By Brianna Hollis, News Correspondent
On Sept. 23, Northeastern senior rower Justin Jones logged onto U.S. Rowing’s website to look up news about the national team. Instead, he found his own name listed under this year’s finalists for the organization’s Fan’s Choice Collegiate Athlete of the Year.
“[It] was exciting and unexpected,” Jones, from Bellmawr, N.J., said. “It was one of those things where I was a little shocked, but also proud and humbled that people were digging what I was doing.”
Out of hundreds of nominees, U.S. Rowing chooses five individuals each year – male or female – from crews across the country who have demonstrated superiority on the water. An open vote then determines the winner.
Upon realizing his finalist status, Jones posted a gracious Facebook status calling on his social network to vote:
“Hi, everyone. I don’t say this enough, but there are many awesome people in my life who support me in very meaningful ways, and I feel extremely fortunate that I have the ability to say that. It was very nice to discover that I was nominated for, and am a finalist in, the U.S. Rowing Collegiate Athlete of the Year poll. I would appreciate a vote and share if you have the time, and as always, thank you for the support! for, and am a finalist in, the U.S. Rowing Collegiate Athlete of the Year poll. I would appreciate a vote and share if you have the time, and as always, thank you for the support for, and am a finalist in, the U.S. Rowing Collegiate Athlete of the Year poll. I would appreciate a vote and share if you have the time, and as always, thank you for the support!”
Friends, teammates, family members and fellow student-athletes met this news with overwhelming response. Peers shared the link, posting messages reading “Vote for our top dog,” “Vote for our captain” and help out “the captain of the hardest-working team I know,” all of which received several likes and shares.
And on Oct. 16, with 35 percent of the total vote, Jones clinched the title.
“There are very few people who I look down on that I actually look up to, but [he] is one of them,” teammate Colin Schaap of Vancouver, British Columbia said. “[He’s] one of the toughest, hardest working individuals I have ever met. He’s the most deserving candidate of this year’s 2013 College Athlete of the Year.”
Jones was up against Harvard’s Andrew Campbell, Stanford’s Austin Hack, Georgetown University’s Henry Hoffstot and University of California Berkeley’s Kara Kohler.
Campbell won this year’s men’s single sculls competition at the Under-23 World Championships and sits seven seat for Harvard’s lightweight men’s eight. Hack is currently the youngest member of the U.S. Men’s Senior National team and strokes for Stanford’s men’s varsity eight. Hoffstot captains Georgetown’s crew and won the 2013 Henley Royal Regatta rowing with the U.K.’s Taurus Boat Club. Kohler holds All-American honors, rows for UC Berkeley’s varsity eight and competed in the women’s quadruple sculls at the 2013 World Rowing Championships and Samsung World Rowing cup.
Thus far in his collegiate career, Jones has contributed to a duel-race defeat against Brown University, a fourth-place finish at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships in Cordova, Calif., and a course record at the 2013 Henley Royal Regatta in Oxfordshire, U.K., among others.
The latter event, which took place this summer, was Jones’ favorite race as a Husky.
“The atmosphere was awesome,” Jones said. “There was a crowd of like, 300,000 people and everyone was partying and there was music. It was really cool to race in front of.”
This year’s crew was the first from Northeastern to attend the regatta since 1973. He and his teammates came up short in the race’s third and final round against Great Britain’s “Senior B” national team in the last 100 meters, but still beat an 18-year record by almost four seconds.
But it was Jones’ influence on those around him that gave him the necessary edge to claim the majority of the vote.
“Justin is one of the hardest and most focused athletes I know,” said teammate Trevor Weaser, a senior from Plymouth, Ind., said “[He] will take the extra step to make sure the task at hand is done well.”
Jones began rowing his freshman year of high school at Bishop Eustace Prep in Pennsauken Township, N.J. after deciding to join the team upon driving by the national championship races in Cherry Hill, N.J.
“I saw a bunch of big fit dudes walking around the boat race,” Jones said. “The event looked really cool and seemed like something I’d want to join.”
However, at 5-foot-9 and 155 pounds, Jones didn’t fit the job description, but after a growth spurt and some serious training, Jones, now standing at 6-foot-1 and 188 pounds, has stroked for the Huskies’ varsity eight boat for three years.
Such feats mark the senior captain’s contribution to the program’s growth over the past four years.
“He’s certainly made an enormous impact on the progress the rowing program has made from the time he was a freshman until now,” Associate Head Coach Ted Benford said. “The team would definitely not be the same without him.”
Teammate Trevor Weaser, a senior from Plymouth, Ind., agrees.
“As our program has become more recently recognized and competitive, there has been one sole constant – and that’s Justin,” he said.
In addition to his career at Northeastern, Jones also spent the summer of 2012 rowing for the Under-23 national team, but the Royal Regatta kept him from participating last summer.
In the stroke seat, Jones sets the pace for the boat, and the standard for his team. His undying work ethic shines in his rowing prowess – where success is such a direct testament to the effort put forth. This arduous nature is what Justin admires most about the sport, and is something that drives the mindset he lives by.
“You need to be relentless in the way you train,” he said. “If you can produce the workload, you’ll be more successful.”
Jones describes the winter seasons as long and grueling, being stuck in the basement of Cabot center and hammering out hours of reps on the erg, while the river a mile away is coated with sheets of ice. Although many athletes may approach such training grudgingly, Jones looks forward to it.
“I really like that it’s so hard, so physically demanding,” Jones said.
He also expresses the necessity of well-roundedness to his team, emphasizing the need to not only be dedicated to rowing, but to excel in the classroom and on Co-Op, as well as have an impact on the community.
Under his lead, the team received the highest grade point average out of all Northeastern’s male sports teams during the fall 2012 semester, and recently raised over $10,000 for the Make a Wish Foundation.
Jones currently holds a demanding Co-Op position as the Operations services manager for the Curry Student Center, where he staffs all the service points, runs payroll and manages the budget and the center’s events.
“It’s a pretty intense management job,” he said.
As is his position on the water. As the stroke, he’s responsible for the rhythm of the boat, constantly assessing whether the crew is reaching its optimum productivity level, all the while making sure he is putting forth his own full physical capabilities.
Before races, Jones wakes up and pounds water and coffee. He rolls out, jumps in the shower and is ready to go. He secludes himself when the team gets to the course and visualizes the race, pondering what the team needs to execute in order to win. At the start line, he cracks his back to the left, then the right and settles into his seat. He’s fearless and ready to go, his teammates said.
“Justin has consistently demonstrated he can not only give 100 percent of [his] perceived exertion, [but] exceed that through grit and the sheer will to win,” Benford said.
“He’s capable of influencing his team members to exceed their individual parts as well.”
Jones has been challenging his limits from a young age. At 4 years old, he would sneak out of bed in the middle of the night to watch horror films prohibited by his parents. It was something he wanted that he knew he could handle, so he went for it.
Scary movies have since turned into lofty – yet attainable – Olympic goals, joining the Navy and hopes for graduate school.
On Nov. 9 and 10, he and Weaser traveled Princeton, N.J. competed in the East Coast Fall Speed Order races against various national team members under the eyes of the senior national team and coaches. The pair finished second in the race – six seconds behind Olympians David Banks and Charlie Cole.
He will brush shoulders with these coaches once again at the Golden Oars Awards dinner in New York City.
Jones will finish his rowing career as a Husky this spring, and, from there, he plans to join the Navy. Fittingly, Jones is attracted to its discipline and action-packed nature. As his time window for elite rowing closes, he would ideally like to attend the Officer Candidate School in Newport, R.I., and hopefully receive compensation for attaining his masters in psychology.
In the future, Jones said he ideally sees himself as a rowing coach with an Olympic medal around his neck, five years as a naval officer under his belt and his master’s degree hanging on the wall.
This year’s U.S. Rowing Fan’s Choice Collegiate Athlete of the Year is driven on all fronts, with no signs of stopping at this recent accolade.
“Alright,” he says upon leaving the conversation – which he came to straight from a full day of work. “Time to go cram in a 30-minute workout before my meeting.”
