Supporters help PBC’s Rising Stars get closer to National Team reality

Morgan Constantine Wimberley with a poster of herself that appeared all over DC as part of NBC News' "We are Washington" campaign. (Photo by Mike Malone)

Contributed by Maria Bokulich, member, Open Sculling Program

The cherry blossoms have bloomed, the river is rowable and the first annual Rising Stars Banquet, a fundraiser for the PBC Open Sculling Program, has come and gone with great success.

The evening began with the Board room packed full of generous supporters bidding on a variety of silent auction items from a fly fishing trip in Montana to an original painting of the Key Bridge viewed through a PBC boat bay by former Open Sculler Bill Greer.

With the guys in jackets and ties and the gals in dresses and heels, the  auction was followed by a delicious dinner prepared by PBC senior member Chef Bernard Henry.  We named Chef Bernard an honorary member of the Open Sculling Team for his very generous contribution to the event!  During dessert, each athlete spoke briefly about the passion we all share to be the best in this sport and the dream we live each day to make the U.S. National Team.  All of your contributions help us get closer to turning this dream into a reality.

Katie Stainken competes in the 2011 National Selection Regatta for a spot on the team that will represent the U.S. at the World Championship in Bled Slovania.

Thank you to all who volunteered their time and energy to make this event possible.  With the support of PBC and the Washington, DC rowing community, the Open Scullers were able to raise $11,000 from the event.  These funds will go directly to our athletes for help with travel expenses to races, training trips and equipment needs.

In fact, we just returned from our first race of the season, the 2011 National Selection Regatta 1 (NSR 1), which took place from April 21– 23, in Princeton, New Jersey.   Each of the Open Scullers competed in a single through a time trial, heats and a final, all to earn the right to compete at the 2011 World Championships in Bled, Slovenia.

Next, we’ll let you know how the NSR 1 went!

Once again, thanks to everyone for making our first Rising Stars Banquet such a big success!

Happy Holidays from PBC’s Open Scullers! (Updated with pics!)

[Update: 12/30/10] Lucky us! Social Committee Co-Chair Camilla Durfee took a quick break from her busy holiday social schedule to send us the following photos taken by Louise Krumm at the 2010 PBC Holiday Party, on December 12. Just click play (forward arrow) to check them out. If you haven’t had a chance to read the original post from the Open Scullers, keep scrolling!

Thanks for sharing, Camilla and Louise! And Happy New Year, PBC!

Katie Stainken (foreground) and Maria Bokulich of PBC's Open Sculling team race the Women's Championship single event at the HOCR 2010.

Our hard charging PBC Open Scullers are taking on a new challenge … keeping you, their extended PBC team, up to date on all of the great things they’re doing!

This first installment comes from Open Sculler Katie Stainken. You’ll learn more about Katie and the rest of the team as soon as they get their bios posted! Look for them on the Star in the next few weeks!

Here’s the latest from Katie:

It was awesome to see so many people attend the PBC Holiday Party this year! We really enjoyed decorating the ballroom, hosting the party, but most of all, chatting with fellow PBC’ers in a relaxed and cheerful atmosphere, as opposed to the usual quick conversations on the dock.  Thanks to you, and some beautiful notecards produced by Susan Trice, we were able to raise about $1200 for the Potomac River Sports Foundation (PRSF) to help us with our training efforts throughout the year.  Many generous PBC members also brought gifts for the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program.  All in all, it was a great night for us and we hope you enjoyed yourselves, too.

We want to say something chipper here, but all we can think of is, "Yuck."

On the training side of things, we certainly have braved some unseasonably cold temperatures in the DC area this month. The ice continues to creep across the river, so we’ve already traded in our sculls and team boats for ergs.  Looks like all of those long rows out to Haines Point and up to Fletcher’s that were on the schedule will have to wait for now.  We don’t mind having to erg at the moment, though; it gives us a chance to rock out to tunes on our iPods while we workout, which is a nice change.  Our apologies in advance to those who come down to the boathouse in the morning for our music tastes!

Coming soon, look for a new Open Sculler website to be announced in the Star – complete with athlete bios!  We’re also planning an event for February, so as soon as the date is confirmed, we will let everyone know when to mark your calendars!

In the meantime, if you’re still in the gift-giving mood this holiday day season, please remember that your donations to the PRSF go to help PBC’s National Team athletes, and as always, are tax deductible!  To donate via check or PayPal, click here to go to the PRSF donation post on the Star.

Finally, for those of you who missed out on ordering your set of PBC notecards, they’re still available!  The Star will post all the information you need to get your very own set soon.

Thanks, again, for your support, PBC, and Happy Holidays from the Open Scullers!

PBC Athlete Bio – Maria Bokulich

Maria Bokulich
2012 Olympic Team Hopeful

Maria at Gonzaga University in 2004

Born: 9/1/1982
Hometown: Santa Cruz, California
Resides: Washington, D.C.
College: Gonzaga University (2004)
Event: Women’s Open Weight Sculling
Experience: 7 years

Maria online

• Maria’s Blog – Maria2Olympics
• Maria on Facebook

About Maria
Maria stepped onto the Gonzaga University campus as a freshman in 2000 with the intention of continuing her basketball dream. That dream changed when she was introduced to the sport of rowing. This new sport that involved an immense amount of work with little to no glory captivated her and initiated a challenging yet great focus. Her goal from those first few months was to make the U.S. National team. This is still her driving force today.

Maria works it out in the ballroom at PBC.

Her first year at Gonzaga, Maria made the Varsity Eight and would remain there her entire collegiate career. She set the freshmen record times for the 2k and 6k ergometer race then over the next four years went on to become the fastest female in the history of the team setting the programs overall 2k and 6k records. All four records still stand today.

She was selected as a member of the All American team her junior and senior year. In addition, she was also a member of the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association team all four years as well as a member of the WCC and WIRA All Conference teams her sophomore, junior and senior years. Her final honor was to be selected as the Gonzaga Senior Women’s Athlete of the year.

Maria spent her college summers on the East Coast training out of the prestigious Vesper Boat Club as well as a variety of national team development camps in Princeton, NJ. With the familiarity of the East, she moved to Westport, CT after graduation to begin her sculling career at Saugatuck Rowing Club. In the single person shell, she began to learn the skills of finesse and balance that would take years of experience to perfect. In the Spring of 2005, she was invited to train out of the national team training center, however four months into training suffered a severe back injury. After taking some time off to heal and coach in Sydney AUS, she eventually took a job coaching at The George Washington University in Washington DC. Two and a half years later she resigned to begin training at Potomac Boat Club and to follow her original true passion and dream that was never fulfilled, to become a member of U.S. National sculling team.

Maria is the seventh of eight children to Paul and Pat Bokulich. She grew up playing basketball and helped lead Soquel High School to the Central Coast Championship game her sophomore year. At Gonzaga University, she earned a degree in Exercise Science while rowing all four years. During her break from training Maria spent a year coaching in Sydney, Australia, before she moved to Washington, D.C., to coach at George Washington University. She will eventually coach at the college level again.

National Results
1st Place – Scullers Head of the Potomac – Women’s 1x 2010
1st Place – Mid-Atlantic Erg Sprints (Indoor ergometer race) 2010
1st Place – WCC Champion 2000, ’01, ’02, ’03, ’04
3rd Place – Gonzaga Varsity 8+ – 2004 WIRA
2nd Place – Gonzaga Varsity 8+ – 2003 WIRA
1st Place – Gonzaga Varsity 8+ – 2002 WIRA
2nd Place – Gonzaga Varsity 8+ – 2001 WIRA
3rd Place – Vesper Women’s Senior 8+ – 2003 National Championships
1st Place – Vesper Women’s Senior 4+ – 2003 National Championships
1st Place – Vesper Women’s Senior 8+ – 2002 National Championships
1st Place – Vesper Women’s Senior 8+ – 2002 Schuylkill Navy Regatta
1st Place – Gonzaga Varsity 8+ – 2003 ECAC (Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference)
2nd Place – Gonzaga Varsity 8+ – 2002 ECAC (Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference)
3rd Place – Gonzaga Varsity 8+ – 2001 ECAC (Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference)

International Results
12th Place – Women’s Champ 1x – 2010 Head of the Charles
1st Place – Senior Women’s A 8+ – 2003 Royal Canadian Henley
1st Place – Senior Women’s B 8+ – 2003 Royal Canadian Henley
1st Place – Champ Women’s 8+ – 2003 Royal Canadian Henley
1st Place – Senior Women’s B 8+ – 2004 Royal Canadian Henley