Maggie Tebbetts is a senior member of Manhattan College’s women’s rowing team.  Originally from North Haven, Connecticut, she came to MC to study environmental science.  As a four-year member of the team, Tebbetts saw rowing evolve from simply a club sport to a Division I force to be reckoned with.

The Quadrangle: How did you get into rowing?

Maggie Tebbetts: So I didn’t do it in high school.  I did different sports in high school, but I wanted to keep doing something in college.  And my freshman year, it was a club sport here, so I was like, “Oh that’s not too intense, let me just try it.”  The people seemed nice, so I joined my freshman year, and I ended up being pretty good.  And then my sophomore year, it changed to Division One.  So, that’s kind of how I was forced to stay with it.

TQ: What has been your experience on the Manhattan College rowing team?

MT: It’s been great.  I always tell people it’s been the best decision I made at this college.  All of my best friends are on the team.  My roommates are on the team.  It just changed me as a person.  And I’m now a morning person, so I guess that’s good.

TQ: Can you describe a typical day when your sport is in season?

MT: So my alarm goes off at 4:15 in the morning.  I’ll leave my room at, like, 4:35ish to get to Draddy at 4:45 and then we drive vans to a lake in New Jersey for practice.  We get there around, like 5:15.  And then we go on the water, and we’ll get off around 6:45, we’ll leave our practice area at 7:00 [and] go back to school.  We’re back by 8:00 a.m., but on days that we have lift, we go straight to lift at 8:00 a.m. That’s done at 9:00, and then…that’s basically your practice for the day.  And then you’re supposed to do, like, a different cardio workout in the afternoon, on your own time.

TQ: I know you said that [rowing] started off as a club sport, and then it became a Division I sport, so how did you manage to balance your schoolwork with, now, being a Division I athlete?

MT: To be honest, when it transferred, like when it first shifted, our old coach, he didn’t really do a good job of helping that shift happen.  But it did definitely change the amount of time we had practice.  So, for me, it’s better for me to have, like, a schedule set.  So it actually helped me with my schoolwork, and my grades improved, just because I had more to do.

TQ: In your time here, how have you observed your team grow?

MT: That’s a good question, especially since me and my co-captain, we are the only two that are on the team that watched the shift happen and experienced it.  So even from my freshman into my sophomore year, it changed.  We got a lot of walk-ons, who are now juniors, who are still on the team.  And then the next year, so when I was a junior, which was last year, it [was] our biggest class, the sophomores.  And we had five recruits, which was a big deal, because it kind of put us at the level of the other sports at this school.  And we kind of started to be seen more and that was really good.  But then, this year, we had a coaching staff change, and it totally changed the program, in a good way.  I think we really climbed the ranks, and everyone, just as a team, is more of a team.  We have a lot of freshmen that tried out.  We have two that were recruited.  And then, it’s just gonna get better as the years go on.

TQ: What are your hopes for the team going forward?

MT: I hope that they can win the MAAC Championship.  I think they can.  I think within five years, we’ll get there, if not sooner.  And I hope to come back as an alumni and see what they’ve accomplished and how far it’s come, and just know that I was a part of that building block.