Senior Michael Fowler was training for the Wichita State University cross country team when he found the WSU crew a better fit.

“Rowing is the ultimate walk-on sport,” he said. “The vast majority of rowers on most college crews had no experience prior to college rowing.”

Fowler is deaf but finds few challenges when working with the crew. His only problem is not hearing the starting gun, but he works hard to catch up.

“He is a tremendous worker,” said Susan Goodwyn, Fowler’s interpreter, who also takes photos for the crew. “He always tries to improve himself.”

“Mike has a very good work ethic,” said head coach Calvin Cupp. “He’s a very serious and dedicated student athlete.”

Fowler is a heavyweight rower. There are two weight categories for rowers: lightweight and heavyweight for men and women.

“The heavier rower has to generate more power to move faster,” Fowler said.

Height is also a factor when rowing. Generally, heavier rowers are taller, which gives them an advantage.

“The taller you are, the more power you generate with less effort,” he said.

Fowler rows in seat six where the stronger, faster team members sit.

The crew follows the stroke seat, which sets the pace of the boat. Fowler has filled in for the stroke seat, which requires more mental focus to keep the rate and pace constant.

“It’s not an easy task when there are seven other guys behind you following you,” he said. “If one rower gets out of pace, it affects the whole boat.”

“Their strokes must be exactly the same, or they will curve,” Goodwyn said.

During spring training, Fowler filled in as a coxswain whose responsibilities are to steer and direct rowing crew members. A typical coxswain is about 5 feet tall and weighs less than 135 pounds. Fowler is 6 feet and 184 pounds.

“The rowers like having me cox because it cracks them up,” he said. “When I cox, they like to say that I sound like a moose when I yell out commands.”

Rowing is the ultimate team sport. Fowler said there is no “I” in rowing.

“If one person doesn’t perform, the team doesn’t perform,” he said.

A typical rowing story focuses on the crew, not the individuals, Fowler said. Each individual in the boat works toward the same goal: the finish and the win.

“Ultimately, each athlete contributes,” Cupp said. “They see each other as doing what they can to contribute. They see each other as athletes.”

“To be great at rowing, it takes a lot of commitment and time for training at a high level,” Fowler said. “Rowing is the toughest sport I’ve done.”

Passing out after a race or timed trial is considered normal.

“It is the most physically and mentally demanding sport I’ve done,” he said. “Talent alone is not enough to win or do well.”

The WSU crew took its varsity-4 team to the Intercollegiate Rowing Association national competition in June. A team must apply and be accepted to the invite-only competition.

Fowler said, unlike other races, everyone at the IRA is good, fast and capable of winning.

“Everyone goes fast on the water,” he said. “It showed me how size isn’t everything. You don’t have to be tall or big to win at the elite level.”

Rowers can earn all-regional and all-American honors through the American Collegiate Rowing Association, which hosts the national collegiate championship for colleges around the nation.

Fowler was the first rower to get regional honors at the inaugural national championship last year.

Fowler is on a rowing scholarship. The longer a rower is on the team, the larger the scholarship they receive. But he says the scholarship does not depend only on how long a rower stays.

“It is based on other things like, have you been doing all the work, and if you have improved over the years,” he said.

Fowler is majoring in entrepreneurship and management at WSU. He plans to get his MBA in finance from WSU and is interested in working in the financial industry.

He is an alumnus of Beta Theta Pi in the Order of Omega. He left the fraternity to focus on rowing.

Fowler plans to keep rowing after college to see how far he can go in the national competition.

“It’s the desire,” he said. “Whoever wants to do the work succeeds.”