Kirch has W. Crew reaching new goals

At Monday morning's practice, the Penn women's crew team was one rower short in its four-person boat.

No problem. Penn coach Barb Kirch filled the hole, still coaching while rowing as part of the team.

Her flexibility and willingness to make an effort to help the team have allowed her to turn a struggling rowing program into one of the Ivy's best in just five years.

Kirch is well-liked by her rowers, most of whom credit her for Penn's turnaround.

"She's completely transformed the team in the time she's been here," sophomore Carla Frank said.

Junior Kristen Mauks said that Kirch was the reason she transferred to Penn this year.

"I knew she was the person I wanted to work with," Mauks said. "What made me come was her absolute dedication to the team and her obvious love for the sport. She knew I had goals to go further, and she was the one who understood where I wanted to go and was dedicated enough to help me get there."

While Kirch has had a prosperous coaching career at Penn, she wasn't always accustomed to the water. In fact, she didn't start her rowing career until her sophomore year at Gettysburg College.

"I was looking for any sport with a good coach," Kirch said. "I tried [rowing] and I loved it. There is a certain body type and mentality that fits rowing, and I seem to have those things. It was a natural fit for me."

It certainly was a natural fit. Kirch performed so well her sophomore year, she was invited to practice with the West German national squad before her junior year.

A year later, Kirch transferred to Penn so that she could row at Vesper, a rowing club whose boathouse is next to Penn's on the Schuylkill.

Kirch's rowing skills continued to blossom in West Philadelphia. In 1982, her first season at Penn, Kirch carried the Quakers to a 6-2 record and three members from the Red and Blue's varsity eight won medals at the World Championships.

After graduating from Penn in 1984, Kirch competed in the pairs event in two Olympics, finishing fifth in 1984 and sixth in 1988.

After the 1988 Olympics, Kirch began her coaching career, accepting a position at Dartmouth. Her biggest achievement with the Big Green was coaching a varsity eight boat that qualified for the NCAA Championships in 1997.

Kirch left Dartmouth that same year to take over a struggling rowing program at Penn at a time when the sport was becoming much more competitive, with many schools starting to offer scholarships because of Title IX.

"When I got here, I thought it would be a difficult job improving Penn women's rowing at a time when the sport was exploding because Penn was at the bottom of the league," she said. "We had to come up with a way to improve faster than everyone else."

Kirch's record shows that she has, in fact, succeeded in turning around the program. In 2000 and 2001, Penn posted its first back-to-back winning seasons since 1982.

"When you bring someone in like Barb as a coach, that kind of individual attracts other solid recruits and also inspires the athletes you already have to work harder," said senior captain Kate Magee, whose freshman year at Penn coincided with Kirch's first year as the Quakers' coach. "Having someone around who is an Olympian on a day-to-day basis makes everyone work a little bit more.

"Because of Barb's success, success seems very reachable."

And success has been more plentiful this year, as Penn has posted wins at the Head of the Schuylkill and the Navy Day Regatta.

However, the fall is viewed as a tune-up for the spring season, when the most important Ivy League matches and the NCAAs are held.

After missing by two places last year, the Quakers hope to be strong enough to make the NCAAs this year.

Kirch says that this year's team has talent it has not had in years.

"[Since 1982] there haven't been any athletes who had the ability to make the national team or the desire to even try, and this year we have two of them, Sarah-Jane Irwin and Kristen Mauks," Kirch said.

This weekend, the Red and Blue head to Seattle for the first time, where they will compete against Washington, the defending NCAA champion, among others.

"We want to race to win, but we know that will be a big challenge against the University of Washington on their home course," Kirch said. "If we came in second behind the University of Washington, that would be a tremendous success."

Under Barb Kirch's tenure, success is a word the Penn women's crew team is getting used to hearing.

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