"Let the boat do its work. Yeah, now we're talking. Remember -- the boat's moving back and forth underneath you. Back those blades in. BACK 'EM IN! Ladies, I'm keeping notes. Boom! Take off like a rocket, girls. Go. Go. GO! You guys are like a fine Swiss watch, a Rolex. Indestructible!"
As the girls cool down for a few minutes after the drill, Duxbury lowers his voice and summarizes what he's just observed.
Jackie Mercandetti
The crew practices six days a week, two hours a day, and competes in rowing competitions along the West Coast and, occasionally, in national contests back East.
Jackie Mercandetti
The shell's don't have much room on the inside.
Jackie Mercandetti
Coach Dan Duxbury calls instructions from his position on the coach's launch.
Jackie Mercandetti
The crew on Tempe Town Lakes.
Coach Duxbury has built the Tempe Junior Crew from scratch.
Jackie Mercandetti
Tempe Town Lake has turned into a near perfect rowing venue since it was created four years ago.
Jackie Mercandetti
The crew consists of 35 girls and nine boys.
Jackie Mercandetti
Many hope to obtain college scholarships for their hard work.
Jackie Mercandetti
Coxswain Anna Ward wears some of the medals her team has won as it gains national attention.
Jackie Mercandetti
Many workouts begin before the sun has come up.
Jackie Mercandetti
The longer the oars stay in the water, the faster the shell moves.
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Team co-captain Megan Kohrs.
Jackie Mercandetti
Shells must be washed down and cleaned up before they can be stowed
in the racks at the boathouse, on the north side of the lake.
Jackie Mercandetti
Oars rest after a hard days work.
Jackie Mercandetti
The synchronized movements of the Tempe Junior Crew.
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"Generally speaking, I wouldn't say that was stellar," he says, as they gulp from their water bottles. "The next start, I want to see waves clearing the puddles, to show me that you're doing your jobs. As it stands, none of you have a safe spot in the boat -- not one of you!"
The girl sitting in the "stroke seat" closest to Zuniga wipes some sweat off her brow and nods. At 5 foot 5 and 119 pounds, 18-year-old Aleisha DeCindis is the smallest girl in the shell, but Duxbury says she's one of the most powerful in terms of strength-to-weight ratio.
"She's a pit bull of a kid, a lot of character," Duxbury says of DeCindis. "She's like my right-hand man, so to speak, completely trustworthy. It just kills me that she's not going to row somewhere this fall."
A recent Tempe High graduate, DeCindis is one of three Crew captains appointed by Duxbury (Hilary Thornton and Megan Kohrs are the others), and has earned the respect of everyone around her.
But, the coach says, DeCindis' parents just don't want her to attend a university too far from their home in Tempe. So instead of going somewhere on a rowing scholarship, she's planning to enroll at Northern Arizona University, which doesn't even have a rowing club.
"Frankly, it makes me feel terrible for Aleisha," Duxbury says softly, before returning to his duties as Crew taskmaster.
Thankfully, the next 1,000-meter drill is much smoother, much more efficient -- and faster.
By 7:15 a.m., the Crew is off the lake for the day. They take their shell back to the boathouse, hose it down, dry it off, and safely tuck it away.
Jake Zuniga speaks to the rowers for a few minutes about how things went, followed by Coach Duxbury, who is back to his jovial, joking self.
Then they call it a morning.
Aleisha DeCindis stays an extra few minutes to go over some things with her coach. She is the epitome of what Duxbury wants in a rower, intensely loyal, strong and technically proficient. DeCindis first rowed at 15 when the lake opened, following in the footsteps of her father, who used to row in Pennsylvania.
With no financial help from her parents, DeCindis pays as much of the Crew's $100 monthly fee as she can by working at a day-care center a few hours every day. Knowing this, Dan Duxbury says he granted her a coach's scholarship, which means she doesn't have to pay him anything.
"Aleisha pays me back that $60 tenfold with her attitude and the help she gives me," he says.
Asked to explain her obsession with rowing, DeCindis says she doesn't know where to start.
"I'm just happy when I row, it's hard to explain. The thing I like the most is that if you don't have everyone with you, if one person is off, it completely disrupts the boat. It really takes a mental capacity. You're really not rowing as an individual. It's eight as one. It's a hazard to the boat if you're not thinking about what you're doing. When you're rowing, you're not thinking about your problems, not thinking about homework, and you don't care what other kids are doing or saying."
DeCindis says the greatest thrill in her life so far has been racing in Boston at the famed Head of the Charles regatta. "Can you imagine a girl from Tempe, Arizona, saying that she rowed a boat on a team in front of thousands of people in Boston, Massachusetts?"
She says she doesn't want to think about the possibility that her competitive rowing days may be done if she spends four years at NAU.
"I haven't dealt with that yet," DeCindis says, looking away. "I'll be coming down on weekends to the lake. I'll need something to do, so I'm looking into soccer. But rowing has been my life."
With that, she walks off to her car, still drenched in sweat.
Coach Duxbury watches DeCindis drive off.
"I'm not just teaching those girls and the rest of the kids how to pull on a stick that's going through the water," he says. "I think they're learning life lessons they're going to take everywhere."
