Finding the Catch: Alexandria Vallancey's Transition From Basketball To Navy Rowing Champion

In today's special edition of Navy Sports Central, we kick off a series honoring 50 years of women at the Naval Academy. And we begin with the story of Alexandria Vallancey, a Corvallis High basketball star who arrived at Annapolis intent on Division I hoops and left as a force in Navy Women’s Rowing. What began as a walk-on curiosity at Hubbard Hall became a new identity, built on brutal practices, clean catches, and the unglamorous grind of the erg.

We'll trace Alexandria’s rapid rise from novice to the first varsity eight, the victories in the Cooper Sprints, dual wins over East Coast powers, and a string of Patriot League Championships that stretched Navy’s dominance. Then the stakes climb: an invitation to the Henley Royal Regatta’s historic King’s Cup, a mixed military crew that included two women, and a nation’s colors on the line. 

Feel the rhythm of head-to-head racing as Canada and France fall, and experience the drama in the final as a decisive move lifts the American boat Overlord past Germany while cheers of  “USA” help push the boat down the course. The win marks a powerful return to the international stage for Navy rowing—and it's a milestone in the larger story of women’s athletics at Annapolis.

We also look ahead: the pandemic’s interruption, a return to form with another league title, and the next horizon—qualifying for the U23 U.S. National Team and competing at the World Rowing Championships. If you care about Navy sports, women’s sports history, rowing strategy, or the mindset it takes to reinvent yourself, you don't want to miss this story. Be sure to follow the show, share it with a Navy fan, and leave a review to help more listeners find these stories. Then tell us: what bold pivot are you ready to make?

Chapters

• 0:00 Special Edition Introduction
• 0:38 A High School Title; A New Opportunity
• 3:11 Putting Down the Basketball, Picking Up the Blade
• 6:24 From Walk-On To First Varsity Boat
• 11:50 The Henley Royal Regatta and a Return to the International Stage
• 13:05 The King's Cup Races
• 18:39 Next Episode Teaser, Outro, and Show Credits

Transcript

Karl: 0:00

Hi everyone, I'm Karl Darden, and this is a special edition of Navy Sports Central. It was just over 50 years ago that President Ford signed the law making it possible for women to attend the Naval Academy. So 2026 marks the 50th anniversary of women being admitted to Annapolis. And this being a sports podcast, I will share the stories of five athletes to celebrate 50 years of athletic excellence in women's sports at Navy. They won't be in any particular order, and some of the sports may not even be familiar to you. But each of these women made their own indelible mark on the Naval Academy Athletic Program, and it is my privilege to bring their stories to you. Here is the first episode on our series. I hope you enjoy it. You are a member of the Corvallis High School girls' basketball team in Corvallis, Oregon. This is one of the last regular season games of the year, and the winner will clinch the 5-A conference title and an automatic birth in the state tournament. In 2016, the Foxes edged you out and finished first in the conference. This year, you and your team are on a mission to bring home the hardware. It won't be easy though. These games against Silverton are always hard fought, and this one is not expected to be any different. You get off to a quick start. After controlling the opening tip, your teammate finds you open on the wing and you put up a three-pointer. It's right on target. Then, following a Silverton miss, you get free on the arc again and square up for another three. You drain that one also, and just like that, you've got your team out to a six-point lead. The Silverton coach calls timeout to try and stop the momentum. When you take the court again, the game becomes a back and forth contest with a handful of lead changes, but neither team is able to put the other away. With your lead having just been cut to three points late in the fourth quarter, your point guard brings the ball up the court and directs everyone into your motion offense. It's a critical point in the game, and every possession counts from here on. You take up a position on the high post and signal a teammate with a subtle nod of your head. She sets a back screen and you immediately cut down the lane before flashing across to the left short corner. At the same time, your point guard has swung the ball to the left wing and you take the pass from your teammate just as the defense slides to cover you. But your opponent doesn't get there in time. Taking the ball chest high, you don't even bother to put it on the floor. You pivot to face the basket and release your shot just over the outstretched hand of your defender. The ball finds the bottom of the net and it proves to be the backbreaker. Now down by five points, Silverton never recovers. They have to resort to fouling and you eventually win the game by seven. After coming up short last season, the 2017 conference title now belongs to the Spartans. Two weeks later, you would lead Corvallis to a third place finish in the state tournament. This being your final season, your goal was to move on and fulfill your dream of playing Division I basketball in college. But on that day in early March, there were two things you had no way of knowing. The first was that you had just played your last game of basketball at the varsity level. The second was that you had gone to make your mark in a completely different sport and end up becoming a world champion in the process.

Karl: 3:12

Alexandria Vallancy grew up in Corvallis, Oregon, as the youngest of four children. Like all of her siblings, two sisters and a brother, she was very active in several sports, including lacrosse and golf. But it turns out that the path she ended up following with respect to athletics was quite a bit different than the one she had envisioned originally. Basketball was her true passion. Alexandria would spend hours putting up shots on the hoop in her driveway. It's where she went to escape. The hard work she put in paid off in a big way. In both her junior and senior year of high school, Alexandria was named first team all state and led her team to a conference championship, as well as a pair of third place finishes in the state basketball tournament. Her college plans had come into focus as well. Three months after defeating Silverton for the conference title, Alexandria headed east to Annapolis, Maryland. Earlier that spring, she had earned an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. When she arrived in June, it was still her goal to play Division I basketball. Alexandria was not actively recruited, but she didn't let that stop her. During the time period allocated for varsity sports practice, she joined the other freshman basketball recruits to keep working on her game. Her plan was to make enough of an impression for the coach to invite her back when the school year started to try and earn a spot on the team. Those first six weeks at the academy, commonly known as Plebe Summer, were extremely challenging. That's when the incoming class underwent a rather sudden and drastic transition from civilian to military life. The temperatures could get pretty oppressive, and the humidity was suffocating. But aside from having to deal with the weather, Alexandria did have a good idea of what to expect. Not only did her older brother Nathaniel graduate two years ago as a member of the class of 2015, her sister Adrienne just got commissioned the previous May with the class of 2017. Adrienne had been a member of the Navy women's rowing team and was currently serving her temporary duty assignment with the physical education department. Every so often, Alexandria would stop by the boathouse at Hubbard Hall to visit with her sister during those rare instances where she had a little free time. It was an opportunity to get away from Bancroft Hall and decompress. And like a good big sister, Adrienne would supply Alexandria with a bit of contraband, you know, stuff like coffee and candy that freshmen typically weren't supposed to have in their rooms. That made life a little bit more bearable during Bleed Summer. On one of those visits, Alexandria decided to try her hand at rowing. She even had a chance to race the small barges that the team used as part of their training. It was kind of fun, but her focus was still on walking on and making the basketball team when the fall semester began. Unfortunately, the day that the coaches reached out to any potential walk-ons came and went, and Alexandria did not hear back from the basketball coach. That was disappointing. But she remembered what it was like that afternoon when she was at the boathouse. Alexandria had noticed that many of the athletes there joined the program with no rowing experience at all. Some had come from a basketball background just like her, and it turns out that the Navy women's rowing team was one of the best on the East Coast. So in late August of 2017, Alexandria Vallancey traded in her basketball shoes for an oar roughly 12 feet long. And under the instruction of Coach Joe Schlossberg, she began a journey that took her places that she could have never imagined.

Karl: 6:30

It's October 2017, about two months into the academic year. You are in Philadelphia getting ready to compete in your first race as a member of the Navy women's rowing team. It's part of a regatta known as the Navy Classic. There'll be multiple races today. One of them will feature only freshman crews, and that's the one where Coach Schlossberg has placed you. In terms of the outcome, you have no idea what to expect. Of the eight crew members, only two rode in high school. The other six are walk-ons just like you. The racing distances in the fall are usually about 4,000 to 6,000 meters. For this race, it's 4,000. There are 11 other crews competing in it. That includes a second boat that Coach Losberg has entered. Even West Point has an entry. Army doesn't have a varsity rowing program, but it is a club sport. So the Black Knights have taken the opportunity to see where they stack up. The horn sounds, and your cocksman shouts out instructions to get everyone into a rhythm. Executing the race strategy is her responsibility. Yours is to focus on pulling that oar through the water in unison with the rest of your teammates. The four seats in the middle of the crew shell is often referred to as the engine room. This is where most of the power is generated. You are in the fifth seat. The shell glides forward with each stroke as the field begins to sort itself out over the four thousand meter distance. With about a thousand meters to go, your cockswin shouts, Okay, give me a Navy ten. From there, the entire crew counts off ten strokes, one for each seat in the cockswain, plus a tenth for Navy women's crew. And during that stretch, your shell surges ahead of the rest of the pack. The lead grows from two seats to four and then six seats. Before you know it, there is open water between you and the crew in second place. The cockswain uses this fact to spur you and your teammates on even more. 500 meters to go now. Your body has basically reached an anaerobic state. Your quads are burning and you feel it every time you drive your body back against the foot plates and pull the oar through the water. Your lungs feel like they're about to explode. But you maintain your intensity. All you need to do is hang in there for another minute and a half to two minutes and it'll all be over. You continue to match the stroke of the teammate in front of you, and you're gripping the oar so tight that your hands feel like they're going numb. But you press on. Finally, you hear the horn signifying that you've crossed the finish line in first place. Exhaustion has completely set in, and you collapse backwards, getting as much air into your lungs as you can with each breath. You and your team have done it. Six of you had never rode competitively until joining this team. Yet you came together and blew away the field, winning by more than five seconds. It was a totally dominating performance. And while this was the first time you had a chance to experience this kind of feeling, it certainly wouldn't be the last.

Karl: 9:13

When Alexandria Vallancey made the women's rowing team as a walk-on, she quickly realized that the sport had a totally different vibe compared to basketball and lacrosse. And it all started with the practices. Certainly there was a physical element to these sports, but the main focus of the practices was skills improvement, like going over the offensive and defensive scheme, practicing shooting drills, and working on specific game situations. Aerobic conditioning was important, but aside from running lines at the end of practice a few times a week, that was pretty much it. Rowing was a completely different animal. There were no schemes to learn, shooting drills to deal with, or plays to practice. It was just the athlete, the ore, and the water. And there was only one task: pulling that ore through the water together with your teammates to make that shell go as fast as possible. And to that point, virtually all the practices involved pushing yourself to your physical limit and beyond. So not only are you physically exhausted by the end of practice, but you are pushing yourself mentally the entire time because you do not want to let down your other crew members. This was all new to Alexandria. It was challenging, but she fully embraced the opportunity, and by the time the spring season had arrived, she had earned a seat in the first varsity boat. By all accounts, it was a very successful year. The team got off to a great start by going to Camden, New Jersey and winning the Cooper Sprints. The first varsity boat crossed the finish line nearly eight seconds ahead of Rhode Island, and anyone familiar with rowing will tell you that's a decent amount of open water. That was just the beginning. In the regattas that followed, the team earned wins over Cornell, Delaware, and St. Joseph's universities. That set the stage for a return to Camden on May 11th to compete for the Patriot League Championships. The Mids were the three-time defending champions, but it was a strong field. Boston University figured a challenge again, and going into the second day, it was still anybody's guess as to who would come out on top. Alexandria's 1v8 crew did their best to remove all doubt. They took care of business in their qualifying heat, posting a time of 6 minutes 36 seconds over the 2,000 meter course. In the grand final, they crushed their winning heat time by 20 seconds, easily defeating the Terriers by over 4 seconds. And when the second varsity aid boat won their race, the Mids secured their fourth straight Patriot League title. The following season, Alexandria continued to help power the engine room in the first varsity boat. The result was a fifth consecutive league championship that spring, qualifying the team for another trip to the NCAAs. At about the same time, Coach Schlossberg came to her with another big opportunity, one that would showcase the Navy rowing program on the international stage at one of the most prestigious regattas in the world.

Karl: 11:50

It's May 2019. You and your teammates have just finished putting away your shell after another draining practice. As you're about to leave, your coach calls you into his office with some exciting news. It turns out that the Navy rowing team has been invited to enter a crew in a race that will be included as part of the annual Henley Royal Regatta in England. It will be to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. And here was the best part. The teams competing in this King's Cup race will consist of mixed crews, six men and two women plus the coxswain. You and your classmate Ashlyn Dawson will be filling the two seats in the bow. The rest of the crew will consist of four guys from the men's heavyweights to drive the engine room and two from the lightweight squad to set the pace in the stern. Eight teams were invited to compete, all of them representing the militaries of the countries that fought in World War I. Two teams at a time will race head to head with the winners advancing to the semifinals and then the finals. Coach Schlossberg was not kidding. This was an awesome opportunity. The Henley Royal Regatta ranks among the most prestigious in the world, and this will be a great chance to go over to England and represent the Naval Academy and the United States on the international stage. And it won't be your only race either. You will also be competing in the Women's Fours race as well. This was shaping up to be a very good summer.

Karl: 13:05

Your King's Cup quarterfinal race was on July 4th against Canada. It turned out to be a rather easy win. Your coxswain Matt Catonoso got everyone into a good rhythm early, and the lead built gradually throughout the course of the race. You won going away, finishing nearly four boat lengths in front of the Canadians. The semifinals were the next day with France as the opponent. That race wasn't much different. The finishing time was over 40 seconds faster at 6 minutes 32 seconds, and your shell, named Overlord, cruised to another win by a little over three boat lengths this time. Now it was on to the finals. Waiting for you on the other side of the draw was the German team. They had just beaten the Australians in their semifinal race. In fact, their time of 6 minutes 27 seconds was 5 seconds faster than the one you posted in your win over the Canadians. The Germans also had an experienced Olympian in their crew, so they were no strangers to big races like this one. But that race against the Australians took a lot out of them. You'd actually heard that a couple of their crew members were so exhausted that they literally had to be carried out of the boat. You and the rest of your team had another advantage. Though you had only been preparing for this regatta for a few weeks, you had been rowing in races for the past three and a half months. So your physical conditioning was definitely at a much higher level. As you sit in the number one seat getting yourself mentally ready, you can't recall a time where you've been more nervous. This is your first race rowing from the bow, and there are some differences as opposed to being in the middle of the shell. Any extra movement will be felt by the rest of the boat, so it's even more important that the crew member in the number one seat has a stroke that is technically sound as well as smooth. That helps keep the shell as balanced as possible so that no speed is lost. Prior to the start flag dropping, you spend the time dipping your oar in and out of the water. This helps to keep the boat aligned straight down the course, and it's also useful for managing the butterflies in your stomach, which are about as big as manhole covers right now. Finally, the race official goes through the start sequence. He gives the ready command to both crews. Then he says, attention, go, and drops the flag. All eight oars begin driving through the water, but on your fourth stroke, you go just a fraction of an inch too deep when you pull the oar through and you feel the blade stick for a split second. You've just caught what is called a mini crab. This is a condition when an oar gets stuck in the water as the shell keeps moving forward. In some cases, catching a crab can be very serious. The result can be so violent that crew members have actually been knocked into the water by the oar handle when the blade breaks free. Fortunately, this situation wasn't quite as serious. You are able to wrench the blade clear, barely missing a beat. From there, you settle into a nice rhythm and follow the instructions of your coxswain.

Karl: 15:46

Overlord is a little faster off the start and has a slim lead through the first 200 meters, but the Germans begin with a higher stroke rate and eventually build a lead that grows to about six seats, approaching the halfway point of the race. There's no need to panic though. Your coxswain is keeping you at a stroke rate that allows you to stay in contact with the Germans, and he continues to watch their boat closely looking for just the right time to drop the hammer. Just past the halfway mark, he makes the call to increase the stroke rate. Several seconds later, you feel Overlord begin to surge forward. The German's lead begins to disappear with each stroke. With 700 meters to go, the two shells are in a dead heat. 500 meters from the finish line, you can see in your peripheral vision that Overlord has edged in front. That's when you begin to feel it. Sitting in the bow, you can usually feel it rise up slightly as the boat builds up speed. But in this case, it's a little different. As the stroke rate increases, you feel the bow come up and actually ride on top of the water. This tells you that the entire crew is rowing together as one unit. It's an awesome feeling. And then you hear people in the crowd cheering, USA, USA, USA. You and the rest of the crew use that as motivation and dig even deeper to push overlord across the finish line. The boat seems to be almost flying now as the bow glides on top of the water. Your lead increases with each stroke. The Germans try to mount one last charge, but they are done in. With less than 150 meters to go, it's all over but the shouting. The lead has grown to nearly a boat length. You can sense the finish line approaching. 100 meters, 50, 25. And when you hear that horn sound, you slump forward, feeling exhaustion and exhilaration at the same time. After the traditional three cheers for your opponent, you and the rest of your crew celebrate in the usual way by tossing your cocksman into the water. The celebrations continued into the evening, marking a truly historic day for the Navy rowing program.

Karl: 17:42

When the mixed crew representing both the U.S. Naval Academy and the country won the King's Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta, it marked a return to the international stage not seen since the Great Eight won the gold medal at the 1952 Olympics. Back then, women weren't even permitted to go to Annapolis. And now, 67 years later, Alexandria Vallancey stood on the podium with the rest of her team as winners of this historic race. The following season was basically wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic, but in her senior year, Alexandria helped lead the 1v8 boat to another win in the Patriot League Championships, resulting in their sixth straight title. That marked the end of her rowing career at Navy, but she wasn't finished yet. Alexandria had been presented with another opportunity at the end of her junior year. It was a chance to qualify for the under-23 U.S. national team. If she was successful, it would mean a trip to the 2021 U-23 World Rowing Championships in the Czech Republic just two years after that historic win at Henley.

Karl: 18:40

This has been Navy Sports Central's first installment celebrating 50 years of excellence in women's athletics at the U.S. Naval Academy. In two weeks, Alexandria Vallancey will be joining us to share her experience at the 2021 Under-23 World Rowing Championships, and she'll also be talking to us about how she manages her Navy career while continuing to pursue her goals as a member of the U.S. Women's Rowing National Team. I hope you'll be there because you won't want to miss it. By the way, if you like what you've heard on this show, please be sure to follow Navy Sports Central wherever you get your podcast. And by all means, feel free to share it with every Navy Sports fan you know. The music for this episode was provided by Nathaniel Wolkstein from Fiverr as well as Audio Jungle. These are two terrific sources for finding music for just about any kind of project while supporting those who create it. And finally, the content and opinions shared on Navy Sports Central are my own and in no way represent the views of the Naval Academy or Navy Athletics. Talk to you soon, everybody, and until next time, this Karl Darden. Go Navy, beat Army.