University of Connecticut Athletics
Commissioner D’Antonio Visits Rowing Team at Practice
3/6/2020 3:44:00 PM | Women's Rowing
On Wednesday morning, members of the UConn rowing team had a surprise guest at its practice in Gampel Pavilion: Joe D'Antonio, commissioner of the CAA, UConn's new conference for rowing.
For those who know of Commissioner D'Antonio, this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise because he is known as one of the most involved commissioners in the NCAA who really cares about all his teams. Soon after becoming CAA commissioner, he started a "Practice with the Commissioner" initiative, in which he practices with the reigning conference champion in every sport.
"I put the program together as a way to have an opportunity to interact with student-athletes in the conference, as well as coaches of the conference, in a manner that you normally never have an opportunity to do so in," D'Antonio said. "It allows me to kind of step behind the scenes into their world for an hour or so and just have a type of personal interaction that you'd never have a chance to get in any other format."
On Wednesday, however, UConn was a special case because they haven't participated in the conference yet, let alone won a conference championship.
"Today obviously we made a special exception for the Huskies," D'Antonio said. "I guess we'd call it the 'New Admitted Member Exception.'"
The Huskies are joining the CAA for rowing after competing in the American for the last multiple seasons. Most of UConn's sports are moving to the Big East next year, but the Big East doesn't offer rowing. So the Huskies will join the CAA, and they received permission to do so a year early, meaning they will get to compete in the CAA for all spring events.
D'Antonio had a chance to talk to the team, and he said his message contained three parts: welcoming them to the conference, opportunities they have at UConn and the privilege of being part of a team.
"Whether or not they realize it right now or not, the opportunity to be part of a team is something that is life-changing and will transcend the rest of their lives and stay with them the rest of their lives in a very positive manner," D'Antonio said.
Head coach Jennifer Sanford said she really appreciated D'Antonio giving that message to the team.
"It's nice just hearing that message because coaches will try to tell the team that," Sanford said. "But coming from him, it was just a different voice to hear that same message of 'make sure you recognize this opportunity that's in front of you and make the best of it every day.' So it was just a very inspiring speech."
Another thing D'Antonio stressed was that even though UConn is only a member of the conference for rowing, he doesn't see them any differently.
"When you're a member of the CAA, you're a member of the CAA family," D'Antonio said. "It doesn't matter if you're a full member or just in the conference for one sport."
D'Antonio said he really enjoyed getting to meet the athletes and coaches and getting to work out with them.
"It appears to be a very tight-knit group, it appears to be a very hard-working group and it appears to be a group that is dedicated and committed to what they're doing," D'Antonio said.
The team really appreciated D'Antonio's gesture of taking time out of his day to spend with them.
"They loved it," Sanford said. "We're just not a visual team really, so a lot of the times they don't really see a lot of administrators … So to have someone like the commissioner of our conference come and talk to them, it's kind of a big deal. And then the fact that he worked out with them, they loved that. They absolutely loved that."
The pairing of UConn rowing and the CAA seems like a perfect match. UConn gets to compete in a conference with regional teams that they see in the regular season anyways like Northeastern and Villanova, while the CAA gets a sixth team to replace Buffalo, which cut rowing a couple of years ago. Both Sanford and D'Antonio expressed excitement about having the team join, and it appears that D'Antonio's visit has only increased that.
"We've been really excited to be in this conference to begin with, it's just a better fit for us," Sanford said. "But this just kind of added to the enthusiasm and excitement of being in the conference this year."
"For us to be able to add a school like UConn into that infrastructure and have them become part of our family is incredibly special and means an awful lot to all of us that are involved," D'Antonio added. "Because [rowing is] a really important sport for our conference and our members that have it [Drexel, Northeastern, Delaware, Eastern Michigan and Villanova], and we're very excited to add an institution with the prestige of UConn to our women's rowing programs."
