From crude oar to precious Stone

Rick Devereux

Being 14 can be no fun.

Being 5-foot-11 as a female freshman can be no fun.

“There aren’t a lot of 6-footers at Newport [Harbor High],”

Stephanie Stone said. “I tend to stick out.”

Stone sticks out not just because of her height.

She is also one of the best rowers in the United States. Her time

of 7 minutes, 9 seconds in the 2,000 meters is the fifth-fastest

clocking in the nation and seventh fastest in the world in the 13- to

18-year-old age division.

And she hasn’t even been rowing for a full year yet.

“My friend’s brother did crew and she told me we were going to try

out for crew in the summer,” Stone said. “I was, like, ‘OK. What’s

crew?’ ”

In August, Stone went to the Newport Aquatic Center and did what

all hopefuls do in order to try out -- she worked out on the

ergometer (a stationary rowing machine) for 20 minutes and ran two

miles.

“She was like any ordinary freshman, any ordinary 14 year-old,”

NAC Coach Christy Shaver said. “We don’t put a lot of pressure on our

freshmen. We just want them to have fun and enjoy the sport while

they’re still learning it.”

Because of the emphasis on enjoyment and knowledge, Shaver and the

NAC tend to keep neophytes on the novice or freshman teams.

“Freshmen have asterisks next to their names because we want them

to have fun,” Shaver said. “But with her ability, you have to keep

trying to push her back to be a freshman and have fun.”

Stone proved she had natural ability by performing well in

practice, constantly learning and improving.

The bench mark for rowers is 2,000 meters on the ergometer. She

started out around 7:40.00, fast enough to be in the top 150 in the

world for her age group.

“She just has a natural gift,” said her dad, Bob Stone. “She was

good in soccer growing up, but never this good. She has always been

athletic and extremely strong. I have two sons in their early 20s,

and they’ve been telling me that when they wrestle with Steph, they

really have to try to beat her because she has become so strong.”

Her strength is one of her strengths, and so is her height. But

Shaver believes Stone’s greatest asset is something not measured in

pounds or inches.

“She is mentally very tough,” Shaver said. “The rest of the kids

call it the ‘Stephanie move.’ She just can decide to pour it on. We

were at a race and we were losing. In 20 strokes, Stephanie pulled us

back to win. She told me after the race that she thought she really

made a difference in the race. The race official told me it was the

most amazing thing he had seen.”

Stone’s fast rowing and rapid climb to the top of the rowing

charts has caught the eye of more than just race officials. Stone was

invited to the 2005 U.S. junior women’s national team development

camp in Connecticut this summer. She is the youngest of the 38 rowers

who will be training with the U.S. junior national team.

“I’m hoping I can bring down my time and increase my speed,” Stone

said. “I want to drop to under seven minutes [in the 2,000]. But I’m

just going to go along and do everything I can while I’m there.”

Princeton University, the top women’s collegiate crew program in

the nation, has already contacted the Stones about Stephanie

attending once she graduates. She hasn’t even finished her freshman

year at Newport Harbor yet.

And training with the U.S. junior national team naturally leads

one to think about the Olympics.

“Is she almost [at that level]? No,” her father said. “In three

years, maybe. In seven years, possibly. We don’t want to get too

ahead of ourselves.”