It is not often a Syracuse student finds himself spending the first week of school in Japan. Of course, it is also rare to find a student like senior Dan O’Shaughnessy, who last year raced for the Canadian national rowing team.

O’Shaughnessy, a member of the eighth-ranked SU rowing squad, will join his teammates this Saturday in the race for the Packard Cup against Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H.

O’Shaughnessy refused to be discouraged after finishing last out of the sixty rowers at the Canadian national team camp. Soon, spectators were amazed to find this kid from Syracuse pushing himself alongside the top rowers in all of Canada.

When all the racing had finished, O’Shaughnessy had improved his ranking so much that he was chosen to train with the Canadian national team.

This is where the real work began.

‘It was ridiculously hard,’ O’Shaughnessy said. ‘I’ve never done anything so hard in my entire life. Everything was competitive; they never took the pressure off us the entire summer. It kind of tested my boundaries.’

This was the type of intense rowing he expected since his team was preparing to travel across the globe for the World Rowing Championships.

The trip to Japan seemed surreal. O’Shaughnessy was used to traveling a couple of hours for a rowing regatta, now he was on a plane traveling to Asia. O’Shaughnessy said the importance of the event dawned on him when his coach reminded the team they were all there to represent Canada. A small handful of athletes and coaches were to stand for an entire country. O’Shaughnessy could sense a great deal of pressure.

O’Shaughnessy and his teammates did not let the pressure hinder them. His team had raced well enough throughout competition to have a chance to medal on the last day of the rowing championships.

O’Shaughnessy was confident his team could at least snag the bronze medal. It appeared they would until there were 100 meters left in the 2,000-meter race. At the final moments of the race, the German boat squeaked in front of the Canadian rowers for third place.

The overall experience was something O’Shaughnessy will never forget, but the end result, O’Shaughnessy said, made him feel angrier than he ever felt before in his life. Yet, he contends this anger is what motivates him to make the Canadian National Team next year. Moreover, the experience in Japan helped prepare him mentally and physically for the SU rowing season.

‘Dan brings credibility in a sense of, ‘Hey, we can do this thing,” SU men’s rowing head coach Dave Reischman said. ‘Dan sat down and talked to me after he got back from the world championships and said, ‘Hey, it’s my senior year and I want to accomplish something this year.’He’s always keeping the guys on track.’

O’Shaughnessy certainly has been a leader this year as one of four seniors on the men’s rowing team. The SU men’s varsity eight is off to a 4-0 start, and Saturday will be their final race before Eastern Sprints, the rowing equivalent to the conference championships. The team hopes this weekend it can complete its undefeated season and carry its momentum into Eastern Sprints.

Naturally, rowing with Canada’s best constantly occupies the back of his mind. He plans to be back in Canada trying out for the national team again as soon as the SU rowing season ends.

This year his family has added a little more pressure on O’Shaughnessy. It has already bought tickets to England, the site of this year’s rowing world championships. Although the family plans to vacation there whether O’Shaughnessy is rowing for Canada or not, they hope the premature travel plans will create another incentive for O’Shaughnessy to succeed in making the team.

‘We’re already going to England this summer,’ O’Shaughnessy’s brother, Ben O’Shaughnessy, said. ‘I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing for Dan, but he’s really competitive so this should just make him more determined.’

Published on May 10, 2006 at 12:00 pm