Liz Fitzgerald and the University of Pennsylvania

Below is an excerpt from an e-mail that Liz Fitzgerald sent me recently. Pretty good stuff if you ask me. She has done a great job at Penn and, as you can see, college rowing has really given Liz a great focus at Penn.

Hi Doug,
Yesterday I got to hold an Olympic gold medal. Susan Francia graduated from Penn in 2004, and won gold in the Women's 8+ this summer in Beijing. My whole team crowded around her to catch a glimpse of the medal, hear her inspirational words, and ask her what Michael Phelps is like in person. Yes, she partied with him in China. She walked on to the Penn crew team as a sophomore, having never touched an oar, and when she visited the boathouse this weekend eight years later, had some serious hardware to show off for all the work she's done since then. Crew is not an easy sport, but it really is worth it. Sorry if this sounds cliche, but there's nothing better. It is probably one of the most team oriented sports out there; Trusting and respecting your teammates is what gets every rower pulling their hardest out there on the water. You are nothing without the other eight rowers (including the coxswain!) in your boat. This past weekend was the Navy Day Regatta here in Philadelphia, and there were about fifteen teams racing. I was in the JV 8+ and the Thursday before the race was our first row together as a boat. It was a horrible practice. We were getting seriously beaten by the third boat every piece. But we put that morning behind us and started making changes during Friday's practice. Our new assistant coach, Coach B, made us each tell our pair partner what we were going to hold them accountable for, and then we had to tell her if she succeeded or failed at improving whatever that technical focus was. And on race day, it all came together. We walked away with a silver medal, not nearly as cool as Susan Francia's gold, but it still felt pretty good. Overall Penn did well at Navy Day: third place in the V 8+, and second, fourth, and sixth in the V 4+ race.