This week’s Profile is Brian Connor- a junior Economics major hailing from Morristown, New Jersey, who is very committed to his sport! Serving as Treasurer for the Crew Team and as a Peer Advising coach in the center for student success, Brian aspires one day to move to the Philadelphia, Boston, or to the New York area to begin a career in economics and finance. Someday he hopes to tryout for the US National Rowing Team. Other than rowing, Brian’s hobbies include cats, wine, guitar, and keeping up with the news.
Since fall semester of his Freshman Year, rowing has become a huge part of Brian’s life. He was initially motivated to row as a way to stay in shape during college, and has lost thirty pounds since joining. To Brian’s surprise, crew now means a lot more to him than just a way to stay in shape, and has truly impacted his lifestyle. Now in his sixth season, Brian has fallen in love with the sport and says he can do things now “that I never thought I would be able to do.”
It is clear that he is very passionate for the sport because he believes that it is one of the only sports where there is a “direct correlation between what you get out of it and what you put into it.” Throughout high school Brian played football, but his love for crew has surpassed his love for his jock days as he believes that rowing is one of the only sports where what you put into it is what you get out of it. He says that rowing is just the mastering of one motion and once you master it, you practice until that motion is second nature, and based on how much effort you put into it, that is the amount that you will improve.
Brian says one of his favorite memories in his past five seasons of crew was this past summer with a teammate- “Adrian Diogo, (teammate) and I trained on our own last summer in order to prepare for the Navy Day Regatta. After training the whole summer, we raced against other colleges and Olympic hopefuls, and during the race we ended up passing the boat in front of us.”
Crew is a very demanding sport, and in order to be successful in rowing it is necessary to be very organized, so that you are able to keep up with your studies and the strenuous workouts. In order to juggle crew and his studies Brian blocks out a certain amount of time in his schedule solely devoted to doing homework. While it may seem like a difficult task to balance crew and economics Brian is determined to succeed because he is extremely motivated to be successful because he is very passionate about both.
On an average day, Brian wakes up before some students go to sleep- his alarm for practice goes off at 3:45 in the morning! Training is tough, but Brian is inspired to keep going primarily because of his “competitive nature.” He does not mind waking up early because he knows that other competitors are doing the same things, and in order to have a chance at beating them he must do the same. Brian believes that the more practice he is able to get in, that will make him that much closer to achieve the goals that he has set for himself.
There is no telling what’s in store for Brian in the future! Good luck in rowing and beyond!