Finding Her Coxing Voice
For many young athletes, confidence and leadership skills follow finding a coxing voice. The story of Olivia Mencias is an inspiration for other aspiring coxswains.
Olivia Mencias’ mother would never have believed that Olivia could take command of a boat, could be in charge, and get results by yelling. Olivia was shy, a quiet child and not loud at all. Not anymore. The petite coxswain from Indianapolis Rowing Center (IRC) has found her voice. She has also developed confidence and gained leadership skills that will carry her and her crews further than 2,000 meters down any race course.
The path to her coxing voice
It began with a grade school teacher who was a passionate rower. On Mondays, she would bring the medals that she had won at weekend regattas to show the class. Olivia took up rowing in 8th and 9th grades. In the 10th grade, a concussion ended her time pulling on an oar handle, but she was encouraged to take up coxing. She discovered that she was very good at it.
At the same time that Olivia’s rowing career began growing, her club started to grow and evolve as well. Her high school does not have a rowing team but is affiliated with IRC, offering varsity credits. The club offers programs from juniors, varsity, and college to masters. When Olivia started at the club five years ago, the number of kids rowing was small, perhaps 40-50 kids. That has doubled to 90-100 juniors along with a new middle school program. New coaches have built not only the program but also gained improved results. Credit also is due to volunteers like Olivia.
In early September 2022, Olivia was elected one of four club captains. There are two female and two male varsity coaches. They function as boat managers, trailer loading experts, technology gurus, and crew managers. Olivia is especially focused on team bonding activities and ensuring that there is excellent communication between the crews and the coach. She sees it as an extension of her coxing voice.
Her voice in the boat
Olivia coxes lots of crews. Her main boat is a girl’s varsity 8+. She also has coxed girls 4+, boys U16, masters and even a boat of coaches in a regatta featuring a coaches’ race. As she has developed her coxing voice, Olivia has changed how coxes are taught at her club, based on her own experiences and insights. When she first started coxing, she was instructed to demand and command respect from the boat. Instead, her style is to first respect the rowers before asking them to respect her. She had also been told not to become friends with the rowers. Olivia disagrees, believing it better to get to know them. Part of her role is to be like a mom, to make sure that they feel and remain safe. That is part of what makes a boat go faster and Olivia has the medals to prove it. She is the first cox from Indianapolis Rowing Center to medal at the regional level and the first to go to the nationals.
Olivia in part attributes her style and success to guidance and mentorship from more experienced coxswains. During the pandemic, she attended a virtual coxing camp with Mary Whipple, former USRowing coxswain, renowned for coxing the women’s 8+ to two Olympic gold medals and one silver. Each participant was assigned a mentor, and for Olivia it was Rachel Rane from the dominant University of Texas Longhorns. Rachel is not your typical coxing voice, describing herself as a Type B personality instead of the usual Type A. Olivia is also a self-described Type B. She is very aware that leadership is a choice and getting people to follow you is not a given.
Of course, an important part of a coxing voice is an NK CoxBox. Her club has designated one with a light pink bumper as hers, and her name is on it from the Nationals. It is further distinguished by red, black and white ribbons (the colors of her club) and oar charms. It seems as distinctive as Olivia’s coxing voice. For a recent birthday, Olivia was gifted a SpeedCoach with a matching pink bumper.
The road to recruitment
Olivia is in her senior year of high school, looking towards college where she would like to study psychology. Having decided to continue her coxing career this is an important choice. Taking athletes to the next level is as much about the mental as well as the physical. She is in the midst of the recruitment process, which she likens to dating. You speak with many different people and seek a connection. And sometimes you need to break up and look elsewhere.
Getting noticed, let alone selected, is hard for any rower and even more so when you are a coxswain, as Kristen Kit, the gold medal cox for Canada at the Tokyo Olympics can attest. Coxes do not have 2K times and erg scores to send to coaches. The selection process is more subjective and coaches ultimately recruit you based on personality. Olivia believes that it is therefore even more important to be yourself, that your coxing voice is an authentic one.
Sometimes other people’s voices speak clearly, illustrating the bonds forged within a crew by the coxswain. Olivia shared a video on her Instagram feed in which every member of her varsity 8+ explained the designation on her team t-shirt. The respect they feel for each other and for Olivia is obvious. It is clear that Olivia has found her coxing voice and that she is using it well.
