonton area. She hasn’t been back to Alberta since moving to New Jersey.
Although Alberta does have rowing clubs in the province, Anderson doesn’t recall ever knowing about them. “At least where I was, rowing wasn’t very popular.”
That’s not the case for Holy Spirit’s historic rowing program. The girls team won back-to-back Peabody Cups in 2003 and 2004 at the Henley Women’s Regatta on the Thames River in England, which claims the designation of the best high school rowing event in the world. Their coach, Joe Welsh, was a member of the boys team at Holy Spirit when it won the Henley in 1976.
This year’s Holy Spirit girls team might not have world domination on its mind, but the team will be very competitive with several boats in its arsenal. Anderson rows on Holy Spirit’s varsity four with coxswain boat, which won its heat and took fourth out of 22 teams at the Manny Flick Regatta on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia on April 7. Anderson rowed with teammates Allison Lee, Alexandra Solari, Gwen Amalfitano and coxswain Giavanna Rynkiewicz.
“I love my teammates,” Anderson said. “They are some of my closest friends. I’m trying to appreciate this year for what it is and have some fun.”
Like everything else, she figured that part out quickly.
“She picked up the sport right away without ever seeing it,” Welsh said. “When she came in, my other coaches passed her to me after just a few days because she was already doing better than the other underclassmen with technique. She’s a naturally strong kid and a great student and just a good person to be around. Very upbeat and positive.”
Anderson plans to study political science at Stanford and eventually pursue law school like her mother. On the river, she’s just hoping to mesh with her teammates next year on one of the most talented teams in the country. She’s approaching it with a humble mindset.
“I’m not the fastest or even close to the fastest of other youth rowers [at Stanford],” Anderson said. “I think they … like my potential once I get under the Stanford training program. It’s a mindset thing with me. I’m a hard worker, and I do things 100 percent.”
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