Beginning her crew career during Junior Spring at Andover, Crew Co-Captain Emily Turnbull ʼ24 has grown to become an integral part of the team, both athletically and as a leader. Through discipline and dedication, Turnbull has guided her teammates to be the best in the boat.
When reflecting on her style of leadership, Turnbull expressed her aspirations to follow in her past mentors footsteps by leading with action. She hopes to inspire the people around her to rise up as athletes.
“The way that I got better at rowing was rowing with girls who were significantly better than I was at the time and seeing how hard they worked and how they pushed themselves as well as their technique and their habits… I hope that I can fill a similar role for the other girls and be somebody who they can say, ‘Oh, Emily’s going to the gym this morning. I’m gonna go with her,’ or ‘Emily is doing this extra workout. I want to work hard. I want to do that, too,’” said Turnbull.
Co-Captain Whitney Kanter ’24 echoed Turnbull’s point in showing how her talent leads the team by example. Through hard work and dedication, the place that she has gotten in rowing today is inspiring to those around her.
“She’s so fast, and a lot of people look up to her for that and admire her work ethic in getting there. She really just sets this great example for how dedication and good relentless, enthusiastic energy can pay off,” said Kanter.
Kanter continued on to describe the model that Turnbull sets for the team as a serious athlete, prompting others to work hard as well so the whole team can get better together.
“She’s so dedicated to the sport and so focused about her own goals and her goals for the team. She sets pretty high standards but she’s very, very motivated to follow through on those. She’s also very supportive of pushing other people in healthy ways to also meet their goals, which is great,” said Kanter.
With the girls team having over 60 members, filling around six to seven different boats, Turnbull highlighted the importance of creating community across skill-levels.
“[The team] is differentiated by boats, so you spend the most time practicing with the eight other girls in your boat, but we warm up together, we do core all after practice together, we do captain’s practices in the morning all together. I hope those pockets of community can unite us as one team even though we practice and race separately,” said Turnbull.
Willow Wright ’26 echoed Turnbull’s sentiment, highlighting her efforts to uphold team traditions and bring the athletes together.
Wright said, “When we do our warm-up we always do jumping jacks and we count down from ten to one, and one of the best parts is when we get to the bottom we all just scream and I think her enthusiasm and her activeness in the team is really shone through that because she’s very passionate and her scream is very loud. She gets everybody going, she gets everybody excited to be there and I think by keeping these things and continuing what’s been done before she really pulls the team together.”
Even in times of struggle, Wright highlighted Turnbull’s ability to uplift those around her. Especially in a sport that can be mentally taxing, she serves as an encouraging figure for teammates.
“Especially with… a lot of [crew] [being] based on your own personal times as well as what you do on the water, her being someone to talk to and her telling you that ‘it’s not as important as it seems,’ and ‘there’s always going to be another time trial, there’s always going to be another to time to prove yourself, it’s gonna be okay.’ I think her talking about that and her knowledge of the sport is really good and it makes you feel like ‘okay, that wasn’t that good but I can move up from here and it’s gonna be okay,’” said Wright.
Reflecting on her time at Andover leading up to her final season, Turnbull expressed the reasons why she loves the sport. For her, Andover Crew is about the combination of the people around her and the empowerment she feels when she steps foot in the boat.
Turnbull said, “I row because of my teammates and my coaches, these are some of my closest friends and the adults that have supported me the most on campus. I’ve learned so much from them, and I like spending time with them and learning how to be a better athlete and a better person and a better teammate from them. I row because I feel the most powerful and the most free when I’m in the boat… It’s a really magical feeling when the boat is in perfect sync and everybody is just moving as a unit and that’s really cool.”
Turnbull plans to continue her crew career at Yale next year.
