July 23, 2012

Bronx, N.Y. - Fordham assistant rowing coach Nick Dawe will be a member of the U.S. National Rowing Team as it competes in the World Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria on August 14-19. He will be a member of the U.S. Lightweight Eight.

Dawe's crew (a US selection camp entry) won the World Championship Trials Regatta on Mercer Lake in New Jersey, July 11. The composite crew from Community Rowing, Inc., and Riverside Boat Club of coxswain Eric Rhiel, Ryan Fox, Phil Grisdela, Anders Corbett, Andrew Hashway, Nick Dawe, Martin Forde, Sean McKenna, and Will Robins won in 5:57.839 over the Vesper Boat Club entry that finished second in 6:02.139.

US selection camp crews consist of top elite rowers that train together for several weeks then go through a final grueling selection process to decide who will represent the United States.

Dawe, who has been coaching at Fordham for the past two years, had not originally planned on competing after college but he entered a regatta in Boston last summer and felt the urge to race. "It was there that I got the itch for racing again," he told The Dartmouth. "I wanted to get back into the competitive circuit."

Although he planned to row with a Fordham rower this summer, those plans fell through. Instead, his former teammate and close friend, Phil Grisdela, suggested that he try to attend the selection camp with him for the lightweight eight in Boston, which set him on the path to competitive success.

"Our goal is to win at Worlds," Dawe said to The Dartmouth. "As far as what will actually happen, we'll see. There are only two guys in the boat who have competed at this level before, but our coach believes the inexperience isn't a bad thing. We're excited, and we've made a lot of progress."

Dawe joined the Fordham rowing staff in 2010 and currently serves as the Recruiting Coordinator and Assistant Coach. Before coaching at Fordham, Dawe began his rowing career at the Cincinnati Junior Rowing Club where he had four undefeated regular spring seasons and won gold at the 2004 USRowing National Youth Championship in the Varsity 8. He then went on to be a four year member of the Dartmouth Lightweight Crew where he competed in the IRA Lightweight Eight grand final twice, earned two outstanding oarsman awards, and led the team to a 4th place finish at the Eastern Sprints as Commodore his senior year.

In 2010-11, Dawe led one of the largest novice squads in Fordham Women's Rowing history to a strong finish in the Novice Eight at the 2011 Dad Vail Championship. The following year Dawe was promoted to the full-time coaching position and assisted Fordham Rowing to a record breaking performance at the Dad Vail Championship advancing 7 crews to the Saturday semi-final and grand-final racing.

His current role with Fordham Rowing is to bring in recruited rowers to strengthen the growing team. In his first year as Recruiting Coordinator there will be fourteen women and nine men joining the team this fall in the class of 2016. "Nick has been doing an excellent job as recruiting coordinator and I look forward to seeing how our class of 2017 will shape up as I'm sure it will be even stronger," says Head Coach Ted Bonanno.

Dawe says "I have really enjoyed my time at Fordham over the last two years and strongly believe this is a school and a rowing program that any high school rower serious about rowing in college should take a look at. The Athletics staff and administration has been great to work with, the campus is an amazing place, and the entire rowing program has a positive energy surrounding it."

In regards to handling his responsibilities as an assistant coach while training at an elite level Dawe says "Training on your own while being a full-time collegiate coach is definitely not easy. Few full-time coaches train or race on the National Team and usually an athlete benefits greatly from training with others who can push each other to get stronger. Even though the majority of my training has been on my own, I sometimes workout with the Fordham team and I've benefitted greatly from working with enthusiastic rowers from our program." Dawe also says that "Ted's stories of training with his teams throughout his coaching career and competing at the elite level has definitely inspired me. I'm a very competitive person and hearing that Ted was able to handle training and coaching encouraged me to get back into competitive rowing."

For the 2012-2013 academic year, Dawe is excited to bring everything he has learned this summer to the team. "Actually getting into a boat and being coached at the elite level has been extremely beneficial to me as a coach. This experience has been much better than any conference or clinic that most coaches attend. I am actively learning a lot through all of this summer's training and the intensity for technical change and increased fitness has been awesome. I think it's good for a coach to get out of the launch and into a racing shell and from what I've learned so far I'm looking forward to bringing some new ideas to the team this fall."

National Team Athlete Bio:
Nick Dawe