Cover story: West Side rowing quartet heads to France for World Junior Championships.
Ready to take on world
The four junior rowers exchanged blank stares and paused when the question was asked. Standing in a semicircle outside the West Side Rowing Club, the college freshmen-to- be were speechless.
Summer jobs? Not a chance. Through brutal two-a-days those are impossible. Six days a week, the foursome wakes up before 5 a. m. to row and comes back in the evening for another practice. In between, they lift weights. One of the four actually quit his job outright to make room.
But weekend cash for college is the least of their worries. Allan Amico, R. J. Rubino, Sean Johnston and Kosta Gioulekas are doing something that no West Side Rowing Club crew has done in 23 years. The straight four team will represent the United States at the World Junior Championships in Brive-la-Gaillarde, France, Wednesday through Saturday.
“It’s the highest stage you can get to in junior rowing,” Amico said. “It’s definitely the climax of our training and racing.”
The last time a men’s four team from the West Side Rowing Club advanced to Junior Worlds was 1986. The premier event typically draws 15 to 20 countries. The West Side crew advanced to worlds at June’s U. S. Trials in Princeton, N. J.
Boris Kusturic, the men’s coach at West Side, believes the foursome has a shot at making the finals in France. Having rowed himself since 1992 and coached since 2002 at Boston College, Harvard, the Community Rowing Club in Boston and West Side, the Yu-
goslavia native has an acute sense for talent.
These four have distinguishable qualities that could land them on the U. S. senior team someday, he said. Amico is “mentally tough,” Gioulekas is “shaped into an oarsman,” Johnston is “very elastic” and Rubino “has a lot of heart.” Together, they’ll represent the U. S. junior club.
“They can make the under-23 team and they can make the senior team,” Kusturic said. “Hopefully they can stay healthy.”
Amico and Rubino rowed together at Canisius High School, while Gioulekas competed for City Honors. Johnston is dispatched here all the way from Detroit. His coach at Marietta College next spring recently joined the West Side staff and recommended Johnston to compete for West Side.
The training for France has been continuous. For five straight days this past week, the quartet woke up before the sun rose to train in Welland, Ont. During one time trial at Welland, the crew raced in 16 minutes, 17 seconds— a time Kusturic believes would lift their boat into the finals. Medal-territory is 16:15, he said. The South Niagara Rowing Club’s waters best mimic what they’ll encounter in France— calm and fast.
“But you never know,” Kusturic said. “It’s nature. We could get 20 or 30 mile per hour winds.”
Chemistry, not Mother Nature, is the group’s main concern. The four rowers hail from three different high schools. All have different tendencies that must be made to work in unison. Kusturic has filmed the rowers at practice to identify precise changes each needs to make for the betterment of the entire boat.
Rubino is in the bow seat up front and Johnston makes the calls in the second seat. The towering Gioulekas sits third, providing power from the back. And Amico is seated fourth. He’s the group’s odometer, setting the pace in strokes per minute. All of those early mornings are spent blending these jobs.
“It’s tough because we all go to different schools,” Rubino said. “Everybody is strong enough but it’s about getting boat movement together.”
The best way to accelerate this assimilation was to face faster, older teams. On July 15-19, the foursome competed as the only junior team at Club Nationals in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Their boat finished fourth of eight teams, a modest, yet satisfying performance. Two teams from the University of Wisconsin and one from the Pennsylvania Athletic Club team nosed past them.
All their competitors were four or five years older. Thus, the West Siders were forced to pay attention to detail —Kusturic’s goal in enlisting the four in the senior race.
“It’s such a technical event,” Kusturic said of the straight four. “You really need to get the technique down.”
This fall, the four rowers will scatter to college. Amico is heading to Princeton, Rubino has a full ride to Mercyhurst, Gioulekas has a 75 percent scholarship to Boston University and Johnston will row for Marietta.
For now, their rowing careers will take a collective big step forward in France. This is easily the biggest event all have raced in. Buffalo Olympian Steve Coppola never competed in junior worlds. It’s rare, elite company.
“We know what it’s like to go up against fast teams,” Rubino said. “This is just the next level up. You weed out the kids that don’t really care about the sport. This is the best of the best.”
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