April 27, 2005

We caught up with light-weight crew team captain James O'Gara for this week's Hoya Headliner. We discussed his major role on the team, his life at and before Georgetown, and his amazing achievements on the crew team, such as placing in the top 3 at the National Competitions 2 years in a row. Now, O'Gara is hoping to lead his light-weight team to their highest achievement ever: a gold medal at Nationals this June.

Interview by Brittney Pepper, Sports Information Student Assistant

Brittney Pepper: How do you view your leadership position on the team?

James O'Gara: I like to think the job of a leader is someone who can lead by example. That's important in rowing because it takes a lot of commitment and a consistent effort. It's someone who is always down at the boathouse who's working very hard and who can set the tone for the rest of the team so they have an example to follow. I think all of the seniors on our team try and do that and that is part of the role as a senior and my role as a captain.

BP: What originally brought you to Georgetown?

JO: I loved the Georgetown area. I liked the D.C. area. I lived in Northern Virginia for a few years before I applied here so I kind of knew the area, but I didn't really know the D.C. that well and coming to Georgetown I liked the area and also I was attracted to the rowing. I was recruited. I rowed in high school and I wanted to be part of the lightweight program here.

BP: What's the difference between rowing in high school and rowing here?

JO: There are a lot of differences. High school rowing is not a varsity sport in any high school in Northern Virginia, other than the private schools. So we do all of our own fundraising. We buy our own boats and this is an expensive sport. A rowing eight is $30,000 and an oar is $400 each, and getting to and from the boathouse and renting space is expensive. We did all of our own fundraising. I was captain of my team and also president of the crew club so I was in charge of organizing all of that and getting the team running. Whereas here at Georgetown, we get a lot of support from the university and the crew office and especially from the alums who've been really great with donating the equipment and really supporting us in a lot of ways. So it's a more supportive environment and a more structured environment.

BP: What is your major and how did you come to that decision?

JO: I'm a finance and international business major in the business school. I've always been kind of interested in finance. I'm more of a math/ science person than I am an English person. My dad is an economist. He worked for the U.N. and the world bank for a while so I've kind of been interested in international finance and international trade through him while I was going to high school and so I decided to apply to the business school here. I knew I wanted to do business and so the idea of an undergraduate business school was attractive to me. Once I've been in the business school for a couple of years, I liked my finance classes; I liked my subjects so I decided to major in finance. I lived all over the world when I was younger. I'm actually Irish by birth and I've lived in Kenya, Mozambique, the Philippines, and so I kind of have an international experience and international business is the kind of work my dad did so that was interesting to me.

BP: Which was your favorite place to live?

JO: Probably Kenya. I lived there between the ages of eight and ten and a half. For someone that age, Africa seems so magical. We'd go on safaris. I went to a great British school there and there were a lot of kids from all over the world that you got to interact with. In my class there would be 26 kids and 20 different nationalities represented so I got to meet a lot of very cool and interesting people and just the sights in Africa were amazing.

BP: What are your plans after you graduate from Georgetown?

JO: Next year I'll be working for UBS Investment Bank in Manhattan, New York. It's like the analyst program from there for 3 years of my life. Basically I won't see the light of day, but after that hopefully I'll have some more options.

BP: When does that start for you?

JO: It starts in July so I'll have a bout a month off after the season ends.

BP: What do you do in the off-season?

JO: We race in the fall and the spring, but the spring is our main racing season and the National Championships, The IRA Regatta, is the first week of June. So over the winter when we can't get into the water because the river's frozen or it's too cold, we train indoors on the rowing machines called ergometers, or ergs. They're a real pain, but we train on them, we lift weights and do other things. That's everyday over the winter. It's pretty consistent. In the summers in the past. I've rowed for a rowing club here in D.C. called the Potomac Boat Club. It's right next to Key Bridge. A lot of the Georgetown lightweights will join a boat club over the summer and row for them for the summer, just to keep in shape and keep racing.

BP: What was your best athletic achievement while at Georgetown?

JO: I think the best would probably be last year when we came in second at the National Championships. That was Georgetown's highest ever finish at the Championships. The year before we won bronze. We came in third and that was Georgetown's first medal. Winning the first medal my sophomore year was great because it was kind of a landmark achievement. Then this last year it was great, but we also weren't quite satisfied with silver because we were going for gold. Throughout the season we'd done well and we knew we had the chance to compete for the National Championships. We led the race until we had 500 meters to go in a 2,000 meter race and we led up until that 3 quarters of the way through and then the Naval Academy got through us and picked up the gold. It was a little disappointing, but still I would have to say it was the highest achievement I've had so far.

BP: You've come in 3rd place at Nationals two years ago and 2nd place last year. How do you think you will do this year?

JO: It's pretty straight-forward. We're going for gold this year. We returned 6 out of the 8 rowers who were in the boat last year as well as our coxswain so we have the core of the boat still there and we have some really, quite talented sophomores who have come up from the freshman team and they have to row as a freshman their first year then they can join the varsity or sophomore team. We have talented sophomores who are in the boat right now and they're doing really well so hopefully we can have some success this year and by the time Nationals come around we'll be ready to go for the gold.

BP: What do you like most about Georgetown ?

JO: I worked as a tour guide so I used to get asked this question a lot and never really knew the answer. I really like the area. I like living in the Georgetown area and being able to see the sights in D.C. and be in a big city. Also, I love the people I've met here at Georgetown. I often tell people that Georgetown's greatest resource is the people here. It's kind of a cliché, but I really think it's true. My professors have all been great in all my classes, the guys on the team are amazing. They are very talented athletes as well as great guys to hang out with. So there are a couple of different things I like about it. I don't know if I can pinpoint one.

BP: Do you have any regrets about anything athletically or academically?

JO: Athletically, I'm going to have to say the Nationals last year. We came off the water a little disappointed. I think we knew we did everything we could, but still to get that close and to come up short. It kind of makes you think about what you could have done differently throughout the whole season, not just in that race. Maybe a few little changes might have given you that extra. We lost that race by about 3 seconds in the end. Something might have given you that little edge. So that's probably my biggest regret athletically. Academically there aren't too many regrets. Freshman year was a little spotty. It took a little while to get adjusted to college life, but I've been doing comfortably ever since. So I wouldn't say I had any major regrets

BP: How do you balance your schoolwork, athletics, and a social life?

JO: That can be tough sometimes. We do practice in the mornings at 6:30 at the boathouse so it's not as if you have other things scheduled at that time. You pay the price as far as how early you need to go to bed and how tired you are during the day. Most days in the fall and the winter most guys in the varsity boat will go down and do a second workout in the afternoons. Sometimes we'll organize that ourselves or guys will just do it by themselves just to work on their fitness. So when we're training hard we're training up to 10 or 12 times a week and it can get pretty tough. But I find just making sure that I'm on top of all my class work, getting things done well in advance, and just spending my time wisely, not messing around. If I allocate two hours to studying, make sure I get something accomplished in that time.

BP: Do you have any advice for younger crew team members or anyone person on a crew team trying to get to a collegiate level ?

JO: Never accept that you can't be good if you don't work hard enough. Crew is a sport that is about 95% effort and 5% talent. We have a lot of guys on the team that were recruited. They rowed in high school; they've done well. Then we have half the boat that were just guys who came to Georgetown with no experience and in two to three years were able to become good enough rowers to make the varsity boat and compete with the guys who were recruited. It's just about consistent effort, especially with lightweight rowing you've got the weight limit so you're limited to guys who are 165lbs or lower. There are so many guys around here that are 6ft tall about 165lbs and that's kind of the ideal lightweight rower physique. I would say to them: make sure you realize that crew is a sport that anybody can excel in as long as they are willing to put in the effort. It's not a sport where you need to be born talented to play. It's not like basketball. My old coach used to always compare rowing and basketball. In basketball some guys just have it the moment they step out on the court. In rowing, you have to work harder than the next guy and that's the way you're going to beat them. So it's tough but it also means that anyone can achieve whatever they want in rowing, you just have to work hard.