7:24

The education at the Rose City Rowing Club starts long before oars touch the water. The first lesson from head coach Nick Haley is about punctuality.

Afternoon practice begins at 4 o’clock sharp at this club in Portland, Ore.

The next lesson is about respect. This one’s a big deal at Rose City: Respect your fellow teammates, coaches, the sport itself and — today in particular — the equipment.

Haley is speaking to more than 100 high school students gathered before him. He notes that several of the club’s big boats — they’re called Racing Eights — are being repaired because some of the kids carelessly banged them together.

He tells them their goal is to “try and eliminate silly mistakes,” and Haley gives them a chance to do just that. After the talk, several rowers carefully guide a rack of boats outside.

“That is trust,” says Haley. It’s not just that the boats need to be cared for. It’s also about money. The students, Haley says, are wheeling $20,000 out the door.

The students transport them safely to Portland’s Willamette River, where Haley will do his coaching from a launch — a small, open motorboat.

He stands, 5 feet, 8 inches tall, wrapped in a vortex jacket, with the wheel in one hand and a bullhorn in the other. Early in the practice, he pulls up next to the varsity girls’ Racing Eight, where several rowers are struggling to get their oar blades out of the water cleanly.

Haley, sounding like a hypnotist, has them row with their eyes closed.

“All right, imagine it is coming out perfectly clean,” he says. “Breathe. Confidence.”

He is paying close attention to this boat. In a few days, he will travel with these girls to Boston for the celebrated Head Of The Charles Regatta. But he knows that prepping for the world-class event requires more than hypnotic rowing exercises.

He amps it up, yelling: “Come on, girls! Come on, girls! No excuses!”

They are racing now, against several of Rose City’s boys’ boats. In between the practice races, the girls’ chests heave. Their faces turn red. Haley, bobbing next to them in his launch, explains why pain and discomfort are good.

“We have to practice sticking our neck out physically. We have to do that today,” he says. “The upside to doing that is you’re going to have confidence at the starting line in Boston that physically you can do it.”

Many of the lessons 45-year-old Haley teaches on the Willamette are lessons he learned long ago on the fabled Thames River in England. When Haley was a teenager, he went to school in London. Rowing practice back then often meant exploring the river alone.

“I was allowed to develop a love of rowing in a kind of organic way. It wasn’t a factory,” he says. “We weren’t just churning it out to get medals, so I think I was imbued with a real deep love of the sport.”

It’s been 11 years since Haley started Rose City Rowing, a nonprofit that pays him about $50,000 a year, with no health benefits, for a job he does at least six days a week, 12 hours a day. The passion he discovered on the Thames fuels his nonstop schedule. He tries to instill that in his athletes, not just by imparting wisdom but by making them active participants in the experience.

He tells his rowers that they decide how much pain they can tolerate. He tells them that trading late nights with friends for 5 a.m. practices is not a sacrifice, it’s a choice.

Those lessons can linger past sunrise. Take 22-year-old Gregor Dierks, a former Rose City teammate, who rowed at Boston University.

“Rowing is one of those sports where you really see what you’re made of,” he says. “You really find new depths to yourself.”

Dierks is now back in Portland as an assistant coach for the club. He is one of Haley’s many success stories, not because Dierks kept rowing after Rose City, but because he took what Haley taught him and — in Haley’s words — ran with it. For Dierks, the concept that stuck was the value of hard work.

“That has totally permeated the rest of my life: with school, with rowing, with relationships, with friends,” he says. “You only get as far as the work that you put in.”

The rowing and life lessons have bred tremendous loyalty and respect for Haley, but he’ll never be mistaken for warm and fuzzy.

“It’s important to support them. It’s important to respect them. It’s important to nurture them,” He says. “But, a friend? No.”

This philosophy also appears to have its roots in Haley’s London experience. In a newspaper article from several years ago, he praised his coach, a former Olympic rower, for teaching Haley how to be both inspirational and tough.

“He didn’t coddle me,” Haley was quoted in the story. “He spoke to me as if I was worth the straight story.”

In Boston, the girls finished 34th out of 85 boats, but they also showed the mental toughness that Haley preaches. An announcer took note of the tenacity of their boat, identified by the 25 on the bow.

“Bow No. 25 is not giving it up here and this is great,” the announcer reported. “We love to see this kind of racing. Look at them taking it back!”

Molly Mastrorilli, 17, was in the boat. She says she achieved her goal at the event by successfully representing what Rose City stands for.

“To me, it’s not necessarily the fastest team out there, but we definitely are disciplined, hard-working people who try to be good people and try to work hard,” she says.

Of course, winning is important and the team will try to add to its already full trophy case when spring racing season, the most important time of the year, comes around. But Haley says the competitions and the endless practices are as much an investment in what he hopes is a rowing future for his athletes.

“I’d like them to be able to walk into any boathouse anywhere in the world, at any level, at any age, and be able to hop in a boat and work with the group that’s there,” he says.

Haley says it’s impossible for his athletes to get to that finished point while at Rose City. There’s too much going on in their teenage lives.

But getting them on track, and seeing the lightbulb come on, he says, is where he gets his satisfaction. So, if you see a glow coming from Portland’s Willamette River, that’s why.

Heavy air traffic in Italy ? #crazy #drone #crash #luckyme https://t.co/afvCZTZ6eq

— Marcel Hirscher (@MarcelHirscher) December 22, 2015

3:42

With two weeks remaining in the NFL’s regular season, the Carolina Panthers remain undefeated. NPR’s Robert Siegel discusses the Panthers, their quarterback, and the last two weeks of the season with Jane McManus of ESPN.com.

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

The Carolina Panthers are 14-0. Now if the magnitude of that fact is lost on you, consider this. There are just two weeks remaining in the National Football League’s regular season and if the Panthers win their last two games, they will become only the second team in NFL history to go 16-0 in the regular season. A team that you didn’t hear a lot about before the season began could be one for the record books. Espn.com’s Jane McManus was at the game yesterday when the Panthers beat the team we still call the New York Giants, even though they play and practice in New Jersey. Jane McManus, welcome to the program.

JANE MCMANUS: Thank you.

SIEGEL: The Panthers led early, squandered that lead, but quarterback Cam Newton led them to an end-of-the-game field goal. How good is Cam Newton?

MCMANUS: I think he’s making a bid to be one of the quarterbacks who’s going to emerge as the inheritor of Peyton Manning and Tom Brady’s legend. Those two quarterbacks are at the end of their career, and Cam Newton appears to be poised to make a bid and say that he is one of the next generation coming up. He has been electric this season, particularly yesterday when he scrambled for 10 yards to get the Panthers, at the very end of the fourth quarter, into field goal range. They kicked a field goal and won that game.

SIEGEL: You say he would be a successor Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. He cuts – physically, he cuts a very different figure from those two quarterbacks.

MCMANUS: Well, he’s a running quarterback, which means that he’s not afraid to scramble. He had exactly 100 yards yesterday, which is impressive for a quarterback. He’s six-foot-five. But he’s very different also in his demeanor. He seems to have a lot more fun on the field. He’s big into smiling. He’ll dance in the end zone. And I think that those are some of the things that make him really likable to a lot of NFL fans.

SIEGEL: Truthfully, back in September when you looked ahead to this season, could you imagine Carolina being 14-0 at this point?

MCMANUS: I think at that time, people didn’t really know exactly what that team was going to be. Cam Newton has always been a very promising player, but he hasn’t really emerged. He’s kind of been in this class of quarterbacks who’ve been very good and very promising but haven’t made the leap. And Cam Newton really did take that step forward, giant step forward.

SIEGEL: So here’s a question. Say you’re the head coach of a team that’s 14-0 -15-0, and you’re looking at the last game of the season. Do you sit some key players to give them some rest before the playoffs and possibly risk the glory of an undefeated season?

MCMANUS: Thank goodness I’m not a head – an NFL head coach so that I have to make that decision, but I would think it hinges on injuries. If you have a player like Cam Newton who took a hard hit in yesterday’s game right before the half – and let’s say those injuries are cumulative. That might be a good reason to rest a player. I would worry, though, if you have a healthy player and you’re keeping him out. Yes it’s safer, but at the same time you take him out of a rhythm and you take him out of, you know, kind of football shape. There’s a pounding that your body has to be used to taking in order to play a football game well. I think you want your players at their peak.

SIEGEL: When you look ahead to the playoffs, do the Panthers look especially strong, or do they start playing tougher teams?

MCMANUS: You know, Cam Newton’s numbers were great yesterday and he’s had some really high MVP games, but he hasn’t always had the same kind of numbers that some of the, you know, the Tom Bradys and the Peyton Mannings have had during the regular season. So I think that there’s this perception that they possibly could be picked off depending, you know, on how they finish the season. But at the same time, I think you see a game like yesterday – this team is only getting better, and I think they’re going into the playoffs on a high note depending on what happens again in the next two games.

SIEGEL: Jane McManus, who covers the NFL for espn.com. Thank you for talking with us, Jane.

MCMANUS: Any time.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

3:49

Mike Pesca, host of Slate’s The Gist podcast, has some opinions about how Adam Silver of the NBA and Roger Goodell of the NFL run thir respective sports leagues.

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Time now for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MARTIN: And today we’re going to talk about leadership because our friend Mike Pesca has some opinions about how the men at the top of their respective sports leagues use their positions to greater and lesser effect. We are talking about the head of the NBA, Adam Silver, and the commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell. Mike is, of course, the host of The Gist on Slate. He joins me now. Hey, Mike.

MIKE PESCA, BYLINE: Yes, I lead The Gist.

MARTIN: You do. You’re the leader. OK, Adam Silver was in the news this past week because he gave this interview with Yahoo Sports that you found particularly illuminating. How come?

PESCA: That’s right. That’s right. So the incident we’re talking about is on December 3, Rajon Rando was suspended for going nuts on the basketball court, staring down an official. And for a little while, no one knows what was behind it. But it turns out he directed an anti-gay slur at the official. And he wasn’t suspended. It took eight days for that suspension to come down. Three days after the suspension came down, the official came out as gay. And so Adam Silver was a bit criticized. On the one hand, no one has ever been suspended for an anti-gay slur. They have been fined. Joakim Noah and Kobe Bryant have been fined. So it was unprecedented. So you could say, wow, this was the stiffest penalty. On the other hand, a lot of people were saying there was a huge delay and he should’ve been suspended more to send a message. So this interview with Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo, he laid out his thinking. And it was really illuminating. It was illuminating on a couple – for a – on a couple levels but because I think implicitly, and I wouldn’t be surprised if explicitly, he was contrasting his thought process with how Roger Goodell suspends people in the NFL.

MARTIN: OK, explain because he – Silver has been given a lot of props and treated very kindly by the media – Roger Goodell, not so much.

PESCA: Yeah, overall. Although this Rando thing, I’ve seen headlines – is this is first misstep? And one of the reasons Silver was given props is he handled the Donald Sterling incident, the owner of the Clippers, very well. So in this, Silver said a few things. One, if he came out with a harder suspension before Bill Kennedy, the referee, had come out, it would sort of be putting the onus on Kennedy to come out. He thought – he’d worried that he’d out Kennedy. But he also talked about how much he values due process. There are a couple unions involved, not just Rando’s but Bill Kennedy, the referee, is in a union. And that is in contrast with how Roger Goodell does his job. He doesn’t say I don’t value due process, but if you look at the facts, he suspends harshly. And then in really prominent cases, like the New Orleans Saints, like Ray Rice, like Adrian Peterson, they all get overturned either on appeal or by an independent arbitrator. So it doesn’t hold up. And the other thing – and I think this was really illuminating – specifically Silver said, quote, “I don’t think we should be making examples of anyone. I think that’s why the Players Association exists through check authority.” Whereas if you look at what Goodell says, he believes in making examples. And after the Saints case, he says, it calls for a very significant and clear message. It’s a different management style and it seems that Silver is more of a 21st century or second eighth of the 21st century type of manager, also a better communicator. Maybe, I better…

MARTIN: But these are really different leagues, Mike.

PESCA: That’s right.

MARTIN: I mean, they’re different animals.

PESCA: Yes, and, you know, I would say what it really comes down to is you have to serve your constituency. Adam Silver’s owners, a lot of them are tech billionaires, a little younger, a little more progressive. And the NFL owners, old-school owners. And of course, they love Roger Goodell. That’s why he gets paid, you know, 30, $40 million. So people are acting as if they are – as they are incentivized to act. But I see a real difference and I think it’s really interesting.

MARTIN: Mike Pesca, he’s the host of The Gist on Slate. Thanks, Mike.

PESCA: You’re welcome.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

4:31

NPR’s Scott Simon speaks with Howard Bryant of ESPN.com and ESPN the magazine about the big sports stories of 2015, and what to expect in the new year.

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

And now it’s time for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIMON: The highlight of my week at the office – right alongside telling you that BJ Leiderman writes our theme music – here to talk about sports highlights of 2015, our man Howard Bryant of espn.com and ESPN The Magazine. Howard, thanks for being with us.

HOWARD BRYANT: Good morning, Scott.

SIMON: What stories stand out for you?

BRYANT: Well, I think above anything else the story of the year really was the protests with the University of Missouri and the athletes showing their power. For the second straight year you’ve seen players really distancing himself from the old 1980s and 1990s model of the player hiding behind their riches in their gated communities. I think Missouri really proved that athletes can change the society, as we saw with the president resigning and the chancellor resigning as well. I think that – and the response is, well, even though the bill was finally killed that you saw how power was going to react when a Missouri representative – a state representative wanted to enact a bill that would strip scholarships from players who wanted to strike or refuse to play. So I think that the power knows that athletes, if they use it in a billion-dollar industry, can really affect the landscape across political and across social lines.

SIMON: Of course, at the same time, we heard a lot about the crimes of athletes, and I’m thinking of domestic violence charges especially. But does it seem to you more athletes are becoming conscious of their role as prominent citizens?

BRYANT: Oh, I think so, and I think you always follow the leader. I think in the 1980s and 1990s, of course, remember the famed Republicans buy shoes, too, line from Michael Jordan, even though no one knows if he actually ever said it or not. I think when you look at LeBron James as a player now as a guy who’s really different from those old days, he’s a guy who really does look at his role. We saw it with Trayvon Martin. We saw it with Donald Sterling in 2014, and now you look at some of the younger players in college. Remember the – Northwestern last year started to unionize or looked into unionizing. And now Missouri, the football players in October and November took on the university. So absolutely you see a change and this is a post – these kids are – their African-American post-Ferguson generation is very, very different from 30 years ago.

SIMON: I want to add a few things as a fan, OK, for 2015 highlights. The unrivaled excellence of Serena Williams, the athleticism of American Pharaoh, which, by the way, I don’t weigh on the same scale

BRYANT: (Laughter) Good, good.

SIMON: And the Kansas City Royals winning the World Series with grit, guile, speed, fielding. That was exciting.

BRYANT: And determination after, I think, one of my favorite stories in sports is when a team comes really close. We don’t see it very often when a team comes really close and they go out and then they lose. And usually that’s it, especially a team at their level. They’re not the New York Yankees. They don’t have a gazillion dollars spent on payroll. But they came close in 2014, and they lost the World Series at home to the San Francisco Giants. And the very next year, starting the first day of spring training, it was we are going out to win the World Series. We’re going to go get what we didn’t get last year. And they did. They went out and they saw, they conquered and they came through in a way that was really thrilling. And to have not won since 1985 was also great. And also the Golden State Warriors, as well, also a lot of fun.

SIMON: Yes. And what are you looking forward to in 2016? What do you keep your eye on?

BRYANT: Well, I want to see more – I want to – I really want to see how players react to what is coming. You know there’s going to be a response socially, whenever the next controversy’s going to be. I’m very interested in hopefully seeing a Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs Eastern Conference final. I want to see those two teams go at it, and there’s always something great.

SIMON: Wait – Cleveland rocks.

BRYANT: (Laughter) And of course, let’s not forget King James

SIMON: Yeah. And those three teams are having – you wonder if they can – they’re all having splendid years and you wonder how long that lasts. I’m looking forward to it.

BRYANT: Right, Christmas Day, Cavs and Warriors.

SIMON: Oh, my gosh, really?

BRYANT: Yes.

SIMON: Oh, I think I know what I’m doing. Howard Bryant of espn.com and ESPN The Magazine. With my family – we’ll watch together. You, too. Nice to talk to you, my friend. Talk to you in the new year.

BRYANT: Merry Christmas.

SIMON: Merry Christmas.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

Ellie Day I hope you’re doing okay! My apologies! Hope u guys come back to another game soon. Love LJ!

— LeBron James (@KingJames) December 18, 2015

4:07

Abby Wambach will play her final game for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team Wednesday night. NPR talked to her former coaches, fans and the star herself on what she’s meant to the game.

Transcript

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

It’s retirement day for the top goal scorer in international soccer. Abby Wambach plays her last game in New Orleans tonight. NPR’s Shereen Marisol Meraji has this appreciation of the star forward of the U.S. women’s soccer team.

SHEREEN MARISOL MERAJI, BYLINE: If you’ve never seen Abby Wambach’s awesomeness, go to YouTube and type in Wambach Brazil 2011. It’s the World Cup, the U.S. is down a goal against Brazil, down a player and has seconds to tie things up or get knocked out of the competition. High pressure is an understatement.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Now U.S. – they have it.

MERAJI: The U.S. takes possession of the ball. Megan Rapinoe gets the pass and races down the field. Wambach’s on the other side barreling toward the goal. She waves to Rapinoe who boots the ball across almost the entire width of the field. Wambach leaps head first and rockets it into the goal to tie up the game.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Abby Wambach has saved the USA’s life in this World Cup.

MERAJI: It was voted the greatest goal in FIFA Women’s World Cup history. A goal many of her teammates call their favorite Wambach moment. Wambach’s coach at the University of Florida, Becky Burleigh – her favorite story?

BECKY BURLEIGH: Am I allowed to cuss on NPR?

MERAJI: Yes, yes, we can beep it out.

BURLEIGH: (Laughter) OK.

MERAJI: It’s the national championship game against UF’s fiercest rival at the time, the North Carolina Tar Heels. The Gators are up 1-0. During a commercial break, the team huddles up before heading back on the field.

BURLEIGH: One of the players like, come one, we got this, you know? And other players are like, let’s go. And Abby says, we’re not [expletive] losing to these [expletive]. And I was like, OK. Well, there you go. Let’s go.

MERAJI: The Gators went on to win the team’s first and only national championship. It was 1998 and Wambach was a freshman. Burleigh says her outspoken and outrageous personality even at that age helped motivate her teammates. The youngest of seven, Wambach says when she was a little girl, she knew she had to be loud and tough to stand out. Her mom, Judy, put her on a boys’ soccer team at 9 to challenge her.

JUDY WAMBACH: And come to find out, many of the young women that were on the U.S. national team played boys during their early years. I did something right and didn’t know I did it (laughter).

MERAJI: You could say that again. Her daughter went on to win two Olympic gold medals, a World Cup title and has inspired the next generation.

TATIANA SMALL: I’m Tatiana Small (ph), I’m 13 and I want to be a professional soccer player.

MERAJI: I met up with Tatiana near Los Angeles practicing soccer after school with a private coach. She says Wambach is her idol…

TATIANA: She’s my favorite player.

MERAJI: …And points to her scoring record as one of the reasons – 184 goals in international play – more than any other woman or man, for that matter.

TATIANA: That is just amazing and FIFA needs to realize that women can do more than men and can do the same as men. So, like, we should get the same equal value as men do.

MERAJI: Gender equity is something Wambach has been using her star power and her loud, extroverted personality to fight for on a global stage. Most recently, she and others sued FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association for gender discrimination. The 2015 Women’s World Cup was played on artificial turf rather than grass. Turf is much harder on the body and the men never play the World Cup on it.

ABBY WAMBACH: There is still a lot of room to grow.

MERAJI: In a press conference before her final game, Wambach said she’ll keep fighting for fairness.

A. WAMBACH: We have been so imprinted on the fact that women make less money, get fewer opportunities, that people that have different skin color get less money and fewer opportunities. I want to make it not just, like, a talked about something.

MERAJI: She says she wants to make it equality – something real in her next chapter. But before that, she’s going to celebrate the end of an amazing career with her parents, six siblings and closest friends after her final game tonight in New Orleans.

A. WAMBACH: Watch out Bourbon Street, it’s going to be a fun night.

MERAJI: Shereen Marisol Meraji, NPR News, New Orleans.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.