At age 11, Sophie Calabrese learned to row on the Cuyahoga River. Today, she’s at the top of her sport.
By Grant Segall
Photo courtesy of Becky Bynum
Every day after school, hundreds of Shaker Heights High School students put away their books and take to the field, court, pool, track, fitness room, or – as is the case at only one other Ohio public high school – the river.
And while this daily routine can benefit students across a wide range of abilities (see cover story), recent Shaker grad Sophie Calabrese has progressed to an elite level. She has won national rowing championships while representing Shaker and now the University of Texas. This summer, she helped a U.S. women’s quadruple sculls team finish sixth and the overall American team second in the World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Varese, Italy.
The multitalented student says the Shaker schools helped her learn to do far more than row. They taught her the French horn well enough for her to earn
first chair in the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and tour Europe with the ensemble. They also helped prepare her to make the Big 12 Conference’s rookie academic team and, twice, its top academic team.
Looking back, Calabrese says of the school district, “It’s rare to have a place where you have so many different things to do at a high level.”
“It’s really fun to go hard. It’s really fun to go fast.” — Sophie Calabrese
From an early age, Calabrese wanted to excel at sports. After trying a few, she was intrigued at age 11 by broadcasts of Olympic rowing. So she went to a day camp on the Cuyahoga River.
“In a day or two, I fell in love with rowing, and we hadn’t even been on the water yet,” she says.
She loves rowing because “It’s really fun to go hard. It’s really fun to go fast. You get new scenery. You have all this technique to think about. It kind of takes your mind off the grind.”
She faced plenty of grind while rowing for Shaker. In the spring and the fall, the rowers bussed to the Cuyahoga after school and practiced for up to two hours, dodging motorboats, freighters, and storms.
They returned to Shaker well into the evening, with homework yet to finish. Also in the spring, they competed in Cleveland, Boston, Grand Rapids, Chattanooga, and elsewhere. In the winter, they trained indoors.
Photo courtesy of U.S. Rowing
Her mother, Becky Bynum, says of Shaker crew, “I always scoffed when people talked about the benefits of athletics in teaching grit, persistence, leadership, and time management. I’m a believer now. It was a great launching pad for her.”
Calabrese crewed for coach Robert Valerian, the team’s founder, and his successor, Michael Jaffe. Jaffe says, “She’s a wonderful kid, a terrific student, and a really special rower. It’s a joy to watch somebody who is passionate and pushes her limits to succeed at a truly high level.”
“I always scoffed when people talked about the benefits of athletics in teaching grit, persistence, leadership, and time management. I’m a believer now.” — Becky Bynum
In 2018, among other feats, Calabrese won the girls’ Midwest single sculls title from the Scholastic Rowing Association of America. She was part of a Shaker 4+ crew (four rowers with one oar each, plus a coxswain) that won the girls’ Midwest Scholastic Championship and reached the national semifinals. She qualified for a Team USA crew and helped it win the women’s varsity quadruple sculls and the overall championship at the CanAmMex Regatta in Mexico City.
The next year, she won the national scholastic girls’ single sculls championship. For two years, she captained the team.
While doing all that, she earned a 4.3 grade point average, which won her a partial scholarship to Texas, a top college for rowing. She helped the Longhorns win the varsity eight and overall crown this year at the NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships.
Her first major was music performance. Now it’s exercise science. She’s in the fourth of five years of earning a bachelor’s degree and fulfilling prerequisites for grad school in physical therapy.
Because COVID-19 extended eligibility for sports, she can keep rowing throughout. Calabrese says that after college, “I want to keep competing.” She’s aiming for the 2028 Olympics.
