Athlete Spotlight: Isabella Pearson

Meet Isabella, a sophomore and student-athlete at Purdue, who balances a busy academic schedule with her love for rowing, dance, and soccer. Growing up as a competitive gymnast, she never anticipated rowing to become such an integral part of her life. In fact, she was initially reluctant to trade her sparkly leotards for the waters of an estuary, but rowing quickly won her over with its technical demands and the strong sense of teamwork she found on the water.

As the coxswain for Purdue Crew, she brings a unique perspective from her years as a rower, allowing her to connect with her teammates and enhance their boat's performance intuitively. Known for her bold docking style—an approach that has caused more than a few heart-stopping moments for coaches and dock masters—she’s developed a love of the coxswain seat and steering optimal racing lines and tight turns on race day. Outside of rowing, she’s a dedicated dancer who recently joined a dance team on campus, keeping her mentally sharp and physically active.

Isabella sat down with JL to share her journey into rowing, her tips for novice rowers, race day rituals, and the role models who inspire her both on and off the water. She also reveals her favorite rowing memory, and the art of balancing a packed schedule of academics, athletics, and extracurriculars. 

JL Racing: How did you first get involved in rowing, and what drew you to the sport?

Isabella Pearson: Before rowing, I had been a competitive gymnast for 8 years. After I made the difficult decision to quit, my parents swiftly started researching which sports would be the most impressive on a college application. When they told me I would start rowing, I was initially very opposed to the idea. For the past 8 years I had done a sport in which you wear sparkly leotards and slick braided buns in my hair, practicing flips with pretty pointed toes, and my parents wanted me to row? In an estuary? In a boat? I was not having it. Nonetheless, I live by the idea of ‘don't knock it til you try it’, so I gave it a go. I started and had my first universal experience of rowing in a barge and getting aggressively swept away by the current, but I really enjoyed it. Gymnastics was a very technical sport which required a high level of body awareness and ability to correct your technique when given verbal critiques. This is the same in rowing so I was able to catch on to the tech aspect of it fairly quickly. By doing this I was consistently placed in stroke seat and boated quite high despite being one of the shortest on the team. During my freshman year in highschool / novice year on the team I made so many deep connections with my teammates, which was something I hadn't experienced in a while, since gymnastics is an individual sport. I didn't know it at the time, but that year I had officially become obsessed with rowing, and it would become something very important in my daily life for years to come.

JL: What is a typical day like for you balancing classes, training, and everything else?

Isabella: This semester I have quite a lot on my plate. I’m taking 19 credits / 7 classes so I have a lot of homework and exams to stay on top of. I’m also participating in intramural soccer and I’m on a dance team. In order to give myself the time to attend soccer games, go to dance practices, and get all my coursework done I have been attending morning practices to clear up my afternoons. I’ll go to practice from 7-9am. Head to class from 10:30am - around 6pm and use the rest of the day for academics and extracurriculars. Unfortunately, as a Californian, I don't think I’ll be able to handle being in the cold Indiana mornings any longer! So I might switch to afternoon practices as the temperature drops. Once I do so, I'll be able to sleep in a bit more, so I can move my studying/ coursework to evenings or late at night.

JL: If you could give a high school athlete a tip to prep for being a collegiate athlete, what would it be?

Isabella: As you transition into your novice year on a collegiate team, there’s one big thing to keep in mind. You may have coxed or rowed in some very fast and developed lineups that had been cultivated for multiple seasons or maybe even more than a year. However, when you enter a novice team in college, you will be working with athletes that have a variety of different skill sets and experience levels. You could have someone who has rowed for 5+ years and a national championship title to their name and a person who has never picked up an oar in their life in the same boat. It’s easy to get caught up in trying to perfect a lineup or over analyze every aspect of the technique, but at first, especially in the first month or so, don't focus on that. For rowers, make a point to bond and get to know your teammates/coach, familiarize yourself with the training program, and try to see how your technique could improve. For coxswains, don't be too hard on yourself or the athletes, get to know them/the coaches, and start memorizing the traffic patterns and steering for the new body of water you'll be rowing on. Eventually, you'll be able to crack down on the small details, but don't overwhelm yourself by trying to force it all in the first month. Feel comfortable being uncomfortable.

JL: Are there any specific rituals or routines you follow before a race to mentally or physically prepare yourself?

Isabella: As a coxswain I have a more preparatory and managerial routine to prepare for races compared to the rowers. About a week before the race I go over the race course, traffic pattern, fastest lines, etc. I also draft my race plans based on the technical focuses my boat has been working on in the weeks leading up to the regatta. The weekend of the race I'll memorize the race plan in terms of what we will be focusing on at each 500 m segment and when our big move is. All this is pretty standard for most coxswains, however for me the majority of the prep starts a month before the race. My novice year at Purdue, our 1N (the boat I coxed), had a habit of overthinking and overwhelming themselves by trying to fix every little mistake occurring in the boat at the same time. So, although it was unexpected, thinking less would allow them to row better and more intuitively. With this came a sort of subconscious need to prepare the rowers in my boat mentally for race. In the weeks before arriving at ACRAs, I made sure the rowers were all conscious about the verbal feedback we would give each other in order to keep their relationship sound. AKA no aggressive stern four bow four banter. Before ACRAs time trials, semi finals, and finals, we would all have a lengthy boat meeting to set the tone for what our goals would be for the piece, and how we would approach it mentally. I also developed a habit of using a calmer tone when calling things that might make their rowing frantic, such as building rate, so that they would approach it more steadily. Adjusting my preparations and coxing for racing based on the technical focuses as well as the mental states of the athletes has been something important that I learned last season, and I look forward to applying it from now on.

JL: Do you have a favorite rowing memory or moment on the water?

Isabella: When I was still a rower back in freshman year of high school, I was a stroke seat on our 1N. I clearly remember a specific Saturday morning the rush in our boat was absolutely insane, and I was not having it. My coxswain at the time and I were very close, so I felt comfortable telling her to yell at bow for rushing (typical stroke seat behavior). At one point I would just force the rating/ ratio down, which would throw off the timing for a couple strokes, but eventually force the rest of the boat to follow a new rhythm. 4 years later, I meet my stroke seat on Purdue Crew and he does the exact same thing. When I first saw him force the rate down like I had, I completely understood how he was feeling. So I let it happen and even encouraged it. This was the moment I realized how important it was that I had experience rowing before I started coxing, because it has allowed me to connect and instruct my rowers in a way that is intuitive to them.

JL: Are there any rowers or athletes you look up to as role models? If so, why do they inspire you?

Isabella: My former coaches during high school, Jovan Jovanovic, Ben Davison, and Michael Grady, are some of my role models within the rowing community because despite their high success in the sport, they all make time to give back to the rowing community. Ben and Michael have competed in more than one of the Olympic games and each have their own personal lives, but they still gave it their all when coaching our team. Seeing them pass on their experience and knowledge of the sport to the new generation of athletes has inspired me to hone my own skills so that I can do the same. I am determined to eventually take up a coaching job either at my high school or college team after I graduate, even if it is temporary. I want to be able to give to others what my amazing coaches have done for me. I’m also very grateful and inspired by the athletes at Rowing In Color. As an African American and Latina, seeing a boat full that represents my culture is always exciting to see, and I would love to work with them or meet them one day!

JL: What are you most excited about this season?

Isabella: This is my first year on varsity at Purdue Crew so the technical focuses of the majority of the rowers I am coxing are completely different from where I was at the end of last season in the 1N8+. After a full season of practicing and racing with the same lineup, it was easy to figure out what the rowers needed to change technically and mentally to go faster. It’s always exciting to cox new athletes because it forces me to sharpen my boat feel and challenges me to think about how I can make the boat as fast as possible, even though I have no idea what their typical weaknesses are.