THE RACE for supremacy is well under way in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP). The first half of Season 76 is already at its final stages and the spotlight is just about ready to shift its focus to the second set of competing teams.

However, with much attention trained upon the battle for glory that marks the UAAP, lost in the conversation are the university’s other athletic squads—the non-UAAP teams.

One such group is the Ateneo Rowing Team. Although the squad doesn’t get to perform on the biggest stage of collegiate sports, the rowers invest just as much time, effort and heart as the UAAP teams. They don the Blue and White whenever they perform and strive for fundamentally the same goal whenever they compete: Bring glory to the university.

Competition

Since the Ateneo Rowing Team is not part of the UAAP competitions, it falls on the members themselves to look for tournaments to join. But because of the lack of facilities and competitors in Manila, the team must look beyond the city.

“[We] competed in Paoay, Ilocos Norte last January,” says junior management major Ivan Lee. This competition was the 71stAmateur Rowing Association of the East-Far East Amateur Rowing Association International Regatta, in which the Ateneo contingent went up against mostly professional teams.

The team doesn’t limit itself to the bounds of the country, either.

The team will be flying to Putrajaya, Malaysia this October for the 2013 Varsity Boat Race competition. This time, they will be going against other universities of the same age bracket. “We have a bigger chance of winning [compared to when we were in Ilocos],” added Lee, “[because] we will be competing with people who are as old as us and have the same experience.”

The rowers are hoping that their previous exposure to more experienced opponents will pay off and serve as building blocks for the team’s continued development. Aside from this, they are also counting on previous successes, such as their ASEAN 2010 Varsity Boat Race performance, to boost their confidence. During that event, the team took home silver and bronze in the Men’s Eights and Fours categories, respectively.

Training

When the team is not competing, they are busy fine-tuning their craft in the waters and strengthening themselves indoors.

The team’s main training venue is the Pasig River, where they row about 14 to 18 kilometers, four times a week. This comes as a surprise to many because of the river’s reputation for being extremely polluted, but the team doesn’t seem to mind. “Although the Pasig River may seem bad, it really isn’t,” said paddler David Teotico, “it just looks bad [from afar].”

Apart from the Pasig River, the team sometimes trains in the La Mesa Dam, where the Philippine national rowing team practices as well.

The team’s workout regimen is capped off with twice-a-week on-campus conditioning in the Loyola Schools Covered Courts, where they use a rowing machine called an ergometer.

All in all, the hard work and dedication of the team equals six days of rigorous training and exercise. As student athletes, this time also has to be balanced with their academics and personal lives. But more than a commitment of time, the team members must also contribute money from their own pockets to ensure that they get to compete.

Rowing is an expensive sport. The rowers have had to pay for their equipment, as well as their airfare and accommodations for the international tournaments. “If only the school would subsidize the team more,” added Lee, “we would not hesitate to join other competitions representing the school.”

Even if the team is accredited by the College Athletics Office and thus receives an allocated budget from the university, this funding tends to fall short. “The school does allot a budget and allow certain subsidies,” says co-captain Andrew Tan, “but overall, we have to account for own expenses.”

Support

Besides a lack of funding, the Ateneo Rowing Team is also short of support from the community. Their limited number of competitions has translated to a lack of potential spectators.

“Feeling the support in any way possible would boost the boys,” says student manager Paolo Mendoza. “They [will] train harder and be more focused in getting those medals.”

“Feeling the support in any way possible would boost the boys… They [will] train harder and be more focused in getting those medals.”

They have experimented using social media, particularly Facebook, to spread the word about their meets. According to Tan, the managers themselves also do their part by assisting with the team’s fund-raising activities.

Despite these obstacles, the team soldiers on. Tan concludes, “Our challenge is producing the most results with our current resources.” This is the philosophy that the team will be carrying to Malaysia, where they will be competing from October 22 to 27, proudly sporting the name of the Ateneo.