By: Sammy Miller
Copy Editor
Senior Hope Stamp is rowing her way to the top.
Stamp began her rowing career the summer before her freshman year. She rows for the Marina Aquatic Center (MAC) junior rowing team where they practice 6 days a week for 4 hours each day. MAC is a competitive club program for high school students in the Los Angeles area. Stamp rows out of the UCLA Marina Aquatic Center in Marina del Rey.
“I started rowing because I really wanted a change,” Stamp said. “I was starting high school and I wasn’t happy doing ballet anymore, and a family friend said I should try out. I really enjoyed the sport and have been doing it since.”
Stamp came in first and second in the eight boat race at the Faultline Faceoff on February 29 to March 1. She also placed third in the quad boat at the Faultline Faceoff. This regatta — a series of boat races — was held at the boat launch on San Pablo Reservoir in Orinda, California. Another regatta that Stamp competed in was the Southern California League Cal Cup in Long Beach, where she came in second in the eight boat race as well as first in the quad boat race.
“My favorite part about racing in a regatta is getting to see how far your training has gotten you and how good your team is,” Stamp said. “It’s really surprising and a great feeling to look over and see you’re beating someone you lost to before or just to really push yourself and see where that takes you.”
According to Stamp her favorite part about crew is how team oriented it is. In crew, they row with either two, four, or eight rowers in each shell. In order to win a race, each rower has to be in sync with one another and hold their own weight, so that’s why the teamwork aspect is so important.
“It really doesn’t matter how good you are if you don’t work with the rest of your boat,” Stamp said. “It’s really cool to have a sport that doesn’t function if you can’t work together, and because of that the team is really close, which makes all the hard work so worth it.”
One professional rower that Stamp looks up to is Helen Glover. Glover is a professional British rower and a member of the Great Britain team. In 2012, she won gold in the coxless pair with her partner Heather Stanning at the London Olympics. In 2014, she was named the number one female rower in the world, along with countless other awards and achievements. According to Stamp she has been an inspiration for her and she loves her because she shatters just about every record out there.
“Rowing has really shown me that if you’re willing to put in the work, it doesn’t matter how initially talented you are,” Stamp said. “In the end, it doesn’t matter how good you are if you don’t work for it, and hard work is always going to win.”
Stamp has chosen to further her rowing career by committing to row for Bates College. She will be joining the bobcats and moving across the country to Lewiston, Maine to compete at the Division 3 level. The Bates Crew team is a 3 time consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) D3 women’s rowing champion.
“I chose Bates because I knew I wanted to row at the Division 3 level so I could really focus on schoolwork,” Stamp said. “It’s a great school, and when I visited I fell in love with the team and just felt so at home there.”
Due to COVID-19, Stamp’s last year of high school crew and her spring racing season was cancelled. She says that this is especially hard because her team was in a great spot for nationals this year. According to Stamp she is really excited though to be out on the water and back to racing again once she gets to Bates.
“I’m really excited to have the opportunity to race again and I’m excited about moving 3,000 miles away and trying something completely different with the next four years of my life,” Stamp said.
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