When Erin Kirby moved from Florida to Nutley right before the start of high school she was disappointed to discover that her new school didn’t have a swim team. The realization left her looking for a new sport.
“It just ended up not working out to continue my swimming, so I was like ‘What am I going to do?’” recalled Kirby. “I did cross country and then, in the winter, my mom was like ‘Erin, they’re doing tryouts for the crew team at Nutley High. I had a roommate in college, who was really tall and on the rowing team. You’re tall so you should try out.”
Five years later, Kirby, now a freshman at the University of Texas, is a national champion.
On May 31, her Longhorns team won its fourth NCAA Championship in women’s rowing in the last six years, winning two of the three races and finishing with a school record 130 total points at Lake Lanier Olympic Park in Gainesville, GA.
“Winning in your first year is an awesome achievement. It was honestly surreal,” Kirby said. “It also was like okay, now I have three more years and I think it shows what needs to be done and what we’re capable of doing and how we can do this every year and get even better.”
WIth lineups reduced, Kirby did not row in any of three events during the NCAA Championships, but was one of three spares for Texas.
“In the moment (when we won the NCAA Championships) when I watched our first varsity eight break a world record on the course for the fastest 2,000 meters I’m on land I was like I want to do that next year,” said Kirby, a 5-foot-11 Portside Rower. “This is something that can inspire me. This is a new goal to be attained. It’s awesome to see what they are doing under pressure and how much I want to be a part of that next year in a boat instead of being spares on the sidelines.”
During the season, in meets that had larger lineups, Kirby did compete after recovering from a rib injury that sidelined her for three months. In the SEC Championships where she was a part of II Four lineup that finished second on May 10 in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Overall, Kirby believes she improved significantly her freshman year, thanks in large part to the competitive practices that are the result of a 60-plus woman roster that includes several Olympic rowers.
“There’s always something in the back of mind where I need to do this much better because someone else is rowing by me in another boat or I’m racing them in practice,” Kirby said. “I think as a team and as a collective, we make each other better.”
“The pressure is on. Olympians and world champions are next to me. Whether that’s in our (practice) room or in front of me or behind me in the boat.”
Such a scenario might have seemed impossible when Kirby first started rowing five years ago, even if it didn’t take long for Kirby to realize she had a bright future in the sport.
As a freshman at Nutley, she broke into the senior four, rowing alongside three seniors. As a sophomore, Kirby rowed a 2K in less than eight minutes. It was then when she realized she had a big future in the sport and started rowing with a club team called Nereid B.C., which is based out of Rutherford, instead of Nutley High School.
“In the fall season with Nutley of my junior year is when I started talking to colleges. I’m emailing these colleges and I’m like, I need to be faster, I need to be as good as the next girl,” said Kirby. “The only way I’m going to be able to do that is to be on a team surrounded by other fast people.”
Before returning to Texas in August, Kirby is planning to compete with one of her Longhorn teammates at the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, which is from August 4-9 in St. Catharines, Ontario.
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Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)