Coaches

Mattew Rawland - Women's Varsity

I graduated from Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake in 2010. I began rowing in the spring of my 6th grade year. I continued to row every season except for winter throughout my entire middle and high school careers. I got into crew because a lot of my friends had started in the fall and I wanted to give it a try. That was probably the best choice I've ever made. I've been around this sport for such a long time, and I've loved every second of it.

I played in many different sports before, some during my participation in crew. As I got older though, crew got bigger and bigger. I was amazed at the change from modified crew to freshman crew. Races went from five or six teams to hundreds of teams. It was a wild experience, and it made me decide that crew was going to be my sport until I get tired of it, which isn't going to happen anytime soon.

I had some of the best coaches in the state in my opinion. I learned everything I know about sculling from Lou Baish and Mike Baish. Mike also moved up to coach the freshmen, so he was the one who taught me the basics of sweeping. I had the honor of training from tenth grade on under our current head coach Mike Meier. Most of the things I know about crew, and about coaching, I got from him. I rowed in many different boats throughout my varsity seasons. My senior year, when I got the honor of being voted co-captain alongside Zach Robbiano, I rowed in the Men's 2nd Varsity 8 in the fall and the Men's 2nd Varsity 4 in the spring.

I made the choice to not row in college; mostly because teams around here were either too tough for me to make, or the school was too tough to get into. The decision was already made to stay local, and from that the decision to not row came. It was a tough decision because, when it was made, I thought that I wasn't going to be around the sport anymore. I had already had a level one coaches license and all throughout my final spring season I had told Mike, 'Hey Mike, I have a coaching license. So if you ever need a coach, I'm your man.' I never thought that I would get that call the fall after I graduated, and I couldn't have been happier that I didn't have to leave the sport at all. As soon as I got that call I went out and I got my level two license, and plan on moving on to get my level three as well.

I look forward to being able to get younger kids into the sport the way I got into it. I also can't wait to see kids that I've coached one day get medals in big races along the road towards them graduating. I'm really excited for this coming spring and I'm hoping to have some kids bringing home medals.