Plant High School rowing appreciates guidance from Olympian Jenny Casson this summer

TAMPA, Fla. - Plant High School has dominated in several sports over the years, but the school's rowing team has been extra special. 

"It is pretty competitive," Plant senior Margaret Welch said. 

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The program has won 10 scholastic state championships in the last 12 years and three national medals in the past five seasons.

"The thrill of all of that hard work coming together for all of that result. It is incomparable," Plant High School rowing head coach Michael Smith said. "I have never done anything else that has that feeling."

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However, the Panthers are getting an even extra special feeling this summer. 

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"It is really cool," Welch said.

This summer the Plant rowers are being trained by two-time Olympian rower for Team Canada Jenny Casson. The 29-year-old moved down to Tampa in October and got in contact with the school to talk to the rowers. Then, they invited her back this summer to grow their rowing skills. 

"I never saw myself as a coach or someone who could be a coach. Granted, I do think I have a lot to talk about," Casson said. "That's the issue though. I can talk a lot about a lot of different things."

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She's talking, and the athletes are taking it all in. They have craved advice from someone who has competed on the world's biggest stage. 

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"We're just really grateful, because she makes a great impact and the kids really love her and respond to her," Smith said. "She has the knowledge and attitude and personality to share that with the athletes and get them engaged with it."

Casson has offered advice from back positioning to how to stand in the boat to thinking positively.

"It is very important for them to have a technical foundation that they can rely on as their bodies change throughout the years," Casson said. "I think having that kind of an eye that your body should be moving this way, there's a rowing stroke and then there is your rowing stroke. Establishing your rowing stroke is what you need to do in these earlier years if you want to go long term."

All the feedback has been much more than welcome. 

"She's fixed a lot of things about my stroke that I thought were okay and every stroke I am able to go farther and faster," Plant sophomore Caleb Bates said. 

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However, Casson is preaching more than just technique to these up-and-coming rowers. 

What they're saying:

"It's nice that she's an Olympian, and it's nice that she's a girl," Welch said. "Someone who understands my anatomy better, on an intrinsic level, it is just really nice to have. Also, she understands what it takes to be the absolute best."

While the athletes may view this as the best experience ever, it might be even better for Casson.

"Transparently, after the Paris games, I felt out of love with the sport, and I was trying to row out of routine," Casson said. "But now, being back here and even touching in with the students at the beginning of their careers, it is a different perspective. Seeing some curiosity and some excitement in basic foundational rowing is kind of reigniting the love for the sport that I once, not so long ago, lost. That's been a new and different experience that I hadn't expected."

It is an experience she never expects to feel again thanks to the kids at Plant High School. 

"You know, watching some athletes who I think have a lot of potential and seeing some raw strength and excitement about rowing in general gives me a little bit of joie de vivre," Casson said.

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That's because she can feel the passion in them that she once had. 

"The kids just listen to everything you say, and they are an absolute sponge," Casson said. "It is very rewarding for you to say something out loud, and then they do it right away."

The Olympian even says they are much smarter and more talented than she was at their age. 

"I think the biggest thing I like to say when I work with younger generations of future rowers is that we all started here," Casson said. "I think that with the athletes that I see in this particular training environment, they are here because they love it. If they are coming out to Plant High School rowing, and you are spending your summers here, you do have to really enjoy. Thankfully, I am seeing that in the athletes here. I have to say in the coaching staff as well. It's exceptional. I think it is very hard to find really great coaches who give their summers away."

The coaches and athletes are grateful Casson decided to dedicate her Tuesday and Thursday mornings to them. 

"She understands what it takes and what you have to do and why you do it," Welch said. "I think that is amazing."

What's next:

The Plant High School rowing team will continue to practice throughout the rest of the year before the season begins in spring. 

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