Timberline senior will be college athlete in sport that’s ‘nonexistent’ in Boise area

Quinn’s Pond is a bustling recreation spot for Boise residents, drawing paddleboarders, swimmers, sunbathers and partying floaters as soon as the sunny days come with regularity.

But for Timberline senior Cailin Bolt, the small body of water next to the Boise River is something much more valuable: a training ground.

For the past year, Bolt has been coming to Quinn’s Pond to learn how to row a 24-foot scull under the direction of coach Mike McDaniel. The endeavor has gone so well that Bolt earned a spot on the University of Tennessee’s crew team beginning this fall.

“In the back of my mind, it was always something I wanted to try,” Bolt said. “So I went to my mom and I’m like, ‘Mom, I want to try rowing. Can you find me a coach?’ But there are no rowing clubs in Boise. It’s nonexistent here.”

Then the Bolts found McDaniel’s ad on Craigslist.

A chance meeting

McDaniel took up rowing in college at San Diego State and went on to coach for the Aztecs and UC Santa Barbara.

He has lived in Boise since 1995, but didn’t start offering individual rowing lessons until around 2017. He finds his clients largely by word of mouth, but he has also placed ads online in the past.

Bolt’s mom found one of those ads in February of 2023, and they agreed to meet McDaniel at a local coffee shop to find out more information.

Bolt has been a competitive swimmer much of her life, even winning back-to-back state championships on Timberline’s 400 freestyle relay in 2022 and 2023, but she wanted to try something new.

McDaniel said he immediately saw a diamond in the rough.

“I didn’t start off with some skinny little toothpick person,” McDaniel said. “I got a person handed to me who was an athlete already, who knew what hard work was because she was a competitive swimmer. She also has a desire to want to succeed in whatever she does.”

Getting started, without the water

Everything Bolt knew about rowing, she’d learned from watching the sport on television, so McDaniel knew he couldn’t throw her in a boat right away.

McDaniel owns an ergometer, or erg, which is a machine that rowers use to simulate rowing without an actual boat. That’s where Bolt cut her teeth.

“It was really weird,” Bolt said. “At first he’s like, ‘Hey, I’m just gonna have you row how you think a rower should row.’ It was obviously not the best. Then we kind of went from there and just basically focused on figuring out the technique so that when we got in the boat, it would just be a smooth transition and I’d kind of know the mechanics of rowing.”

McDaniel trained Bolt on the erg for about a month before she got in a boat for the first time at Quinn’s Pond.

“It was a lot,” Bolt said. “I feel like two oars in a scull boat versus the one handle on the machine was different. And then just the balance. You feel so unstable. And you have all these things going through your mind like, ‘What if I flip?’ I didn’t want to get wet. It was pretty cold.”

But Bolt had no intention of giving up.

“I just love the way it makes me feel. Being out on the water is so calm and peaceful,” she said. “And on the erg, you can literally push yourself to the limit. I’ve thrown up before. It’s been rough. But I love pushing myself to be my best every single day. Rowing helps me do that.”

Making a college team

Bolt signed with the University of Tennessee despite never having competed in a live rowing event. The Vols recruited Bolt based on her erg score, which measures her strength and fitness level over 2,000 meters.

She’ll transition to sweep rowing in college, where athletes use only one oar. The most coveted event in collegiate rowing is the Varsity 8, which features eight rowers in one boat.

“I’m very excited to honestly just be on a team with other people,” Bolt said. “Because for the past year, I’ve been training by myself, which can be hard.”

Tennessee is currently ranked No. 5 in the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) Coaches Poll. The Vols will compete in the Big 12 championships May 19 at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida. The NCAA championships are May 30 through June 2 on Harsha Lake at East Fork State Park in Bethel, Ohio.

“Most people are definitely shocked when they hear that I’m a rower,” Bolt said. “Most people around here don’t really know what it is, so it’s a lot of explaining.”