By Terry Mosher
Editor, Sports Paper
Crew coaches from around the country are more and more finding their way to Bainbridge Island to gather up the increasingly talented junior rowers from Bainbridge High School, and one those coaches has scooped up Hanna Christoffersen.
Starting this fall, Christoffersen, a senior at Bainbridge, will row for Georgetown freshman coach Stephen Full, who is on the staff of head coach Miranda Paris. It wasn’t like Full came west to recruit Christoffersen. It was the reverse, with Christoffersen recruiting Georgetown and Full.
Christoffersen, daughter of Peter and Diana Christoffersen carries a 3.93 grade-point average and went looking for a school that had the ability to give her a good education so she can land a career in the Foreign Service. She went college shopping at schools like Tufts, University of San Diego, Chapman in Los Angeles, Boston College and, of course, Georgetown.
She was particularly interested in Georgetown because it has good academics and is in the heart of Washington, D.C. where the political head of the world resides. And it has a good rowing program.
“I wrote the coach (Full) and sent m rowing statistics and video for the race last spring when I was on in the women’s varsity four that took seventh at nationals,” says Christoffersen.
While she visited 15 schools, Georgetown was her first choice, so she kept at the recruiting process and finally it all clicked.
“I kept (Full) informed how I was doing and how my team was doing and my persistence really paid off and he offered me a spot on the team,” Christoffersen said. “I really also like him and the head coach, Miranda Parris. I really like what they have done and the direction they are trying to take the team.”
What got Christoffersen interested in government work was the AP government class she took last year. And now she is leaning toward studying international economics or international politics with the idea of going into the Foreign Service.
Christoffersen came to Bainbridge Island from Issaquah in the seventh grade and also immediately joined Bainbridge Island Rowing. You have to be disciplined and focused to row with a club like Bainbridge. It takes a lot of practice time, so it’s not a place for the carefree.
“She’s a real solid student, and one of those people who has worked very hard to achieve her level of athleticism,” says Barb Trafton, the coach of the Junior Women’s varsity eight that took second at the Northwest Junior Regional Championships on Vancouver Lake to qualify for the US Rowing Junior National Championships to be held in Oak Ridge, Tenn. June 7-9. “Some people are born with that athleticism. She has a high degree of discipline and dedication and has worked hard over the years.”
It might be that rowing is in Christoffersen’s genes. Her dad rowed at Lakeside in Seattle and gave his daughter encouragement at an early age.
“I love the water,” says Christoffersen. “I don’t know why; I just been fascinated with it, and what is underneath it. I like the fishing, and the water is just so complex, it always captured my attention.”
She got started on top of the water when she was very little through the use of a family kayak and then five years ago she started rowing with BIR. The rest is history, although that history is full of three hours of practice rowing after school and then weekend workouts penciled in, plus the weekends when the club is rowing in a regatta somewhere.
“Rowing pretty much takes up all of my time,” says Christoffersen, who rows through the three different rowing seasons – spring, summer and fall.
The 8-boat seats all serve a purpose. Christoffersen sits in seat No. 4, which is part of what is known as the engine room. There are four seats in the engine room – seats 3, 4, 5, and 6.
“They are the strongest people, so you just kind of crank on it,” says Christoffersen.
Rowing is slowly spreading as a college sport. It started with the Ivy Leagues way back when and the East Coast is littered with schools that have a crew team. Washington, California and Stanford are the big powers on the West Coast. In D-2, Western Washington has gained some fame. It will have a boat at nationals this year. For the 11th consecutive year, having won titles in six of the last seven years.
Bainbridge freshman Olivia Gangmark-Strickland rows in Western’s women’s varsity eight boat.
What is most remarkable is that all the seniors on the Bainbridge junior women’s eight boat are going to row in college, including of course Christoffersen. Isabelle Staff will be at UCLA, coxswain Maia McNett at University of San Diego, Ena Nimb at Northeastern (Boston) and, believe it or not, two will be rowing at SMU in Texas. That would be Katrina Kerrigan and Sydney Seversen.
It is less remarkable knowing the women’s eight is coached by Trafton, who rowed at Princeton and finished second in single scull at the 1984 World Championships, and that her husband Bruce Beall, the junior men’s coach, rowed for the U.S. in the Olympic Games and is in the Washington Husky Hall of Fame for his rowing endeavors.
With such prime time coaches, no wonder Christoffersen and the others are headed off to college to row.
The Bainbridge Island Rowing rew will send not only the eight-boat to nationals, but also the men’s junior lightweight four. Donations are being accepted to cover expenses for the trip by mail to the Bainbridge Island Rowing, 221 Winslow Way West, #204, Bainbridge Island, WA. 98110 or at info@Bainbridgerowing.org. For more information contact Lynn Chun at (206) 780-9931.