Coast Coaches Corner -- Laura Behr
This week's Coast Coaches Corner features longtime women's crew coach Laura Behr. Among the topics in this week's feature, Behr talks about her trek from Indiana to OCC and how family life has changed priorities in her life.
When was it that you first got involved with rowing?? I assume you were involved in other sports before rowing … is rowing big in Indiana??
"My sister rowed and I was going to play volleyball. Two weeks before school, I decided to attend Purdue University with the plan of walking on to the volleyball team, but my sister convinced me to check out rowing there. It was definitely a whole new world, but it was so much fun! Definitely a lot more cardio to rowing than in volleyball."
People talk about getting up before the sun and dealing with that here in Southern California … what was that like in Indiana?? A bit nippy out there for practice and regattas??
"We would train in the morning and afternoon we'd have to break the ice before we could start! You'd see the steam come up and it would be super cold and freezing temperatures. We'd row with the weather around zero all the time. If it was 15-below-zero, we weren't allowed to row, so we'd do lots of indoor training and erging in the winter months."
What did rowing teach you, both as an athlete and beyond and what life lessons did the sport teach you that you incorporate to this day??
"Rowing is definitely a sport that teaches you to push through a lot of pain. It teaches you discipline, responsibility and building teamwork with your fellow rowers on the boat. In life, you definitely need ALL of those things to be successful in whatever you do."
When did coaching become a career option for you? When did that first enter your mind as a potential life option??
"It actually wasn't! I was rowing with the national team and working at the national training center. When I wasn't there, I was working at a hospital in San Diego as a cardiac nurse. I then found out that the women's crew at UC San Diego was looking for a coach, so I ended up being the novice coach there. That's how I got into coaching! Three years later, the OCC position opened up and the rest is history."
What got you up here to OCC? Tell me about what that was like coming up here from San Diego …
"The teaching and coaching was something I was really interested in. I had no idea what a job at a community college was like. I had worked 4-5 jobs in San Diego, so it was kind of scary coming up to Orange County and work in a job that I didn't know much about. Now, I'm in my 16th year and I've loved every second of being here!"
So if I ask your rowers about the type of coach that you are … what do you THINK they'd say and what do you HOPE they'd say??
"I HOPE they see me as a mentor. It's a program that has changed people's lives and that makes me very happy. For some, it keeps people in school and hopefully they learn about working hard and being a part of a team. I'm sure some of them think I'm hard on them, but I just want what's best for them."
Tell me about what it's like to recruit for this sport?? Men's coach Cam Brown mentioned that men's crew has more places to recruit from with the Newport Aquatic Center and the strength of the sport throughout the Eastern U.S. What is the popularity of women's crew, generally speaking, to men's crew?
Women's crew is big everywhere, but the problem is … if they're good, they go to the Division I schools right away. The men do have scholarship opportunities, but not as close to the women. We get the rowers where maybe their school work isn't quite honed in and they need the time to develop and grow. We get a lot of D-I schools ask us to work with their rowers for two years before they go back to them. We do go to the NAC, but if they're pulling good times, they're going somewhere else. Yes, we do pick up a few athletes off of our campus – girls who have never rowed before. It's great to watch them learn the sport and grow a love for rowing, like I did."
One big misconception about rowing is that it's … well … just rowing. But there's so much more that goes into training and conditioning for this sport. Tell me about the dedication and the commitment it takes to be a part of this team??
"It's all about team bonding. Everyone gets up so early and they're all depending on each other. If all eight don't show up, they can't row – simple as that. It's a different team aspect than in any other sport. They're all pushing hard for each other and as far as our training goes … lots of leg work, but it's absolutely a total-body workout. It's a sport that if you don't understand rhythm, it's a hard sport to pick up. The hard thing for us being a two-year school is, once they get into a groove, that's when we pass them onto the next school. At that level, it's more of a 'job' with more pressure so I hope they enjoy their time at OCC. I get the nickname of Mama Behr – yes, I'm strict, but I also like to show them how to have fun out there too."
What is the opportunity like for rowers who take part in your program? Talking with our new water polo coach, Dan Matulis, he mentioned how there are so many opportunities for women's water polo … with less competition than on the men's side. Is that the case for rowing as well??
"Women's rowing developed a lot from football and Title IX. Basically, anywhere where there's a football program, there's mostly a full women's crew program with 30 scholarships. If they can pick a school somewhere within the state and they put 100% into what we are doing here, we usually have 7-8 girls who transfer out with scholarships. Teams at the four-year level will take a chance on a rower with height and potential, that's for sure."
In the video, "Right to Row", you said that OCC is a dream job for you. Explain to people what you mean by that. For those who are stuck in jobs they don't love, how were you able to make this job such a labor of love for you?
"I absolutely love teaching. I love mentoring these girls and I love rowing. I'm able to put them al together and make this job a dream job for me. I put in a lot of work, but what I get back, I get back 10-fold. I love hearing the stories of my rowers after they've moved on and how they tell me how OCC helped them."
In your personal world, you've been recently blessed with a couple of kids to the mix! In a sport that demands crazy hours, both in length and in time-of-day … what has been the biggest challenge with adding children to this job of yours??
"My amount of concentration and hours has had to change, so you have to change things up a little bit. I'm lucky to have a husband who can pick up the slack when I can't be there and I really have to rely on my assistant coaches more than I have before. With the help of social media and the internet, the job of recruiting doesn't have to be as intense of a task as it was so that's changed things for the better for all of us."
I'm sure the easiest examples of "success" in your program involve the stopwatch, but there are various levels of success with rowing. People who have never gotten in the water suddenly are a part of competing for a spot on a collegiate crew program. When they're done with OCC women's crew, what do you hope they've accomplished in their time here?
"It's just all about the overall experience. If they can take away some life skills, that will be so valuable for them. I've had girls compete for national championships who were so new to the sport. Rowing is a small world, so the connections and friendships they make will forever be a part of their lives. I hope they are able to get all of these experiences and opportunities during their time here at OCC."
