Q&A With Coach Traub

Feb. 10, 2010

NORMAN, Okla. -- After a successful inaugural season for the Oklahoma rowing program, the Sooners are anxious to get back on the water and compete for a Big 12 Championship in 2010. Leading up to the first regatta of the season , SoonerSports.com provides an inside look into OU rowing. This week Assistant Coach Marina Traub is on the hot seat.

What was your favorite moment on the water?
As an athlete, it would have to be a moment during my fourth year at UVA on the Rivanna. I was stroking the 2V and it was just a steady state piece. Stroke rate maybe 24, 26, the length of the river. Six miles maybe. There was this stretch of time where I wasn't me. We were us. The whole eight. I can feel it in my muscles, hear it, see it, even now as I sit on my couch 10 years later. There's something about rowing that completely transcends the individual. We are weak and imperfect when we're apart but when we're together, we're a solid unit. It's like The Bell Jar. It has cracks, it is not perfect, but when you put pressure on it, those cracks melt into each other and it becomes a unit.

As a coach, that's almost impossible to determine. But there was one day in the San Diego camp this past January when Coach Crain had to take a conference call so I had two even varsity eights. They had had a mediocre morning practice and we're out there on Mission Bay and the sun is setting, the sky is purple, and the eights are killing it. Just killing it. Nobody giving an inch. No piece was won by more than half a seat if that. I felt like I was at church. I felt like I was doing the best thing I could possibly do in this world. I hope they all remember that one.

What is the most interesting place you have competed/coached?
San Diego, California. I've been to the Crew Classic a handful of times as a coach and an athlete, and I've always learned something. Something about myself which is, I think, the most important kind of learning there is. A couple great wins, a few painful lessons, but always interesting.

What do you enjoy most about coaching?
I'm a complete geek for the technical aspect of the stroke. I grew up a swimmer and a dancer, and those sports are all about how the body reacts to pressure and how the environment reacts to the actions of the body. So to look at a rower and really be able to see her body in space and how the water reacts to it, that's really gratifying. But the thing I love most is without question the ability to impact young women. Most of the time when I'm talking to them I'm talking to my 19-year-old self, saying the things I wish someone had said to me. I went through the ringer pretty hard at 19, so I know, and I like being able to help women through that. There are so many unusual pressures on these kids, they really need the right ones. The right influence. I don't know that I'm that but that's the goal.

Who do you model your coaching style after?
The rowing community is an incredibly generous one. We kind of pride ourselves on that, on being respectful of each other, on being reverent to those who've earned it and benevolent when people make mistakes, which of course they do. I have had the incredible blessing to be around some of the best, and they are always willing to teach you what they know. Dave O'Neill at Cal, Chris Clark at Wisconsin, Kevin Sauer at Virginia and now Leeanne. The great ones will happily let you ride along in their launch and watch them work which, to me, is the mark of real confidence. They know it's not what you do, it's how you do it. They'll tell you their favorite drill, their rigging, whatever, because they know it's not about that stuff. We put the blade in, we drive it through, we take it out. We steady state on the erg, we do a couple threshold pieces, we test. We all do the same thing. It's not what we do. It's how. And I've had the pleasure of watching some of the greats.

What do you like most about OU?
Ok the campus is GORGEOUS. Let's just put that out there. The athletics director, Joe Castiglione, is one of the most approachable people I've ever met. Maybe my fourth or fifth day here he invited me to eat lunch with him (a complete first). And my direct oversight, Gloria Nevarez, is exactly, and I mean exactly, what you want in an SWA. My favorite thing, I have to say, is the chemistry of the department. The rowing staff works together and plays off each other in a way I've never seen. The wrestling staff is right next to us in the office and they're the same way: determined, hilarious, and never taking their eye off the ball. None of us care about what pressure the world puts on us because we put way more on ourselves.

What is your favorite OU tradition?
The moment before the football game when the whole massive stadium goes silent while the historical video plays and 85,000 hold up the number one finger. Love it. That's something being more powerful than the sum of its parts.

Where is your favorite place to eat in Norman?
Café Plaid. The place I had my interview. The place I made the most important decision of my life.

What do you do outside of coaching?
Yoga. Read. Tend to the two loves of my life, Spike and Venga. They're Hurricane Katrina rescues I love it.

List three words that describe you.
One thing you'll learn about me is that I like nothing less than to talk about myself directly. Me, coaching? Yes. Me as a person? Ugh. But I'm half German and half Italian so I'm going to go with stubborn, passionate, and really, really, hard on myself.

If you could coach any other sport what would it be?
Football.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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