Fort Mill High senior hopes to row her way to college

Some athletes are better doing their work in the water. Sam Palmer does her best work on top of it.

Palmer, 17, is a senior at Fort Mill High and a member of the Charlotte Youth Rowing and is looking to row her way into a college scholarship. A two-day camp at Camp Thunderbird was all it took to get her hooked on the sport when she was in middle school. Palmer has been rowing ever since.

“Rowing is a fun sport,” she said. “It’s a water sport, but you don’t have to get wet. You get to be on the lake and be in nature.”

A competative swimmer from first to seventh grade, Palmer gave that up once she discovered rowing. As part of the Charlotte Youth Rowing team, she is competes August through November, 5,000 meters in the fall season and 2,000 meters in the spring, which for rowing season is March through May. Last year, her team missed the national championships by one spot after finishing fourth at the Southeast regional against teams from both North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Florida.

When it comes to rowing, there are two types to participate in – sculling and sweeping. Sweeping uses one oar, which is what most college teams participate in, and then sculling, which is two oars. The Charlotte Youth Rowing team, which is based out of the Siskey YMCA in Matthews, N.C., participates in regattas all across the Southeast. Clemson is the closest to home for a regatta.

The team practices at the Catawba Yacht Club on Lake Wylie. Working toward a scholarship should not seem an unreasonable goal. The program has sent kids on to row as scholarship athletes at the University of North Carolina, Duke University, Clemson University and Dartmouth University. Palmer said she is looking at Clemson, North Carolina and West Virginia University and plans on majoring in biology or genetics.

Palmer said she enjoys both the eight-person and four-person teams.

“I think it’s really cool when eight people can come together and move together,” she said. “But I really like our four-person boat.”

One common misconception Palmer said others have about the sport is coparing it to canoeing or kayaking.

“It is nothing like (those),” she said.

Palmer said unlike kayaking or canoeing, rowing uses all of the muscle groups.

“It works your entire body,” she said.

Mac Banks:mbanks@comporium.net, @MacBanksFM

This story was originally published August 22, 2017 at 4:54 PM with the headline "Fort Mill High senior hopes to row her way to college."