Ramsey setting high expectations for future of rowing program
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Scott Ramsey loves coaching.
He describes his coaching style as firm but fair, and he said he bases his coaching on principles that he hopes get novice rowers to a point where they can contribute to the varsity team by the end of the year.
In his second year as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the Iowa rowing team, Ramsey said his goal is to prepare novice rowers to be a part of a varsity boat in the Big Ten and NCAA championships.
Iowa’s novice team is made up of primarily freshmen and inexperienced rowers.
“They need to know how to work extremely hard,” he said. “And they need to learn not only the work ethic but the volume of work that is going to be required of them to be a successful varsity athlete.”
Ramsey said he believes that honesty is an important part of any coach-player relationship. Sometimes that means telling athletes what they don’t want to hear. Novice rower Katherine Ciminelli said if there is an issue, Ramsey presents it as a learning experience.
“I don’t know exactly what to do, but I do know what you can’t do, and one thing you certainly cannot do is whether it’s men or women, novice or elite-level athletes, is be disingenuous and dishonest,” Ramsey said. “You need to provide the athletes with very honest feedback so they can progress appropriately.”
He has been rowing since his freshman year of high school. His Latin teacher asked him to join the team, but at the time, he had no idea that rowing would be such a large part of his life. He made a deal with his best friend that they would go out for the team together, then went on to row all four years in high school and was recruited to row at Penn. After graduating from Penn in 2004, Ramsey dabbled in strength and conditioning work but said he “got the itch to get back into rowing.”
He coached women’s rowing at the high-school level for two years, then went on to be an assistant coach for the men and women’s rowing teams at Columbia University.
“He’s got an understanding of training,” head coach Mandi Kowal said. “He’s got a real passion to win. He’s got a real big passion for doing well and doing things right.”
Now at Iowa, Ramsey works mainly with the novice team. He said around 50 percent of his time is dedicated to coaching the novice team and the other half to recruiting, but he wishes he could spend more time coaching.
“I would much rather prefer to spend the eight hours a day coaching … but the recruiting is the lifeblood of the program,” Ramsey said.
Kowal said a novice coach must be a good teacher who knows how to teach the stroke. Assistant coach Carrie Callen has noticed that Ramsey is a very good at teaching the technical side of rowing.
“He has high expectations for his group, and you can see that carried over when this group is moved up to varsity,” she said. “They have that hard work, dedication, and focus that they didn’t just start doing.”
But one overriding aspect drew Ramsey to coaching: seeing the transformation of young athletes.
“Seeing them become not a stronger athlete, but a stronger human being, and being able to mentor and guide them through that transition and seeing the character that it builds in them and the confidence it builds in them is really rewarding,” he said.
“And that’s what I was passionate about then, and that’s what I’m passionate about now is seeing that change in young people.”
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