PORTLAND, Ore. – Catherine Watson has been a part of the University of Portland Rowing Team for five years. It feels like a career that can divided into two separate eras.

"I came into this program when It was five years old," Watson said, but now it feels like even longer. That's because the last two years have been… different, to say the least. A global pandemic shut down the world and robbed rowing of their 2020 spring season, Watson's junior year. A new coach signed o in Gulliver Scott in the fall of 2020, faced with the difficult task of managing a new environment in a COVID-driven world. This past season is the closest things have been to "normal" in almost two years, and even then, there have been challenges abound.

It's been a whirlwind of a 2022 spring season for Watson, Scott and the entirety of UP rowing. But despite the late-season challenges they faced, the Pilots are more confident in their team than ever. With just one race left this spring – the WCC Championships in Gold River, Calif. on Saturday, May 14 – the Pilots feel more physically prepared than ever to tackle the challenge. If anything, Saturday gives the Pilots the chance to show the conference – and themselves – how their process has paid off.

"We are in the process of building upon what was already here and what a lot of people have worked really hard to establish over the last 10 years," Scott said. "It's been a lot of fun to see that start to take shape."

It's important to note that this is the first full season for UP rowing with Scott at the helm. Scott joined the University in September of 2020, with rowing not getting a fall season and only racing a shortened spring season. It was a weird time where in-person meetings were suddenly a rarity. Zoom meetings became increasingly common in a world still deep in a global pandemic, so it's not like they weren't used to them, but they are also not conducive to creating a tight-knit team culture. This is the first time they've been able to really build that culture Scott desired.

"I think transitions are challenging," Scott said. "And just the context has been challenging. But it's been really great to see the team embrace what we're doing and buy into the approach and the philosophy."
In training, Scott knew he needed to set the expectation that this wasn't going to be like years past. Obviously past rowing teams have pushed themselves – it's hard to laze your way through an intense rowing workout on the water at 6 a.m. But Scott made it clear that if they wanted to make a jump, that meant intensifying the training and taking it to the next level.

For the team, that meant that meant 15,000-meter runs, countless days either on the water or on rowing machines and more to get themselves in peak physical condition for the season. Watson said it was easily some of the most grueling training she'd gone through in her five years here.

"The training Gulliver has brought to this program has truly pushed to my mental edge," Watson said with a laugh. "It's definitely just a different level, and because of that I'm faster than I've ever been."

Going through fire as a team made Portland stronger on the water. In here three seasons prior to Scott, Watson said that while all the girls worked hard, there were still noticeable gaps between, say, the novices who had never held an oar before and those who had been rowing for several years. Commitment levels can vary when the talent levels vary.

With the training they went through, it wasn't possible to have just one foot in the boat. You were either all in or you were out.

"At one point we were describing it as like a planet spinning," Watson said. "All the external stuff is going to spin off, but the core is going to stay condensed and solid."

It was tough, but it also helped the team grow that much closer. It helped the team build a certain level of trust with one another; if you can make it through the training, you're in it for the long haul.

For Scott, the emphasis has always been on that process, the focus being on changing the team's approach to both training and races. Like any Division I coach, Scott wants results – Watson noted that she and Scott have both talked about how they despise losing almost as much as they love winning – but those results don't come if the process to get there isn't sound.

"As much as the results matter, we've been focusing more on performance and our process goals in terms of both individually and as a team taking care of the things that we can control," Scott said. "It's not that we don't care about the results or that they don't matter; it's just a belief that process and performance is going to lead to results."

That theory held up in practice early in the season. Watson said that she was posting PRs almost three seconds faster in her fifth year as a college rower, numbers that are ludicrous for someone who's rowed for so long. Those kinds of big PRs have been the norm for the team.

"I was like 'What!" Watson said about her PRs. "Like that is unheard of… I see that with no credit to myself. All I'm doing is his (Scott's) training."

Results showed while racing, too. They earned two wins at the Husky Open in early April. The first varsity eight earned a win at Portland's only home meet at Vancouver Lake. They beat several WCC teams throughout the year, with both Scott and Watson pointing to defeating LMU at the San Diego Crew Classic on the final day as particularly motivating.

"I think that was one of those moments where they felt like all of the work that had been put in paid off and they saw the results in a tangible way," Scott said. "Being in the mix with our conference rivals is definitely positive."

Everything seemed to be falling into place. They were beating other WCC teams, setting PRs and earning wins. But then things grinded to a halt.
Back in mid-April, the thing that had put so much of the world on pause also stopped the Pilots: COVID. Several members of the team contracted the virus, rendering them unable to compete. The final two races of the season saw the team competing without a sizeable contingent of their squad.

It affected both the results on the course and the process they all had established. Much like how Watson's career can be bifurcated, so could this season. You had the pre-COVID squad who was thriving, undeterred and focused on nothing except the process and the results. Post-COVID, the team found themselves trying to get back to where they once were.

"I think that really… That shook us a bit," Watson said. "So I think we're now in the process of, you know, it's been thrown off, we can't hide the fact that it's been thrown off, how can we readjust and reassess and get in the right mental state."
COVID is something that is taxing both mentally and physically. Watson and Scott both noted that it affected the fitness of the team having so many members affected. But despite those challenges, they soldiered on. They've continued to put in the work and make the most out of a difficult situation.

"It's tough," Scott said about the health issues. "All we can do is try to train in such a way that our team's ready for the unexpected. Being able to adapt and adjust is really important, whether that's adjusting to different conditions or different lineups or what have you. So let's just try to build that into our training plan and practice plans just in terms of helping our student-athletes feel prepared and capable of handling uncertainty."
This year marked the 10-year anniversary of rowing becoming a varsity sport at the University of Portland. Considering where it started to where it is now – a competitive program set to have its own boathouse on campus – it's a remarkable transformation.

All credit goes to the team focusing on the process. But while the focus rightly remains on the process, that doesn't change the fact that NCAA Division I rowing isn't judged by processes. Results matter, and like they said, they hate losing. They'd be lying to say they aren't setting their sights high at the WCC Championships this Saturday.

"I think that breaking in, getting to the podium as far as a results goal is definitely still a part of the landscape," Scott said.

Even then, Watson and Scott acknowledged that there's only so much they can control. Rowing is a sport where all you can do is row as fast as you can and hope that the results pan out the way you want them to. You can do all the preparation and training in the world, but that doesn't change the fact that you're racing against others who are doing the same and have just as good a shot at eclipsing you on that day.

But with that comes a sort of peace of mind. The Pilots know they've done just about everything in their power to physically prepare for the WCC Championships. In that sense, they're as ready as ever. Now it's just a matter of staying focused and, as Watson puts it, staying sane.

"In the past, I've come into this race feeling like there was just… we just did not do enough," Watson said. "This year, I have so much peace around this because I truly feel like for where we're at and where we've come from, we couldn't have done anything else."

There's a certain zen that comes with accepting that whatever happens, happens. That's where the Pilots are at – sort of. They're still a young program with a new coach, and even though they've gotten good results this year, one phrase keeps popping up repeatedly: It's a process.

Everything is always a process, and the whole team knows that the results they've gotten already validate their hard work. But Watson knows if there's one thing that validates the process more than anything, it's having something to show for it in the biggest race of the year.

"I think showing that all this work can change something, even though that's not what it's about and it has changed up, as silly as it is, having that result, it does help." Watson said. "If you set a goal and you get 90% of the way there, the goal wasn't useless, but it's not as satisfying as achieving the goal."