Josh Stratton Q&A

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

WITH JOSH STRATTON

OO: Where and how were you first exposed to rowing?

JS: I learned how to row as a freshman in high school, after hearing from Judy Sanford in her freshman math class that she thought I’d be good at the sport. With some reluctance, I went out for the team and never looked back. After about two months of learning the rowing stroke on the ergs and in the tanks at Marist College, we took to the water to learn the rowing stroke in a fiberglass and wooden Schoenbrod on the Hudson River.

My early impressions of rowing were exactly what my coaches told me: the more effort that you put into the training and practice of your technique, the more speed you’ll get out of yourself on the erg and water. Also, there are many very rough water days early on in the spring and we must get comfortable in challenging conditions … we also must get comfortable running hills!

OO: Who were your early rowing influences?

JS: Mike Vertullo was my high school freshman coach and he is responsible for my attitude towards excellent technique, maximum effort and never taking the easy way out of training. He’s also partly responsible for the competitive fire that burns inside of me and willingness for me to challenge others who may be lacking in that area. Ray Barnum was my varsity coach at FDR (F.D. Roosevelt High School in Hyde Park, NY) and being a Brown University alum, I had a tremendous amount of respect for his rowing capabilities. He was much more philosophical and holistic with his coaching approach. He let us know that he couldn’t provide the motivation for us to get stronger and faster, that the drive and motivation must come from within. I believe this gave the opportunity for my teammates and I to step up into leadership roles throughout the three years that I rowed for him. He encouraged this and allowed each team to take on its own personality.

OO: Does one event stand out from your early days in rowing?

JS: Winter training stands out because of the difficulty and expectations set forth by the coaches. These expectations were for excellent technique and to adhere to the structure, standards and traditions of rowing which make great teams. This unwavering dedication set the foundation for my entire rowing career and this experience set me up very well for my successive rowing camps & teams. Statements such as “If you cannot row with proper technique on the erg, you will not be rowing in a boat until you can” were taken very seriously by us as 8th & 9th graders.

OO: How did your first coaches coach you?

JS: My first coaches coached me like I was an older and more mature athlete. The expectation was for absolute uniformity and to strive for perfection. My high school coaches rowed for Rutgers and Brown University and wanted for us to have the best experience possible for our athletic endeavor and taught that winning records make for fun and memorable crew teams.

OO: What do you cherish as your key memories of your rowing career at SU?

JS: My key memories of rowing at SU include the camaraderie between teammates beginning with bus rides to the Boathouse freshman year, walking to weights during early winter mornings through the cemetery in the snow from Day Hall, attending football and basketball games in the nosebleeds and countless other non-rowing team activities. The various on-the-water memories of rowing on a glass-like Onondaga Lake at sunrise, powering up through the canals on blustery days and rowing at the various Northeast regatta sites each bring a nostalgic charm to me as I reminisce my time as an Orange rower.

Some of my favorite memories include seat racing for spring lineups in Miami on our spring break training trips and the long rows in Melbourne, Florida on winter training in the Manatee canals. One specific memory is that of rowing on the canal while the lake was still frozen in early March ... when we’d get to the lake, we’d need to spin while encircled by ice at the end of the Canal breakwaters. Another special memory was shared by the 1999 Varsity 8 at IRAs as it seemed that each successive race was a better and faster performance by the crew through heats, reps, semi-finals and finals. That same year, we’d had a phenomenal cup racing season where our coxswain was always being tossed into various rivers to celebrate our wins.

OO: How do you coach and how would you like to be remembered?

JS: I tend to coach like all of my coaches did to certain degrees, borrowing from each one of their phrases that made a lot of sense to me during my rowing career. I tend to coach the entire athlete, speaking one-on-one when I get the opportunity during winter training, at the trailer during regattas and at other opportunities such as launch and truck rides. I enjoy listening to the athletes speak about their majors and life goals and understand that there are all varying degrees of dedication and love for the sport and their academic endevours.

We coach a different style, rhythm and cadence at Marist than most high school programs are currently teaching. Many rowers weren’t taught or even have been exposed to this technique prior to attending Marist. Getting the athletes to buy into the new rhythm, learn it and adopt it as their own typically takes the better part of a semester for them to become comfortable within a shell. When they finally “get it” and make a change to their strokes, that’s when the coaching really becomes rewarding and boats begin to move more efficiently with them in their lineups.

I’d like to be remembered as an understanding coach who demanded and got the most from his athletes and coxswains. My goal is for my athletes to become capable of dealing with any adversity that comes their way in the boat as I am convinced that this carries over into the classroom and professional world. I see my role as teaching the athletes what college life has to offer them and discuss with them what the world will offer them in their post-rowing career.

OO: What differences exist now in your coaching style from what you did at Syracuse while a student athlete?

JS: The use of small boats such as the 1x, 2- and 2x at Marist is one of the most different aspects of training methods from when I attended SU. At Syracuse we’d go out in a pair without shell only two or three times in the fall, but we make it an almost daily exercise to send out small boats here at Marist. Small boats are the best way to teach rowers how to move a boat without disturbing the hull speed. So much of what we focus on is efficiency in our rowing stroke which will enable our crews to carry hull speed over the entire race course without fighting the boat or rest of the crew. I’ve personally become a sculler and small boat rower to purposefully teach myself how to move small boats and gain better boat feel so that I may be able to help my rowers have a better sense of what they’re looking for and trying to feel from their stroke. Along with this, we focus much more on steady state rowing, targeting each of the training zones an appropriate amount of time each week of our training cycle. The force curve on rowing machines along with dynamic ergs are also pieces of technology that hadn’t been developed yet while I was rowing at the collegiate level and are key to teaching the rowers acceleration of the drive phase through the pin.

It’s an exciting and ever-changing world that we live in with not just the sport of rowing, but so many of our daily aspects of life. Embracing these changes where appropriate gives us such opportunity to improve.

OO: Please talk about rowing after your years at SU.

JS: After graduating from SU, I took a couple of years off from the sport, but was soon reeled back into racing by Joe Peter '69 during a visit to ’Cuse one fall. I always stay at Jason Premo’s ' 98 house when visiting and he had practice with the Syracuse Chargers which I’d attend and practice in when I could. I soon found myself a member of the Joey Peter Rowing Team (or ‘JPRT’ as emblazoned on their racing tanks) traveling to every regatta that I could get into the boat. It was a lot of fun training locally at the gym and then just hopping into the boat for racing with friends new and old.

OO: Please share some insights on how you balance your work / personal training / coaching schedules.

JS: Balancing work as a financial consultant, rowing coach, my own personal fitness and family responsibilities proves to be very challenging, and it requires a team effort. My wife, father as well as mother-in-law help in the daily care for my children and are as vested as anyone can be in the success of my rowing endeavors. My father, who drove me to practice in high school at all hours of the morning, attended nearly all of my races throughout high school and college, is still an integral part in the facilitation of rowing. My first stint at coaching from 2003- 2006 was prior to my becoming a father, but when I was asked to coach at Marist once again in 2016, it required a more creative solution where my father again stepped up to the challenge of caring for my kids each day before school which I’m forever grateful to him. This is truly a gift that he’s given to me, the gift to coach the sport that I love while he gets to enjoy his grandkids.

OO: Talk about SARA for a moment.

JS: Since its inception, SARA has been very involved with the tradition of rowing at SU and I believe it’s seen many vital improvements in this last decade through the establishment of the annual alumni event: Evening at Ten Eyck and the Syracuse Rowing Hall of Fame. Fundraising has really taken off and become more widely participated in than previous decades and it just continuously grows and improves from year to year.

OO: Please talk about Marist’s recent successes on the water.

JS: The spring of 2018 saw Marist return to the IRA for the first time since 2007 with an at-large bid over Columbia, Georgetown and Drexel. At the NIRC Championships, Marist sprinted through Hobart to take second place behind a game Bates crew. We graduated three seniors out of the top boat and now it’s our charge to develop our younger athletes and the returning members of this boat to improve upon last year’s result. We are bringing in a faster crop of recruits each year as we elevate our national ranking which is very exciting to see. It’s taken three years to climb in the rankings, and now we’ll see how far we are able to rise.

***** Note: Josh Stratton (class year 2001) is currently the Assistant Men’s Crew Coach at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York.

You can follow Josh at @jwstratt on Instagram.