Christopher O'Carroll '97 UMass Amherst magazine
Fall 2003
SOMETIMES, OUT ON THE RIVER with crew coach Jim Dietz, Katharine O’Brien can hardly believe her good fortune. “He’ll be coaching me and I’ll realize that I’m next to Jim Dietz, and some people would kill to get to row with him,” O’Brien says. A three-time Olympic rower and two-time Olympic coach, Dietz is a legend in the sport, with a boatload of medals and other honors to his credit. UMass women’s crew has been a consistent Atlantic 10 powerhouse under his leadership. “I met a girl at Princeton,” O’Brien recalls. “She’s on the crew team there, and she told me, ‘I can’t believe you get to row with Jim Dietz! You’re so lucky!’ He’s the name to know in rowing.”
In her four years at UMass, O’Brien has succeeded in making herself something of a name to know too among student athletes. A School of Management major and an English minor, a member of the Commonwealth College honors program, and currently in the throes of the law school application process, she is also a recipient of a high-profile Rick Pitino Scholarship.
The Pitino Scholarships, which recognize academic and athletic excellence, are named in honor of Rick Pitino ’75, who starred on campus as a member of the Minuteman basketball squad, went on to inflict occasional heartbreak on his former team as coach of the Kentucky Wildcats, then became a local hero once again as president and head coach of the Boston Celtics.
O’Brien, the youngest of six children, and the first in her family to attend UMass, grew up in the Worcester suburb of Shrewsbury. “I lived in Pennsylvania for the first six years of my life,” she says. “Then we moved to Shrewsbury.” Her mother was a full-time homemaker, her father a glass company sales manager. The public schools in her new Massachusetts hometown turned out to be ideal for a girl who was both intellectually curious and physically strong. “One of the good things about growing up in Shrewsbury,” she says, “they’re one of the few public school systems that have crew. It’s a very expensive sport. A boat costs $25,000. An oar costs $200.”
She didn’t get involved in competitive rowing until high school. Growing up, she had played soccer and tennis and had enjoyed both games without ever feeling a special excitement that told her she had hit upon her sport. Then she heard some neighbors talking about their rowing experiences. She decided to give it a whirl, and discovered a passion that has been with her ever since. In addition to competing for UMass, she also keeps her skills in shape by entering regattas on her own during the summer.
For her senior honors thesis, O’Brien is working on a writing project, a group of short stories in which she expects that the theme of young women and athletic competition will figure prominently. As she labors over her law school applications, she is also looking ahead to life after college rowing. She can rattle off the names of UMass women’s crew alumnae who have gone on to represent the United States on Olympic teams. Their achievements are clearly a source of hope and inspiration for her. “The history of UMass rowing is incredible,” she exclaims. “The decision to come here is one of the best I ever made.”
