Brett Sickler stands between her mom and dad. Bill is CEO of a computer company. Her mother, Gail, teaches math at Los Gatos High School.
Photograph courtesy of the Sickler family
A recent Los Gatos High graduate strikes silver before starting college
By Rebecca Ray
At first, Brett Sickler, who played basketball for Los Gatos High School, took up rowing to stay in shape during the off-season. Little did she know that four years later, she would win a silver medal at the 2001 Junior World Rowing Championships.
At the world championships, held in August in Duisburg, Germany, Sickler and her three U.S. teammates placed second in the women's four-boat race. "Four" refers to the number of women in each boat. The United States finished six seconds behind Belarus, with a time of 6 minutes, 55 seconds. Sickler was also part of the U.S. crew that finished fifth in the women's eight-boat race. Both races took place over 2,000 meters.
Sickler, 18, who graduated from Los Gatos High School in June 2001, received a full scholarship to row for the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, which she currently attends.
Before her senior year of high school, Sickler had always thought she would play college basketball. Sickler, who had played basketball since she was 6, made the All-League first or second teams her freshman, sophomore and junior years. But when her team played for--and won--the league championship when she was a junior, the practices and games cut into her crew schedule. She quit basketball to devote more time to crew.
Evidently, focusing on crew paid off. Sickler, who fell short of making the national crew team in 2000, made the team for the first time in 2001. She described the experience as "really, really amazing."
At the 2000 national team tryouts, judges told Sickler she needed to work on sculling, or paddling with two oars, in a single boat. In the four- and eight-boat races Sickler competes in, athletes usually paddle with one oar. She improved in sculling so much that in 2001, she won the singles race at the Southwest Regionals, finishing at least 30 seconds ahead of the second-place winner. She also finished third in singles at the Nationals in Cincinnati.
Throughout high school, Sickler rowed for Los Gatos Rowing Club in Lexington Reservoir. The club comprises athletes from various local high schools.
The last couple of years, Sickler and her Los Gatos Rowing Club teammate, Allison De Palma, have ranked among the top 20 female rowers in the nation in the 18-and-under age category. De Palma, 17, who lives in Monte Sereno and attends Notre Dame High School in San Jose, was part of the U.S. eight-boat team in Duisburg.
Mike McCoy, Sickler's coach at Los Gatos Rowing Club, described Sickler as "an incredible leader" and "a mentally tough person with a positive attitude."
Sickler said she loved to row because of the intense competition. Unlike basketball players, she said, rowers don't get in opponents' faces to challenge them--they challenge their opponents mentally. Sickler added that rowing was also a good team sport because a team cannot have a weak link to achieve success.
For Sickler, trying out for the Olympics will come further down the road. The good thing about rowing is that athletes can do it into their 30s, she said. Because of this, she added, most rowers wait until they finish college before they try out for the national team. Sickler's immediate goal is to help Michigan, which placed second in the nation last spring, win its first national championship.
Although Sickler has not chosen a major, she's thinking of either studying English or anthropology, or creating her own photojournalism major, which Michigan does not offer.
Sickler gained photojournalism experience when she served on the staff of her high school's student newspaper, El Gato, for three years. As editor of the "People" section, which focuses on individual students, she wrote and assigned stories, copy edited, laid out pages and took photos. She is considering taking photography classes at Michigan's art design school.
Although Sickler was born in Cupertino, her family moved to Los Gatos when she was 6 months old. She has lived in Los Gatos since then, attending Daves Avenue Elementary and Fisher Middle Schools.
Sickler's sister, Joanna, 21, rows for Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. Although Joanna didn't start rowing until college, she is captain of the varsity team at the university, and was NCAA Second Team Division III All-American in 2001. Sickler's brother, Cole, 13, plans to start rowing once he starts high school, Sickler said.
Sickler's father, Bill, is CEO of a computer company. Her mother, Gail, teaches math at Los Gatos High School.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
