Honouring Nancy
It was an emotional day Saturday at Ridley College with the staging of the first-ever Nancy Storrs Indoor Rowing Championships.
“Nancy was passionate about sharing her love of rowing and spent her life volunteering whenever and wherever she was needed in the sport, including running this event for 34 years,” regatta chair Caitlin Pauls said. “Nancy was one of the founders of this event and with her passing in September we felt it was appropriate to name the event in her honour. She was also a trailblazer in the sport of rowing. She was part of the first group of women to compete at the world championships or Olympics. She was quite the icon in the sport.”
The indoor championships were important to Storrs.
“I think it was because it brought together all the high school students from across Niagara and across Ontario to compete and show the hard work that they had done all winter to get ready for the water season,” Pauls said.
Storrs never specifically asked Pauls to take over chairing the event but she knew that’s what her mentor would have wanted her to do.
“After taking charge of the event for these past two editions, I truly appreciate how much time and energy she put into it for all those years and why she was the hardest person to find on the event day. There is really no time to stand still. Nancy’s impact will continued to be felt for years to come. Many of our event’s volunteers, coaches and athletes return year after year because of the positive impact she had on them.”
Like Storrs, Pauls is a big fan of the championships.
“This event has always signalled the end of winter training season, with the on-water spring season being right around the corner. It is great to see the culmination of all the athletes’ hard work on display at the event. I love seeing the huge smiles as athletes finish their races with personal bests, or when they receive their Top 10 T-shirts that have become so iconic of our event.”
Pauls has been around the event almost her entire life and her grandfather, Tony Biernacki, co-founded the event with Storrs.
Storrs was also Pauls’ long-time coach.
“She was a coach, she was a mentor and she was more like family than anything,” she said. “It was her way of coaching. She was never someone who yelled or demanded more of you. She worked with you and she made it fun to practice and fun to row. She shared her passion for rowing with everyone that she came into contact with. It was her love and joy for rowing that will stick with me for a long time.”
On hand to help out Saturday was Storrs’ older sister, Ginny Akabane, who made the trek from Massachusetts to volunteer.
“She coached for 40-plus years and she coached everybody from beginners who only wanted to row recreationally to athletes vying for the national championships with equal enthusiasm,” she said. “She was known for her enthusiasm and her loud voice.”
Akabane had a simple answer when asked what Nancy would think of this year’s event.
“She would be thinking that Caitlin is doing a wonderful job.”
Storrs was part of the 2023 Row Ontario Hall of Fame class, becoming the first person to be inducted as both a builder and a coach.
The Huntington, N.Y., native was a member of the U.S. national team and competed at five world championships and the Montreal Olympics. She won four medals at the worlds and placed sixth at the Olympics.
As a coach, Storrs: served as the manager of the U.S. junior team at the 1983 world championships; coached for almost four decades at Ridley College and with the Ridley Graduate Boat Club; coached at the worlds and junior worlds for Canada from the 1980s to the early 2000s; helped lead crews to multiple world championship medals, including a gold in the women’s lightweight four in 1990; served as an assistant coach alongside partner Jack Nicholson as they coached the men’s quad in 1985 to the first-ever gold medal for a Canadian boat at a world championships; was a two-time coach of the Ontario rowing team at the Canada Summer Games; and, earned Rowing Canada Aviron Female Coach of the Year award in 2014.
As a builder, Storrs: played a major role in starting masters rowing Canada; became the voice of the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta in 1987 and announced at four world championships and the 1996 Olympics; was a commission member with the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta since 1997; organized the Jack Nicholson Head of the Martindale Regatta for several years; and, helped run the Royal Canadian Henley and Canadian Secondary School Rowing Association championships.
She was inducted into the U.S. Rowing Hall of Fame in 1991.
