Forever Pirates -- Sophie Blair

This week's second Forever Pirates feature shines the spotlight on women's rower Sophie Blair, who competed for OCC from 2015-17.

Throughout my entire life, I have always dreamed of being a Division-I collegiate athlete. Growing up, I played pretty much every sport you can think of, including soccer, volleyball, basketball, track and field, cross country, water polo, swimming ... you name it, I played it.

As high school came around, I was not only swimming, but playing water polo and running cross country at the varsity level. It wasn't until my junior year of high school, where I was playing all three and working with a recruiting coach, that I realized I wasn't quite at the level I needed to be at in order to sign with a D-I university. It frustrated me knowing I had put so many years and so many weekends into these three sports, but wasn't ready to go to a Wisconsin, UCLA, or UC Berkeley. I was heartbroken and couldn't accept the fact that I may have to go to a D-II or D-III school. 

Fast forward to the summer before senior year of high school. I was still so bummed and unsure of what I wanted to do with my future. One weekend, my sister and I were hanging out with a friend when she mentioned she was trying out for a club rowing team called Newport Aquatic Center. My mom had always wanted me and my sister to try rowing, but the opportunity never came around, until now. I decided I was going to join our friend and try out for this sport I knew nothing about. I ended up crushing the tryouts and made the novice team with my friend. This year ended up being the most exciting, challenging, fun years of my life. I struggled on the team at first, but ended up making my way to bow seat of the Novice 8. We had an amazing season and ended up winning our National Championship at Lake Natoma in Sacramento. This was such a different sport for me, but I developed a love and passion for it that I've never felt before. During the fall, I started looking at colleges, but with only a year of experience under my belt and being on the lighter side, I wasn't quite fast or big enough to go D-I. My heart was broken yet again. 

One day during practice, one of my teammates at NAC mentioned something called Orange Coast College. I had never heard of it and decided to ask her more about it. It was a community college just a few minutes away that happened to be the only community college in the nation with a women's rowing team. Community college had crossed my mind many times throughout my senior year, but I was very hesitant and honestly, embarrassed, to go to a community college. After looking into the program a little more and after weighing all of my options, I decided to give it a go and continue pushing for my dream of being a D-I athlete one day. Little did I know, that these two years were going to be the best years of my life. 

When I first joined OCC's women's rowing team, I had the idea of transitioning from rowing to coxing. My coach at the time, Laura Behr, agreed, but encouraged me to try both rowing and coxing at the same time. That didn't work out for too long! I ended up becoming the women's Varsity 8 coxswain for two years in a row. The first few weeks of being a coxswain were hard. I got into a few tricky situations with my teammates and learned what to and NOT to say. I learned that this role required extreme confidence in not only myself, but in every single one of my teammates. It required leadership and determination. I had to push myself in a new way and was definitely forced out of my comfort zone, but I knew that's what it took to be the best. 

My first year at OCC was by far, one of the most special and memorable years of my entire life. I was surrounded by bad-ass women who were just as determined as I was. We definitely struggled at first and had our ups and downs, but we became best friends and loved each other on and off the water. We gave every practice and every race our all and did it for each other, as well as for Coach Behr. If you were to listen to any of my race recordings, you'd hear the calls I made for every single girl in the boat and for our amazing coach. Behr was the reason that all nine of us wanted to win so badly. She was the reason we worked so hard every day. She is the reason we became the fastest Varsity 8 to ever come out of OCC women's rowing. She not only pushed me to be the best I can be, but she pushed our entire team. Behr encouraged me to grow and to go after my dreams. I am forever grateful to her and cannot describe how lucky I am to have been able to call her my coach and now , my friend. 

During my second year at Coast, I knew it was time to look for colleges to transfer to. Throughout my entire time at OCC, I thought I wanted to stay in California and go to either UCLA, UC Berkeley, or San Diego State. It wasn't until my dad, who is originally from Ohio and went to The Ohio State University, who told me to look into Ohio State's rowing team. I had no idea how strong their program was and that they had just finished third overall at the NCAAs. Not to mention, they had also won the Big 10 Championships six years in a row.

I was a little intimated at first and thought I had no chance at a school like that, but said "screw it" and decided to email one of their coaches. I was still looking at other schools in Southern California, but had a good feeling about Ohio State and something told me that it felt right. I ended up getting an email back from the coach, had an amazing conversation with her, and was then asked to fly out for a visit. I fell in love with the campus, the facilities on campus, the team, and not to mention, the breathtaking boathouse on the Scioto. When having a conversation during the visit with head coach at the time, Andy Teitelbaum, I was asked to join to team and said yes. I was in awe and couldn't believe it, but my dream was coming true. 

My two years at Ohio State were incredible. I was a part of one of the top three teams in the country and was teammates with girls from all across the world. I had amazing coaches like Andy, Kate Sweeny, and Robbie Tenenbaum who pushed me even harder every single day. I was practicing at top notch facilities and competing against teams like Cal, Stanford, UCLA, Washington, Princeton, and Texas. I became a 2018 Big 10 Champion and a forever Buckeye. I am forever grateful for my time as a Buckeye and will forever cherish the opportunities I've had because of Ohio State, but I could not have gotten here without Orange Coast College, Laura Behr, and Steve Guentz. I think about my time at OCC almost every day and the girls that I am still friends with today because of it. I hope my story encourages the future rowers of OCC to never give up on their dreams and shows them that it is possible. I will always be a Buckeye, but I will forever be a Pirate at heart.