Newport Sea Base junior rowers use technology to stay connected

The Newport Sea Base youth rowing program is one that values community.

While the kids haven’t been able to get out on the water for the last five weeks due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, that sense of community hasn’t changed.

“I definitely knew that I was going to miss my friends and coaches, and going out on the water,” said Yasmin Kallel, a member of the novice girls’ team. “I knew it was going to be different, but when they told us we were going to train over Zoom, I felt better about it. I knew that I would still see my friends and get to work out.”

Kallel, a freshman at Corona del Mar High, is one of about 100 junior rowers for Newport Sea Base, which has middle school, novice and varsity teams, as well as adult and Masters-level rowers. Youth sailing teams are also offered.

The club has embraced the technology available during this time.

Kallel takes part in weekly Zoom fitness calls with her teammates every weekday at 3:30 p.m. from her backyard in Newport Coast. Besides the workouts with coach Madison Hodgkins, which last anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes, members of the team also are required to take part in another physical activity, typically either running or working out on an ergometer rowing machine. Hodgkins said the times are then sent to the group via a Google Hangouts chat.

“We wanted to keep the practices regular because we weren’t sure at the beginning what this was going to turn out to be,” said Hodgkins, a 2013 CdM graduate who rowed for four years at Loyola Marymount. “Instead of letting them do their own thing, we as a coaching staff decided that it was best to figure out some way to still let them get exercise, but in a constructive way. We decided that Zoom was the best way to get all of our kids together.”

Ian Simpson, the Newport Sea Base director of rowing who also coaches the varsity girls, has implemented a similar regimen.

“Working out is always easier if you’re doing it with other people, so Zoom gives us that opportunity to replicate the group environment,” Simpson said. “The parents love it, because it keeps the kids occupied for an hour, an hour and a half every afternoon. It’s working really well for us.”

Yasmin Kallel, a freshman at Corona del Mar High, works out on a Zoom call at her home with her rowing team from the Newport Sea Base on Tuesday.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

Newport Coast resident Marlene Dandler said her seventh-grade daughter Fiona never really got out on the water, as she was just starting to row for Newport Sea Base this spring. But the required exercise has been a positive thing for Fiona, who now goes running with her father Andres each day at 7 a.m. in addition to the daily afternoon Zoom sessions from the family garage.

“It’s become this great father-daughter bonding time, and just the structure and discipline of [the program] has been great,” Marlene Dandler said. “She craves structure and discipline, and during this time there’s so much unknown. She feels like she’s part of a team, even though she’d never been part of that team before. It’s been a great social, emotional and physical workout, and it’s fitting a lot of different needs. I couldn’t be more pleased.”

Simpson said that during this unique time, some of the Masters rowers have volunteered to tutor the student-athletes in areas like science, math or English. A rower reaches Masters level when he or she turns 27 years old, and Simpson said some of the Newport Sea Base Masters athletes have jobs like school teacher or principal.

“That’s a benefit that’s come out of this crisis, that we’re connecting the younger kids with the older rowers in our club,” Simpson said. “There’s kind of a silver lining to the cloud.”

The hope for Newport Sea Base is that the youth rowers will be back on the water for the club’s summer camps, which begin in mid-June. It is too early to say if that might happen, Simpson said. Unlike some sports, maintaining six feet of physical distance is impossible in rowing.

Until things can get back to normal, the club will be working to maintain that sense of community.

“To come together as a team in an unconventional situation is a really cool thing, that they’re able to sit there and know that they’re all doing the same thing,” Hodgkins said. “They’re all working toward still being active, while not being able to get out on the water or show up to the boathouse and see each other.”

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