MAKING WAVES
By Chris Wadsworth
Maverick Rowing is all about the water – the boats, regattas, the Potomac River and Maverick’s state-of-the-art indoor rowing tank. But the plan for this H2O-centric enterprise came together in – of all places – a car.
“We made a 10-hour trek to check indoor rowing tanks at the Durham Boat Company in New Hampshire,” said Joe Carrier, a co-owner and coach at Maverick. “On the way back home, we sketched out an entire business plan.”
That business was formally born early this year when Maverick Rowing opened in Lansdowne. The training center for area high school crew teams and other aspiring athletes took over an unused building near the community swimming pool in the Lansdowne on the Potomac neighborhood.
Carrier and his business partner and fellow coach, Dan Passarella, expanded the space, outfitted it with 22 Concept 2 RowErg rowing machines and – most importantly – brought in the only eight-person sweep/sculling rowing tank in Virginia. (Sweep means a rower is using a single oar. Sculling is when a rower is rowing two oars.)
The two men may be making waves with Maverick Rowing, but their real claim to fame is as the coaches of the award-winning rowing team at Riverside High School.
The team’s first full season was 2021, and it won a shocking two golds and a silver at the Virginia State Championships. That success led to the idea to create Maverick Rowing.
“We had a really good first year,” Passarella said. “No crew team does well in their first year because you’re racing teams that have decades of experience. But we immediately knew there was a whole other level and we asked ourselves – ‘What can we do to get to that next level and be a top tier team?’ – and that’s what did it.”
Since opening, Maverick has seen athletes from a number of area schools pass through its doors. Seven Loudoun County public high schools have rowing clubs, and an eighth is being formed this fall. Rowing clubs in the region can use the facility, and rowers from George Mason University have used it. Maverick also hosts “Learn to Row” sessions for middle-schoolers who might be interested in the sport when they reach high school.
The indoor tank is the key. Among the benefits, it allows serious rowers to get real on-the-water experience no matter the season, the weather or the conditions on the nearby Potomac.
Mike Love is entering his eighth season as coach of the Broad Run High School crew team. He and his student-athletes have used the Maverick facility several times.
“Indoor rowing gives you the opportunity to teach things when you are standing right next to the rower rather than being in a motor boat 15 yards away,” Love said. “I can actually grab the blade and talk to them while they are doing things and move them slowly through the proper positions.”
Carrier said the facility also has camera positions around the rowing tank , allowing coaches to observe and course correct while students are rowing. “Rowers can’t do this outdoors on the water,” he added.
A.J. Baskette, 17, has rowed with the Riverside team since his freshman year. Now a senior rowing on the top men’s boat, A.J. has seen the benefits of the Maverick facility.
“The ability to focus on your form in the tank – it just saves so much time when you’re out on the water. Instead of doing form work on the water, we are able to focus on endurance and speed,” he said.
Rowing is a spring sport, so Maverick partners with the P10 Rowing Club in Sterling during the summer and fall to offer indoor training in the tank and on-the-water training at Algonkian Park.
“A big problem is people do the spring season and then take a break and then have to work to get back in shape again,” said Riley Rosenthal, 17, who rows on Riverside’s women’s team. “But since we can do it year round now, we stay in shape and we’re ready for the spring.”
For Carrier and Passarella, who both have sons who rowed, Maverick Rowing has been a true passion project.
“It’s just so satisfying,” Passarella said. “It’s come together almost exactly how we planned. Despite every obstacle that came up, we just kept on pushing. So, to have it up and running – I think, ‘God, we are going to go far.’”