Girls Crew Co-Captain Willow Wright ’26 began her rowing journey in the spring of eighth grade and first joined the team with little experience. In the past four years, through Crew, she has grown not only as a rower but as a leader and teammate. As Co-Captain, Wright leads the team with ambition and positivity.
Wright said the most rewarding part of the season has been watching novice rowers, many of whom are new to the sport, grow quickly and compete within just a few weeks.
“Taking each racing opportunity, whether that’s a day in practice where we’re competing on a piece or it’s an actual race, is an opportunity for us to grow. What’s really cool about rowing is that lots of people have no experience with the sport before they come to Andover. It’s really fun to get to watch these people grow over the course of the season. It’s only been three weeks, but we had novice rowers racing in our race yesterday and they did amazing,” said Wright.
Wright explained that, unlike other sports, Crew evaluates individuals’ periodic erg tests to determine rankings, a system that she has found mentally challenging. She added that learning to manage that pressure has been a key part of her growth.
“We have ‘tryouts’ every few weeks where we do a test on the rowing machine, and dealing with that is something that has always been difficult for me because I put a lot of pressure on myself for it, and it can be very mentally challenging to do something like that and just see the numbers on your screen that reflect you and only you, unlike when you’re in the boat, [when] it’s your whole team. That’s something that I’ve had to grow with over the course of my Andover Crew career, and definitely this year as well because we’ve upped the distance for those test pieces,” said Wright.
Sarah Sun ’29 described Wright as bringing spirit to both daily practices and meets, creating a supportive and uplifting atmosphere.
“Willow is a very positive leader. She always brings the vibes and she always brings her music as well as her words of encouragement. Crew is a team sport, [and] if you miss one person on the boat, then you can’t row at all. She’s very encouraging, because not everyone always feels their best when they’re at practice or if they’re at meets, but she’s always bringing words of advice, and she always says [that] even if you don’t do well as long as you try hard, that’s the most important part,” said Sun.
Nishi Amin ’28 also pointed to Wright’s constant encouragement.
“[Willow is] always willing to talk about anything with you, and she’s constantly hyping the entire team up, so it feels great to be around her. Before any erg test or big races that we have, she’s always texting us in the group chat, making us feel ready, and making sure that all of us feel confident before practice or before big races,” said Amin.
Sun said Wright teaches the team to stay disciplined and maintain team spirit even when conditions aren’t optimal.
“[Willow] taught us that crew isn’t just about what goes on in the boat. It’s also about what you do outside of the water because the weather is not always great and we can’t always go on the water all the time, but that shouldn’t lower our spirits because we can do everything we need to do to get better on land as well as just working on our team spirit,” said Sun.
