Junior Courtney Klohmann spends her time participating in an activity that is different than most: rowing. Rowing is based on propelling a boat in the water with oars. By pushing against the water, a force is generated to move the boat forward.

“My mom’s friend is the coach and asked me to try it out,” Klohmann said.

Her club team takes up most of her time throughout the week and leaves her with little free time.

“I have morning or after school practice everyday of the week. Practice is two hours long and then we go out of town every other weekend,” Klhomann said.

The constant practice makes it hard to complete work or participate in any after school activities.

“All I want to do after a long practice is sleep. It makes it so much harder to complete homework after school,” Klohmann said.

The long practices consist of a two mile run or working on a rowing machine (ERG) for 15 minutes. After that, they take out the boats and then usually finish with a core workout. The long workouts and the extensive practices seem to be paying off for Klohmann.

“My boat and I got first in Regionals and got second in the Chicago Sprints,” Klohmann said. “Competing is intense; there is a lot of pressure on yourself because what you do affects the whole boat and I personally hate to let my teammates down because I know they want to win just as badly as I do.”

The races in the fall take more endurance because they usually range from a 5k to a 10k. Klohmann has the biggest competition of the year, The Head of the Hooch, coming up in November. Various teams from all over the world and a copious amount of colleges come to compete.

“I go through so much in practice and so many painful workouts leading up to a race. I don’t want it to be for nothing,” Khlomann said.