24: Novack Tried Rowing...and was Hooked

April 22, 2010

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Editor’s note: 24 Hawkeyes to Watch is a feature released Wednesday, Aug. 12, highlighting one athlete from each of the 24 intercollegiate sports offered by the University of Iowa. More than 700 talented student-athletes are currently busy preparing for the 2009-10 athletics year at the UI. Hawkeyesports.com will introduce you to 24 Hawkeyes who, for one reason or another, are poised to play a prominent role in the intercollegiate athletics program at the UI in the coming year.

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Jessica Novack was already enrolled at the University of Iowa when she attended a rowing camp in June, 2007.

“I liked it,” she said.

Then-UI assistant rowing coach Chuck Rodosky liked what he saw in Novack as well, offering her some scholarship money to join the Hawkeye team.

“He gave me some confidence,” Novack recalls. “Based on my strength and my gymnastics background, he could get a feel for my potential. He said he hoped I would come out for the team; I did and I haven’t regretted it.”

The Hawkeyes are preparing for the Big Ten Conference championships May 1 in Lansing, Mich., and Novack, now a junior, is a big part of those plans.

“Jessica brings a very strong athletic experience and background to the team,” UI head coach Mandi Kowal said. “She leads the team through her work ethic and her get-it-done attitude. She loves to train and she is competitive.”

Novack graduated from Carroll High School in Fort Wayne, Ind., where she was an all-conference and state-qualifying gymnast for four years. She also participated in tennis. The mental edge she obtained in gymnastics has carried over to rowing.

“In gymnastics, you could kill yourself by doing some of those skills and you just have to tell yourself that you can do it,” Novack said. “That translates into rowing, because when we’re upstairs on our (ergometer) machines, it’s all mental. You can physically do this, but sometimes mentally you don’t think you can. That aspect of gymnastics definitely carried over to rowing.”

During their most recent competition against conference foes Minnesota and Wisconsin on April 10, the Hawkeyes’ Varsity 8 boat — which includes Novack — defeated the Gophers 7:20.0 to 7:24.8 in the morning and competed well before falling to Wisconsin 6:55.7 to 7:00.3 in the afternoon. Other members of the UI V8 boat are Sheila Rinozzi, Emily Vinson, Emily Katalinich, Caitlin Kuempel, Megan Erickson, Katy Kroll, Christine Allingham and Haylie Miller.

An athletic training major, Novack selected the UI because of its strong academic reputation. Now there is a new state-of-the-art reason to lure Hawkeye rowers: the P. Sue Beckwith, M.D., Boathouse, a $6.9 million facility that was dedicated Sept. 18, 2009.

“It helps immensely,” Novack said. “We’re upping our ante. Ohio State has a nice boathouse, the same with Michigan and Michigan State — all the big teams. We went to California and Stanford’s boathouse is amazing. We’re brining ourselves to that next level up with all the other competition.”

According to Kowal, some of the little things Novack does around the boathouse make big statements to the rest of the teams. That team-bonding is one reason Novack enjoys the sport.

“In rowing, you’re all together and all pulling for each other, which goes along with the mental aspect, because you don’t want to let that person down,” Novack said. “You know your friends are behind you or in front of you in the boat and you know they’re pulling for you, too. It’s a camaraderie thing that I like a lot.”

Kowal is in her 16th season as UI head rowing coach, ever since the program was elevated to varsity status in 1994.

“We want to get Jessica and the team to the NCAA championships,” Kowal said. “It’s not farfetched for her to get on the national team, too.”

“I’ve talked about the national team, but I don’t know if that’s in the future because I have to improve quite a bit,” Novack said. “I’m also short (5-foot-9) and that’s kind of bad. You want a longer reach so you can get all the way up and put your blade in and have a long pull. As opposed to a 6-foot-2 girl, they don’t have to get as long as me. I have strength, but I would like to be a little taller.”

The Hawkeye rowers are an early-rising bunch, usually reporting to practice by 5:45 a.m. There are also occasional “extra workouts” in the afternoon.

“Compared to my hardest day in gymnastics, rowing would be 10 times harder, but I love it,” Novack said. “I love the competition of it. With the computer screens (in the P. Sue Beckwith, M.D., Boathouse), we can see ourselves getting faster and that’s awesome.”

Coming out of high school, Novack needed to learn essentially all aspects of becoming a member of a collegiate rowing team. She competed in novice boats as a freshman and is now in her second year as a varsity member.

“I didn’t know anything about rowing. I had to learn all the terminology, I didn’t know how big the boats were, nothing,” Novack said. “I didn’t know anything except there was a little person in the boat steering for you and you did all the work.”

Now one of the veterans on the 60-member Hawkeye rowing roster, Novack credits support from family and team for reasons for success.

“My family’s been really supportive. When you call home, they pick you up,” Novack said. “Our team doesn’t have a lot of gossip and we don’t have a lot of problems. Everyone wants the same goal in the end; we all want to get faster, we all want to get to NCAAs at the end of the year.”

On race day, it’s not difficult for Novack to notice her family — or the relatives of other Hawkeyes.

“Usually all the parents clump together in two groups along the race course in the parts of the race where we’re tired,” Novack said. “They’ll be screaming and we can’t even hear our coxswain. My dad brings a megaphone to the race, another one brings a huge horn that he blows. They’re intense. They help us along the race course when we’re at our lowest point.”

Even with all of Iowa’s recent success on the water, Novack laughs at some of the comments she hears from competitors.

“They ask, `Where do you row?’ Well, we have a river in the middle of campus, it’s not like we just have corn here,” Novack said.

Of all the praise Kowal has sent Novack’s direction, one phrase sticks out:

“She loves being a Hawkeye,” Kowal said.

A Hawkeye that could be rowing in the NCAA championships at the end of May.