Bob Hobert ’15 rows for Lincoln Park Juniors Rowing Club. Find about him in this interview!

1. Why did you start crew?

The summer before my sophomore year, I met a lot of rowers who highly recommended the sport. I decided I would try it the following fall, in which I fell in love with the sport.

2. How much of your time is put toward crew?

Crew is a big time commitment. I row six days a week for two hours and often on Sundays because of races.

3. What is your favorite part about this sport?

My favorite part about the sport is the people I met. Those people are the ones I spent the most time with outside of school. The friendships made will probably be ones that I will hold on to for a lifetime.

4. What is the hardest part about being involved in a sport outside of school?

The hardest part about being part of an out-school-sport is the schedule. Often I find myself missing school activities or games because I have an obligation to be at practice every day.

5. Is it a year round sport? If so is it more difficult during different season?

Rowing is a year round sport. Winter is mostly made up of doing workouts on the rowing machine. I would say spring season is the hardest because that is race season. The level of intensity increase greatly as we have to compete in shorter distances races that require absurd amounts of power.
Last year, we placed 7th at the Youth Nationals Rowing Championship

6. Has rowing changed your life?

Rowing has changed my life. I have improved mentally and physically. Mentally because racing takes a lot of confidence in yourself and in the people you have trained with. Physically because of the intense training you do for the preparation of these races. I never thought that rowing could take me to where I am today. This past summer I had the opportunity to train with the Junior National Team who later competed in the World Championships.

7. Are you being recruited? And if so how is the recruiting process?

With college, rowing has helped me tremendously. When I started, I didn’t know of the doors that opened. With the right amount of work, a rower can be recruited by the top schools in the U.S. One of my really good buddies on the team recently committed to Stanford. I have had success with many great schools, but at this point, I have not narrowed it down to a single choice.