April 19, 2011
Old Dominion senior skipper Stephanie Roble recently sat down with odusports.com to talk about her being a senior leader on the sailing team and her national championship aspirations.
Q: What does it mean to you to be apart of ODU Athletics?
A: It motivates me to be apart of ODU's great athletic tradition. I have so much support from coaches and athletes from other sports. We travel around and everyone knows ODU. It means a lot to be apart of this program.
Q: What experience do you bring to the team as a senior?
A: I think helping my teammates overcome those freshman mistakes and applying everything I've learned on the water, whether tactical or mental, is a huge asset for us. Learning how to be consistent is something else I've developed over the past four years that I can help the team with.
Q: As one of the veterans on the team now, how have you embraced that leadership role?
A: It's big shoes to fill. You have to come to practice and show how driven you are to succeed and help people learn that drive. Giving them the motivation to want to succeed when they become an upperclassmen is what i'm striving to do.
Q: Take us through your training regimen during the off-season.
A: In the off-season we generally just hit the weight room two times a week, sometimes three. We focus on total body strength and building endurance. We want to be ready for more than one game or match like other sports. There are a lot of different things we do to prepare for the season.
Q: What are your plans after graduation?
A: After ODU I would really like to go to the Olympics. After I graduate I'm going to work for this company called Chicago Match Race Center that focuses on the type of sailing I want to do in the Olympics.
Q: How did last year (finished third in Intercollegiate Sailing Association National Championship) affect the team as they head into competition this year?
A: We have been in the running to win Nationals two straight years and we're using that as motivation. We have two seniors for our woman's team so that's going to help push us. Our coach Mitch (Brindley) is really good at keeping us calm and handling the pressure.
Q: Goals for this season?
A: For our co-ed team one of our goals is to qualify for Nationals. For our woman's team we would love to win our district qualifiers, if you win those you automatically qualify for Nationals. Placing in the top three or winning it all is an idealistic goal for our woman's team and placing somewhere in the top half is reasonable for our co-ed team. Personally, I was named All-American last year and I would like to receive that honor again. A very big goal of mine is to be named co-ed All-American. It is pretty rare for a woman to receive.
Roble and the sailing Monarchs will be back in action this weekend at the Admirals Cup in Kings Point, N.Y. and at the MAISA Women's at St. Mary's Md. The ICSA Women's National Championship runs May 23-26, while the co-ed championships are May 30-June 1. Best of luck to Roble and all of the Monarchs and Lady Monarchs!
-ODU-