Apr 24, 2005
Ken Murphy, Sentinel Staff
RINDGE ? Franklin Pierce crew Coach Doug Connelly never questioned having a legally deaf rower at stroke.
For Connelly, the benefits outweigh any potential disadvantages. That?s saying a lot when you consider the stroke rower also cannot see her teammates in the women?s four boat that is among the best in New England.
Then again, Franklin Pierce has not had a rower quite like Alexis Ozimek. The junior co-captain is the only woman in the history of Raven crew with two medals. Ozimek rode stroke last Sunday at the Knecht Cup in Camden, N.J., when Franklin Pierce captured the women?s four championship ahead of such powerhouses as Penn State and reigning Division II national champion Mercyhurst.
Ozimek also is the only holdover from the 2003 Franklin Pierce spring team that earned a bronze medal in the New England Fours Championships.
With Ozimek leading the way, Franklin Pierce is primed to either equal or better the third-place finish of two years ago when the team competes in the New England Fours Championships today on Great Herring Pond in Plymouth, Mass.
Franklin Pierce has raced 22 teams three spring meets and has only been beaten twice. Bowdoin and Amherst, the two teams that have outraced the Ravens, will be among the teams competing today.
Ozimek, who also rowed competitively with the Wilm- ington (Del.) Youth Rowing Association near her home in Chadds Ford, Pa., is a big reason why Franklin Pierce has set its sights so high.
?She probably has the best stroke on the boat, which is not unusual for the stroke (position), but she?s very impressive,? said Connelly.
Count senior coxswain John Muller as among those impressed by Ozimek?s prowess with a paddle.
?Her stroke, the way she moves the oar, is spot on,? Muller said. ?She?s a metronome.?
Making accommodations to Ozimek?s severe hearing impairment, Connelly said, never entered his mind.
?I would imagine the normal thing to do would be to have her behind someone (in the boat), but she?s just that good,? he said. ?I want her leading the boat. They row that good together.?
Ozimek, who was born legally deaf, said she cannot hear anything lower than about 95 decibels in her right ear and about 105 decibels in her left ear; that?s the decibel level you would hear a running chainsaw from about two feet away. Normal conversational speech is about 60 decibels.
Ozimek has hearing aids, but she said she usually only wears them in the classroom. Even with the hearing aids, Ozimek wears a receiver in her right ear that is hooked to a microphone worn by her professors.
?It?s only one way, though,? she said. ?They can talk to me, but I can?t talk to them.?
Ozimek said she was 3 years old when her parents convinced doctors that their daughter was hard of hearing. Ozimek learned to speak after being fitted with hearing aids. That was only after she stopped ripping them out of her ears, baffled by the new experience of sound.
Whenever anyone told Ozimek that her hearing problem would pose limitations ? such as rowing stroke, for instance ? her parents, Jim and Wendy Ozimek, reminded their second daughter that doctors had said Ozimek would never learn to speak.
?They brought me up telling me that nothing can stop me from doing what I want to do,? Ozimek said of her parents. ?It?s definitely been challenging, but I try really hard to not let it stop me from doing what I want to do.?
That includes rowing stroke, an opportunity that arose at the beginning of this season when Connelly asked Ozimek if she wanted the position.
?I was up for it,? Ozimek said. ?I really like it.?
The only accommodation the team made to Ozimek?s hearing impairment was to move the speaker that?s hooked up to coxswain John Muller?s microphone from the bottom of the shell to the rim of the boat directly in front of Ozimek.
Nearly every coxswain now uses a microphone, replacing the traditional megaphone to communicate with the team. Because verbal communication is critical to a team?s success, the Ravens had to find a way to ensure Ozimek?s involvement.
?It works,? Muller said. ?I just set the coxswain box up there and I don?t even think about it. Sometimes when you say too many words at once, Liz (Ward, who sits behind Ozimek), will kind of reaffirm everything (I?ve said), but it?s not a problem at all.?
The speaker is always set to full volume.
?I really have to depend on hearing the coxswain?s voice in the microphone,? Ozimek said. ?Because there?s no one (in front of me) it definitely makes things tricky, but Liz behind me will let me know if there?s something John?s saying that I can?t hear.?
Ozimek said Connelly also is very visual in his instruction, demonstrating the technique he wants the team to work on rather than relying solely on voice instruction.
Whatever instruction Connelly is providing is apparently working quite well for the Ravens? varsity four. Ozimek and sophomores Ward, Maeghan Gross and Lauren Bibby won the Knecht Cup with a time of 8 minutes, 3.8 seconds. Lafayette finished second in 8:07.3, nearly 4 seconds behind the Ravens. Defending national champion Mercyhurst finished a distant sixth in 8:43.6.
Franklin Pierce won two races at Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass., on April 11, outdistancing several teams to improve to 9-2 on the season.
The Ravens? biggest competition today is expected to come from Bowdoin, which won the women?s four event at the prestigious Head of the Charles last October.
?I think we have a really good chance,? Ozimek said. ?The girls in the boat are rowing so well together. There?s something that just clicks.?
