Orange Coast College rowers have the muscle and mindset to win nationals

Orange Coast College men’s crew assistant coach Steve Morris, right, speaks to members of the Orange Coast College men’s crew during a workout early on Thursday, May 18, 2017, on Newport Bay in Newport Beach, as they prepare for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Members of the Orange Coast College men’s crew carry a boat from the boathouse early morning on Thursday, May 18, 2017 in Newport Beach, as they prepare for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
One of four eight-man boats of the Orange Coast College men’s crew make their way past the Balboa Pavilion in Newport Beach on Thursday, May 18, 2017, during an early morning workout on Newport Bay as they prepare for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
One of four eight-man boats of the Orange Coast College men’s crew workout early on Thursday, May 18, 2017, in Newport Bay in Newport Beach, as they prepare for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
An oar hits the glass-like water as the Orange Coast College men’s crew team works out early on Thursday, May 18, 2017, in Newport Bay in Newport Beach, as they prepare for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
One of four eight-man boats of the Orange Coast College men’s crew workout early on Thursday, May 18, 2017, on Newport Bay in Newport Beach, as they prepare for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Members of one of the eight-man boats of the Orange Coast College men’s crew take a break after rowing 2000 meters during an early morning workout on Thursday, May 18, 2017, in Newport Bay in Newport Beach. The team is preparing for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Members of the Orange Coast College men’s crew stretch outside the boathouse in Newport Beach, early on Thursday, May 18, 2017, prior to the morning workout in Newport Bay as they prepare for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Orange Coast College men’s crew head coach Cameron Brown speaks to the team during a workout early on Thursday, May 18, 2017, on Newport Bay in Newport Beach, as they prepare for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Orange Coast College men’s crew head coach Cameron Brown speaks to the team outside the boathouse in Newport Beach, early on Thursday, May 18, 2017, in Newport Bay as they prepare for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Members of the Orange Coast College men’s crew stretch outside the boathouse in Newport Beach, early on Thursday, May 18, 2017, prior to the morning workout in Newport Bay as they prepare for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Orange Coast College men’s crew head coach Cameron Brown, top center, speaks to the team outside the boathouse in Newport Beach, early on Thursday, May 18, 2017. The team is preparing for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The Orange Coast College men’s crew workout early on Thursday, May 18, 2017, in Newport Bay in Newport Beach, as they prepare for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Orange Coast College men’s crew assistant coach Steve Morris, left, speaks to members of the Orange Coast College men’s crew during a workout early on Thursday, May 18, 2017, in Newport Bay in Newport Beach, as they prepare for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The early morning sun glistens off the water as the Orange Coast College men’s crew works out on Thursday, May 18, 2017, in Newport Bay in Newport Beach. The team is preparing for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
One of four eight-man boats of the Orange Coast College men’s crew works out early on Thursday, May 18, 2017, on Newport Bay in Newport Beach, as they prepare for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Members of the Orange Coast College men’s crew wash off their boat outside the boathouse early on Thursday, May 18, 2017 in Newport Beach, following a morning workout in Newport Bay. The team is preparing for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Members of the Orange Coast College men’s crew carry their boat and oars to the boathouse in Newport Beach early on Thursday, May 18, 2017, following a morning workout in Newport Bay. The team is preparing for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Members of the Orange Coast College men’s crew wash off their oars outside the boathouse early on Thursday, May 18, 2017 in Newport Beach, following a morning workout on Newport Bay. The team is preparing for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Orange Coast College men’s crew assistant coach Steve Morris, left, speaks to members of the Orange Coast College men’s crew in the boathouse in Newport Beach following a workout early on Thursday, May 18, 2017, in Newport Bay. The team prepares for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Members of the Orange Coast College men’s crew carry their boat to the boathouse in Newport Beach early on Thursday, May 18, 2017, following a morning workout in Newport Bay. The team is preparing for the 2017 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta held on May 27th & 28th in Gainesville, GA. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Skin glistens with sweat, muscles ache, lungs scream as eight oars catch liquid in Newport Harbor and a 60-foot yellow needle cuts through water at 25 miles an hour.

One of the Orange Coast College students in the carbon fiber boat is so pumped with adrenaline he screams, “2017 Nationals, yeah!”

Rowing — one of the few purely amateur sports left — is a ballet of power, grace, unity. It is said that nine human hearts beat as one, that rowing touches the divine.

Yet as the little-known yet legendary OCC rowing team leaves Orange County today, May 25, for the Nationals at Lake Ranier, Ga., the student’s shout-out also embodies the innate competitive spirit that helps move humanity forward.

Daniel Amado is 22 years old and the captain of the novice team. A Los Alamitos High School graduate, he rowed in high school before breaking a disk in his back and only this year was able to return to the sport he loves.

“Rowing makes you strong enough to bounce back,” Amado reports, adding in a few years he hopes to join the team at powerhouse University of Washington. “It teaches you physical and mental skills that allow you to overcome anything.”

Catching fire

It is 5:30 a.m. and Steve Morris, men’s assistant coach, climbs into his car for the long drive from Rancho Santa Margarita to Newport Harbor. While attentive, he is practically on autopilot.

He’s driven this route for years, usually six days a week from August through May. Practice starts at 6:30 sharp. But Morris arrives early. Always. He was head coach during much of the 1990s. But his day job, his wife, his four children needed more of his time.

Now, Morris is back with the OCC rowing team thanks to a kind and thoughtful compromise with family. Like many who row, the sport is in his bones as well as in his heart.

“It’s the aesthetic,” Morris explains about the beauty and the art of rowing. “On a nice, calm morning the boats glide along, each person doing the exact same thing at the exact same time.

“If they’re off even by a hair, it disrupts the rhythm.”

Five-foot-seven and lithe, Morris served as coxswain when he was a student at OCC. Understand, coxswains are considered the brain of the brawn that mans the oars. Sitting snug in the rear of the boat, coxswains yell commands to rowers, drowning out wind and sculling noise.

Even when Morris isn’t with the sport, the sport is with him.

When he and his wife went on vacation a few years ago, Morris managed to find a live streaming online feed of a key OCC race. In the 1980s when he was a student, he learned from head coach and then-OCC president Dave Grant. Morris calls Grant the John Wooden of rowing.

Walking into the OCC boathouse, also known as the David A. Grant Collegiate Rowing Center, in Newport Harbor is like walking into history.

Gleaming boats are neatly stacked, several costing as much as $55,000. Red and white national title flags hang on the walls; photos of previous teams march back in time.

Since its birth more than 60 years ago — and in rowing having a history matters — the school has captured 11 national titles. The latest was just last year.

The school has seen 10 of its students go on to compete in world championships and the Olympics.

Yes, OCC rowing is serious sport at an elite level. Yet many on the team never pulled an oar before starting community college, and that is something that makes the coaches especially proud.

“OCC was the springboard I needed,” reports Stanford University Men’s Head Coach Craig Amerkhanian, “to get to the next level, academically, athletically and professionally.”

Cameron Brown, the current men’s coach recruited from four-year Oklahoma City University, says, “You’ve got eight moving parts and everyone has to work together. It’s not just the physical development, but the mental maturation as well.”

Brown allows that some team members struggled in high school and then caught fire at OCC because of the discipline and friendships forged from rowing.

Over the years, team members have gone on to UC Berkeley, University of Washington, Stanford. Last year, one student even received a rowing scholarship to Boston University.

But make no mistake: There’s reason why rowers call their passion “brutal.”

At the start of a typical school year, about 80 male students sign up for crew; it’s about half that for the women’s team. With up to 20 hours a week devoted to training and blisters turned to calluses, by the end of the season about half the men have dropped away.

As students carry four boats to the dock, Brown watches and explains the quality of the boats sends a clear message.

“We have high expectations.”

Taking on giants

Four slivers of yellow glide along the surface of Newport Harbor. In perfect harmony, oars dip into ocean and morning sun transforms ripples into flashing diamonds below a cerulean sky.

“There’s no better way to start the day,” Brown says, smiling. “It’s good for the soul.”

From shore, it is a painting in motion born from the River Thames. Serine. Delicate. Pure.

But the scene is far different aboard the boats. Coxswains holler. Backs strain in the heat. Thighs ache. Lactic acid skyrockets.

“You look pretty good, but a little apprehensive,” Brown shouts through an old-school megaphone. “Stay loose. Let’s play it smart and not just trip it and rip it.”

In the heat of battle, oar strokes increase from 37 a minute to 40, then 45, then 47.

“It’s looking clunky,” Brown shouts. “We can’t force it. We have to caress it.”

This weekend, OCC will go against nearly 40 schools. The four-year universities will have teams that have trained twice as long as the community college, students several years older.

In the main event, boats will cover 2,000 meters in about six minutes. Some men will collapse as they cross the finish line only because they gave it their all.

John Kinnear is that kind of guy.

The 19-year-old OCC varsity rower and “outstanding oarsman of the year” welcomes the challenge of taking on the bigger schools. In fact, the chance to go against four-year universities is exactly what drew Kinnear to try a sport that he knew nothing about.

“Being in the boat forces your body to go to a certain level you don’t experience in other sports,” Kinnear tells me after practice. But it’s not just about him, says the student who plans to continue rowing next year while at UCLA.

“There’s a greater sense of satisfaction when you win a race with teamwork.”

With young men like Kinnear and Amado in the boats, there’s good reason to hope — no, believe — that after this weekend four-year university teams will once again call the two-year college by its nickname.

“Giant Killer.”

Orange Coast College rowers have the muscle and mindset to win nationals

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