University of Tennessee Athletics
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October 31, 1999 | Rowing
Facility
The New Boathouse
A new era in Tennessee Rowing dawned with the ground-breaking of a 2.5 million-dollar boathouse on the Knoxville waterfront on Sept. 30, 1999. The three-story building is now the permanent home of the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteer Rowing Team.
The facility which is located where the railroad tracks cross Neyland Drive, serves as the west end anchor of Knoxville's Volunteer Landing pavilion. The boathouse has a similar design to the Volunteer Landing pavilion, jettisons 40 feet out onto Fort Loudon Lake, and has balconies overlooking the waterway. The structure stands beside the "Vol Navy" docks.
The ground floor of the 18,000-square-foot boathouse serves as the team boat bay, where training and racing boats and oars are stored and maintained. The second floor is comprised of an ergo meter training area, locker and shower rooms, team meeting room and coaches' office.
Approaching the facility from Neyland Drive brings the boathouse visitor past the coaches' parking area and to the west entrance of the building. A walk through the ground floor takes you past about eighteen 2-, 5-, and 9-person boats, coaches' equipment, tools, coxswains equipment, and 80 12-foot hanging oars. Between rows of neatly arranged equipment, the Tennessee River can be viewed through numerous windows spanning the entire south wall. When the team is ready to get "hands on", telescoping arms extend from boat racks and a racing shell is removed from its' holding place.
The crew carries its boat out of the boat bay onto the east deck platform before proceeding down a concrete ramp to the floating dock. The east deck platform serves as a lay-down space for rowing shells, meeting place for athletes, and a gathering spot for visiting teams. This platform is overlooked by balconies on the second and third floors. The 160-foot floating dock will be a constant reminder of the journey this program has taken as part of the dock consists of the same floating platform the rowers used at their old home - the Knoxville Glove Factory. Unlike their old docks at the Glove Factory, the Big Orange will have enough space to launch three different boats at once.
Staff members exit the building and turn right to access one of four coaching boats stored on a motorized ramp. After instructing their student-athletes, coaches Glenn, Manternach and Hadley drive their boats to the area directly under the lower level and onto the ramp. The ramp is then raised out of the water by remote control.
Retracing the athletes' and coaches' steps will lead to two staircases, both of which lead to the same place - the new residence of the Tennessee rowing team. The 6,000 square-foot second level of the boathouse begins with a walk down the SEC Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll hallway - nearly filled already with the names of rowing recipients from only the last two years. The hallway leads to the athletes' workout room, which is comprised of wall-to-wall rowing ergo meters neatly arranged in front of a four-foot high mirror and also spanning the whole side of the room. Windows are located overlooking the river above the mirrors span the entire length of the building and provide motivation to the rowers as they train. Hanging on the walls are awards various rowers have won, ranging from academic accolades to hardest worker and athletic achievements awards.
Arranged around the perimeter of the workout area are the coaches' office, managers' office (complete with training and competition apparel and washers and dryers), athletic trainers' consultation room, team locker room, as well as showers and restrooms.
After working up a sweat simulating the action on the water, rowers can walk behind the awards wall and use the locker room and shower area to get ready to tackle the rest of the day. Many of the rowers will scurry down the stairs and head up the hill to class, while others will walk across the balcony to watch the end of the sunrise and head into the team room.
When entering the team meeting room, rowers can stop at the kitchen to get some water or ice. Like most of the other rooms in the boathouse, the team meeting room is wall-to-wall windows. There are 10 tables with chairs; five high and five low tables. For a more relaxed setting, the athletes can cross the room to one of several oscillating rocking chairs that encircle a coffee table with a glass top and serving tray. For some student-athletes, the primary purpose of relaxing in these chairs that mimic the motion on the water is to study, while for others it may be to set their gaze upon the 48-inch Philips Flat Screen television with surround sound, DirecTV connection and a VCR.
Often, Coach Glenn will rally the troops into the team room for dinner before they gather to review video from training or racing. As the session ends, those who watched the sun rise may also watch it set from the balcony on the west side of the building. The team room is not only for members of the rowing team, as an individual or group can rent out the room for private functions such as dinners and fund raisers. The facility also includes the River Club, open to those with private memberships. One the third floor, the Tennessee Grill restaurant is open to the public except for special event days such as UT football games.
Although the team will inhabit their new home for nearly four months, the facility will not be christened until the weekend of March 17, when the Notre Dame Fighting Irish come to town to race Tennessee in a dual meet. This dual marks the first time UT hosts a race on its own water. The Orange and White have often traveled to Oak Ridge to compete in head-to-head races, but during this weekend, members of the rowing team will walk down the hill to enter their home. This time they won't have to load the trailer and ride in a bus to the course. Instead, they can eat a hot meal from the kitchen, change in the locker room, jog downstairs, and get "hands on!"
As those first couple of boats cross under Henley Street Bridge and the rowers hear that sea of Orange calling their names and cheering them on, they will experience a feeling they have never felt before - "home water advantage."
"The boathouse makes a tremendous difference for us," stated Glenn. "We can now set the tone just how we need it to be every day at practice. The athletes have realized that the facility is theirs and they will feel that they have a much stronger presence in the athletic department and in Knoxville that they have ever felt before."
This is what head coach Lisa Glenn envisioned in September of 1999 when the first shovel was driven into the ground on the north side of the Tennessee River. Now over a year later, Glenn and the team have a place marking the arrival of the rowing team in Knoxville. It stands three stories high, and is a beacon of the progress that the rowing team has made at Tennessee.
