Cares pushed aside
Crew keeps a family illness off a student's mind and turns him into a champion.
By KEVIN METZ
The Orange County Register
The early-morning sun beats down on his shoulders. They aren't as defined or broad as others in his boat, but Richard Lund's teammates still listen to him.
Eight oars move and push the water, making the 80-foot Empacher glide with refined grace down the Newport Marina. His periodic words of encouragement break the silence but not the rhythm.
Lund knows his Orange Coast College teammates are behind him. Every time his team races, his mind stops racing for six minutes, 2,000 meters.
"It has been very therapeutic for me so that I don't go insane," he said. "This is my distraction."
Take another stroke. One more stroke. When his body reaches exhaustion, Lund gathers his thoughts. He doesn't want them wandering.
"When I get tired, I become a horse without blinders," Lund said. "Then I get this tunnel vision. That gives me that much more focus, that much more drive."
Each backward stroke is another step forward in the sophomore's life. He says rowing helped him turn his life around. It helps him cope and helps simplify even the toughest of situations.
"It started as breast cancer, and now it has spread to her brain," said Lund back on the dock, his voice wavering slightly for the first time.
"My mother is slowly losing her battle. It is really hard."
REFUSING TO QUIT
Lund's father concedes his 21-year-old son was no athletic prodigy growing up. Teammates kid that he looked more like a coxswain – the lightweight conductor in back of the boat – than a rower.
Even Lund had his early doubts about joining one of the most competitive rowing programs in the country.
"I thought what am I doing here?" Lund said. "These are wrestlers, cross country runners and football players."
Lund was a golfer. Hitting the books was his distraction in high school, but he said hitting the links was his outlet. It got him out of the house he shared in North Carolina with his mother, Phyllis.
"I was sheltered except for golf, which took a little bit of the stress out but not enough," Lund said. "Unfortunately, when you hit a bad shot in golf it makes you even more stressed."
He, like many novice Orange Coast rowers, picked up an oar for the first time on the first day of practice. But without natural athletic ability or a refined technique, Lund found himself off the competing roster.
"Most athletes would have probably quit in a situation like that," said team rigger Robbie Dalrymple. "Not him. He kept coming to practice and working his butt off."
Lund said few people knew him the year he redshirted. They didn't know his story, or even know his name.
FROM ONE CHAMPION TO ANOTHER
To improve his rowing skills, Lund signed up with Xeno Muller, who has won gold and silver Olympic medals. Meeting Muller for the first time was a lot like the first day of practice.
"Very nerve-racking," Lund said. "At first I was shy. I didn't know how to approach him because of the status."
Muller met a kid with enthusiasm and a desire to learn – two things the owner of the Iron Oarsman fitness studio in Newport Beach saw instantly.
"He knows how to listen to coaching," Muller said. "When I would take him out on the single scull, I would mention a couple of technical points and he would correct his stroke very quickly."
Under Muller's guidance, Lund earned a seat on Orange Coast's 2nd Novice 8 boat. That improbable crew of first-year rowers – from the only competing two-year school in the country – became national champions.
"If you suit up and show up, you will succeed," said coach Larry Moore, who watched his team win the ECAC National Rowing Championships by a boat length in 2006. "Richard certainly has succeeded. He has gotten everything out of rowing that Coast has to offer."
Lund smiles when he remembers that championship – the highlight of his career. That smile grows as he recalls his recent promotion into the varsity boat after winning a seat race.
"He may not be the most athletic guy on the team, but his spirit makes him a better athlete," Muller said. "He became an identity within the team."
MOVING APART
While Lund finds his identity, he acknowledges his mother is slowly losing hers in a North Carolina rest home. They haven't spoken much since he moved back to California to live with his father.
"She is weak from all of the medication she is on," he said. "It is hard to maintain a conversation with her."
So memories fill the void left by unspoken words. Lund remembers how she encouraged him to read at a young age – so much so that he set a record in his elementary school for reading 356 books in a year.
He remembers packing up his life and the family dogs in two cars for the cross-country trip to North Carolina. Lund said that decision, at age 14, was one of the toughest he has ever made.
"I didn't talk to my dad or my stepmom for nearly a year after that," Lund said.
He remembers his mother telling him about the lump on her breast but neglecting to see a doctor. He also remembers the note he found on the coffee table one day left by a neighbor. It said that his mother had been rushed to the hospital with breathing difficulties.
A BRAVE NEW LUND
Lund said his older half brother, Michael, lives about five hours from their 60-year-old mother.
"It really helps that he is there for her," Lund said. "It puts a lot of pressure on me when I go out to see her. It is emotionally taxing."
That pressure returned two weeks ago when Lund visited Phyllis. He had to go through his old home and designate what would go to charity, what he would keep and what would go to his brother. Seeing his mother in her current state was much harder.
So he keeps rowing. He focuses on the things he can control: preparing his mind for the next race, his body for that next 2,000 meters.
"I love its beauty, its rhythm, its dynamic," Lund said. "It is one of those repetitive motions that I don't mind doing. Now it's like I am playing golf on water."
A business major, Lund said he has entered a new, happier chapter in his life. Rowing is a big part of it, he said.
"He has gone so far to creating his own person," said Lund's stepmother, Elizabeth. "He has really overcome a lot of the obstacles he has had to face at such a young age."
Teammates now know his name, but rarely use it. "Squad leader," they say – a tribute to a young man's perseverance and leadership.
Xeno Muller, Olympic gold and silver medalist, indoor rowing, rowing technique.
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