My name is Max de Gruyter and I attended SMUS as a Grade 10 student during the 2022-23 school year.
Although I am probably one of the students with the most unexpected pathway at SMUS, this past year has been one of the best years in my life, so far.
Last year I had to stop competing as a high-performance rower in Germany, due to a new health diagnosis. Since I could no longer compete as an athlete, I wanted to become a coach. I appreciate the rowing community in the world, and I was not ready to walk away from the sport. When the SMUS Rowing team presented the opportunity for me to develop my coaching skills while attending the school, I was incredibly grateful and excited!
Before I came to Canada for my year abroad at SMUS, I decided that I wanted to coach rowing even after I returned to Germany. I had a bit of coaching experience before, but nothing that would qualify me as a certified rowing coach. At one of the first practices, I went to Head Coach Susanne Walker Curry, and told her that I could not row but that I would still like to be a part of the SMUS rowing team. I specifically asked her if I could join her a couple of times in the coach boat, to gain a bit of knowledge and experience. She immediately offered for me to join her that day. I was surprised by how flexible Mrs. Walker Curry was. After this practice, she asked me if I would be interested in beginning my coach license education in Canada. I didn’t know what to say and answered that I first had to ask my parents. I thought about it the next night and decided that I would never get an opportunity like this again in my life.
During the fall rowing season, I got the opportunity to do my Level One Coach License in Canada. In the weeks that followed, we worked on a plan for how I can get certified in this school year. My first step was to get my boaters license, so I could drive the coach boats at the Gorge waterway, where the SMUS Rowing Centre is.
Over the year, I gained more knowledge and experience at every practice and every regatta. At the regattas, I learned how to stay calm in stressful situations and how to participate with the other coaches and the team to be as efficient and supportive as possible. As the team got smaller, we began working solely with our crews that qualified to compete at the Canadian Secondary School Rowing Association (CSSRA) National Championships.
The CSSRA Regatta (National Championships), in June, was the highlight of my time at SMUS. It proved to me that a team is always stronger than the individual, and showed me what I’ve learned over the past year. At Nationals, I learned two specific skills: learning how to ensure a boat is “race ready” in addition to general maintenance and “on-the-fly” fixes, and how to treat nervous and emotional athletes. The boat work was interesting, but you can learn it everywhere, even on the internet. What you cannot learn on the internet is how to treat an individual athlete in any kind of situation, to learn with them and support them mentally. The chance to learn these invaluable skills from the team over the span of just one year reinforced my belief that SMUS rowing is truly a world class program.
Mrs. Walker Curry and the whole coaching team taught me lessons that will help me for the rest of my life in multiple ways. I can not describe how grateful I am for all the opportunities that were given to me, the lessons that I have learned, and all the life experiences I will keep with me forever.
Thank you Mrs. Walker Curry, and thank you SMUS Rowing!
We are excited to share an incredible mark of achievement for Susanne Walker Curry next week.
