By Nick Pecora ’21
THE ROUNDUP
What is your name and year at Brophy?
I’m George Resley, Class of 2020. I’m a senior.
What sport(s) do you participate in at Brophy?
Right now, for the past two years, I’ve been rowing. Previously, I did pole vaulting my sophomore year, tennis my freshman year, but crew is definitely the sport for me. I can really apply myself athletically there and my talents are definitely maximized in that sport.
What made you decide to join crew?
That’s a good question. All throughout my years, my parents have told me that I have a really good body type to row … so we just had to wait a few years to save up money because it’s a very expensive sport. So, we waited until my junior year. In the meantime, I did non-cut sports like tennis, pole vaulting, tried out basketball. Those were all good but I wasn’t too passionate about it. Then, I started rowing my junior year. Something I fell in love with immediately was really [being] able to push myself my absolute hardest in every workout and I was struggling to do that with every [other] sport and [I] really found my passion there.
Was there anything that surprised you about crew after joining?
Yeah, I mean, a lot of people including myself had a misnomer about rowing that it’s all in your arms, but it’s all about leg strength and cardio, and really the majority of what I’m doing now to train is cardio … And that was really a shocker to me because I thought I was just going to need to get a really big upper body, but it’s a lot — like 80% — leg muscles during a 2000 meter row. It’s 80% aerobic capacity, 20% anaerobic capacity, so it’s really a lot of cardio and also calluses — I had no idea my hands were going to get this torn up!
What has been your biggest challenge in crew?
Definitely conditioning and mentally preparing myself for races. So, I had a goal last season to break sub-6:20 on the [rowing ergometer] for a 2000 meter row, and that really took a long time to do. I was able to do it over the summer, but it took a lot of work, a lot of waking up at 4:50 in the morning on a lot of days you didn’t want to do it, so that was a big grind that I’ve never done before but it definitely prepared me for a lot of aspects of life — just the hard work aspect — waking up early when you don’t want to. That was a big challenge, and even during the 2k, I wanted to quit and not break that record and goal that I had, but I ended up doing it … my peers helped support me. So, that was a big challenge I [overcame] but it was definitely fulfilling and worth it.
