'Just kind of took a chance'

Amelia Boes could have gone to a smaller college. The chance for a Division II basketball scholarship was definitely there for the 6-foot-2 athlete.But an email sent to Seneca East High two years ago during her junior year ultimately led to Boes going to Ohio State University and having a hand in a Big 10 championship.Not in cross country, basketball or track, sports in which Boes competed for the Tigers. No, her title came this past spring in a sport most Americans know little about."Rowing just really caught my interest. I draw a lot of similarities to cross country (from rowing), but it's more of a team sport, even, than cross," Boes said. "I was really drawn to it."Matt Schock, Seneca East cross country and track coach, said he encouraged her to give it a shot."I just told her, 'Do you. You can't go wrong doing you. Just think on it and pray on it and you'll make the right decision.' I knew that she'd be great at it because she has that mindset of determination and hard work and grit that makes her successful at anything she does," he said.A rowing team has seven competing units: first varsity eight, second varsity eight, first varsity four, second varsity four, third varsity four, first novice eight and second novice eight.The number — four or eight — represents how many rowers each boat, also known as a shell, contains. There is also a coxswain, who gives commands and steers.Similar to relay teams in track, rowing teams earn points for how well each shell team does in its competition, with the team scoring the most points earning the win.Boes helped the Buckeyes win the women's B10 title in first novice eight rowing, which is for first-year rowing athletes.Her journey to a shell began when OSU coaches sent a blanket email to high school coaches throughout the state asking for athletes with any interest to get ahold of them.Boes said Seneca East coach Greg Hendrix passed along the information her junior year and the idea intrigued her. An on-campus visit as a senior sold her on it."From my junior year from about March on, I just had it in mind as an option," she said"I just really loved it, so that's just kind of how I decided — just kind of took a chance," Boes said.She wasn't alone.Boes said more than 100 walk-on athletes like her started the year vying for a spot, with the group holding its own practices. They joined the varsity athletes by the time winter break arrived, with the number of walk-ons pared down to around 30 by then.Boes earned a seat in the first novice eight shell and tried to learn as much about the sport as possible, something she admitted was challenging."There is an order. There is some strategy to where people sit in the boat but I honestly don't have a lot of knowledge on it," she said with a laugh. "We just let the coaches handle it and sit where they tell us to sit."I sat just about everywhere throughout the year," she said.And in all kinds of weather.It's an outdoor sport and practices occurred twice a day, with plenty of on-water action unless there was bad weather or the temperature got too cold."They would take boats out and break up the ice so we could row," Boes said. "We were out there all into the winter. The only thing that would stop us would be the wind or the lightning."There were quite a few days when we were out there and it was 23, 24 degrees (Fahrenheit), if the wind wasn't blowing," she said. "Our hair would be frozen, our oars would be frozen, there was ice in the water. We'd have to avoid certain spots in the river because the ice was too thick."It gets pretty chilly," Boes said. "We got to row in the snow a couple times, too. That was kind of fun."It wasn't all indoors, though. Boes said the team also utilized an indoor facility complete with rowing machines and other items.Although they are different sports, Boes said her experience as a distance runner helped her immensely when it came to rowing."Being tall is definitely an advantage. It's kind of like a longer stride length (in running), it makes your stroke length longer so you have more time in the water with your blade. We have some shorter girls that do well, but, yeah, being tall is definitely a benefit," she said."Despite popular belief, it's more of a leg sport than an upper body sport. People don't usually know that. You have to push with your legs first, and then you lean back and then you pull with your arms. It's definitely more legs than anything," Boes said. "It's a full-body sport, but people don't know that you have to use your legs."And your mind."I just learned a lot in cross country about how to be a good teammate and mentally how to push through extreme amounts of pain, because your body can do it and mind tells you you can't," she said, "so just kind of learning that you're able to do that and you have to control your body with your mind was a huge thing I was able to learn in high school and carry it over to rowing."Boes said her group experienced a lot of success during the season, and the team's goal was to sweep all of the races at the B10 Championships and earn back-to-back crowns.The Buckeyes came up a bit short in the overall bid, finishing second to Michigan by a 174-169 margin, though Boes and her group claimed one of OSU's three racing titles.Boes and the rest of the first novice eight Buckeyes beat their Michigan counterparts 6:47.566 to 6:48.712, giving OSU its seventh first novice eight crown in B10 history."It was a crazy feeling. We actually didn't know if we won," Boes said. "We knew that we'd given it our all as we crossed the line, and then when we found out that we won, it was just amazing because we spent the last nine months training for that specific day."And now she's training for more of the same."Now I kind of have an idea of what it's about and what it takes to get into one of those varsity boats after being around the team," Boes said. "I know that this summer it's going to take a lot (of offseason work)."I definitely plan on going after it this summer," she said.