I'm not gonna re-post the video here.  By now everyone has seen or heard "don't hit the post, Lopa." That happened a little over a year ago, at spring break.

But since then, Lopa has been the consummate teammate.  Open with her coaches about her anxieties and riding the launch non stop through the fall to better learn her craft, Lopa refused to hide, refused to quit and worked to get better.  She talked with Steph and Sarah about coxing.  She talked to me and Rodd.  She studied.

When Sarah's shoulder failed her again at spring break this year, Lopa was there.  She had come to spring break with no expectation of getting a boat.  To repeat: she didn't expect to get a boat this spring but came to training anyway, giving up her vacation to get better.  I'll admit I was a little worried and I know she was too, returning to the scene of the accident from a year before.

And she did great.  It became less and less necessary to direct her steering during practices.  She found me before every row to go over what we were trying to accomplish each session.  She earned my trust and the trust of her crew.

In another wonderful team-first attitude, Allison scheduled her surgery the earliest she could and even got an airplane ticket halfway through spring break so she could attend as many practices as possible.  She could have stayed home, but she wanted to row with her boat.  When we had to turn that boat around to get Allison on the dock in time for her flight, Rodd and I trusted Lopa without hesitation to get the crew back from the bridge alone.

Lopa coxed a lightweight 4 at FIRA that had never practiced together.  It was a second (or third) entry for everyone in that crew.  Lopa got the crew on the start without drama, kept a great point into a strong crosswind and got them off the line in good order.  I had the great opportunity to follow that event in my car and watched as they put on a beautiful race.  From 3/4 of a length down at the 700m mark, the lightweights stopped the other crew's momentum, walked back through and broke them at the 1500.  A race like that takes all five people in the crew, because the athletes must believe the cox and the cox must trust the athletes.  If that bond isn't there, that crew falls apart when the opposition gets that far ahead.

They threw her in.  It was perfect.  It was redemption.