Through her years of education, Emily Northcutt has been able to maintain good grades with a good support system of her friends and family. One of her biggest supporters, her father, introduced her to the idea of rowing in February of 2021.

Northcutt’s father said, “since you’re tall and have the body type, you should give it a try.” So she did and she fell in love with it.

Rowing is a water sport where you get in a boat of eight rowers and one coxswain. The coxswain is a smaller girl who gives encouragement while rowing. 

“When my dad first brought up rowing I thought absolutely not. I didn’t know anything about rowing and I wasn’t going to have any friends going to try it with me,” she said. “However, after really thinking about it further, I decided that maybe I should try something new. So I threw myself into something completely different and ended up loving it.”

Creve Coeur Lake is where Northcutt and her team train six days a week. Training usually consists of doing hard pieces on the water or on an erg, which is a rowing machine. 

Rowing is a very intense and hard sport. You have to work really hard to get the results you want.

Rowing is an all-year-round sport but spring is the main season. The spring season consists of 2,000-meter races, also known as a 2K. The 2K is what gets you into colleges. Ideally for women’s rowing, to be recruited you need to have a sub 8 minute 2K. In the fall, it’s 5K season, so a much longer race. 

Staying interested and motivated for rowing is easy for Northcutt because she has a great support system. Her immediate family and her friends are the people who give her encouragement and help her reach her goals. 

On March 19, Northcutt has her first race of the season in Oklahoma City, OK. She is excited and ready to get back on the water with her team. Another event that she is looking forward to is the Midwest Junior Rowing Championship in May of 2022 in Ohio. 

Northcutt’s favorite memory and most impactful moment in her rowing career is getting first place at the Blake Haxton regatta in Ohio. This was so important to her and her team because they just had their coach replaced and they were going through a transitional period. Even though they had a new coach, they still stuck together and pulled through to get first place.

The biggest lesson that rowing has taught Northcutt is that “if you keep pushing even when things get hard, you will get the outcome that you want.

“I’m very excited to be getting recruited for college. I want to take the next steps of continuing the sport I love at the collegiate level and hope to win whichever team I end up on an NCAA championship.”   

After high school, Northcutt plans on attending a good college and continuing rowing. She also plans on going to college to become a nurse practitioner in pediatrics. Her greatest accomplishment is continuing to get good grades despite all the challenges she has faced.