Rowing changed Coach Whicker's life, now he is changing students' lives with rowing

January 25, 2024

Each morning as the sun rises over Oak Hollow Lake, you can hear the

waves lapping against the floating dock, the wind whistling across the

lake, a slight tapping against the water and the low hum of a boat engine.

As eight oars tap into the water, coach Burt Whicker studies each rower

in the boat, observing every movement in every stroke. He watches with

a methodical gaze, until he gets to the fifth rower who skids the oar across

the water. He pulls a gray and blue megaphone from the small duffel bag

at his feet to his lips, storing it once again when the rower corrects his mistake.

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Whicker, 74, does not look like the typical rower. Standing at about five feet six inches, dressed in stone-colored khaki shorts that go down to his knees, a lavender-colored High Point University shirt, tucked in at the waist, and always wearing the same cream-colored HPU baseball cap, he has a welcoming atmosphere that makes you comfortable around him immediately, and his resting facial expression always seems to be a smile. He listens intently to everything you have to say, excited for what you have to tell him.

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Whicker has not been coaching for long, but you would not know with the amount of knowledge he has on the sport. 

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When he began rowing, he approached this new career the same way he does everything: Learning anything and everything he can.

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“My college degree is in physics, so my approach to finding things out is just to read everything I can,” said Whicker. 

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For 30 years, Whicker competed as a semi-pro cyclist. Whicker competed until he crashed in 2006 and broke his leg in five places along with his neck which forced him to be stuck in a cast and not be able to walk for five months. Once he was cleared to begin exercising again, using a rowing machine was the only full-body workout he could safely do.

His father-in-law, Tim Tyler, founded the rowing program at Jacksonville University. After learning about how Whicker loved using the rowing machine, Tyler had Whicker try out a training boat on the water, and Whicker was hooked. 

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Reading the “classic” rowing books, going to coaching camps and doing ride-alongs with other coaches. When Whicker and his family visited relatives in Jacksonville, he went to visit the university and met the current coach, Mike Lane, whom he has coached alongside at summer rowing camps every year since meeting.

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But even after years spent learning, there is always that feeling of self-doubt. “Every single day I would get up and think, ‘Oh God, what am I going to do today?” 

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Rowing at HPU is a club sport, so the stakes are not as high as a Division I sport, but that does not make Whicker’s job any easier. Everyone rows because they want to and can all leave if they do not.

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HPU’s rowing team usually stays around 20 to 30 people each year with a mix of men and women. Most students who join the team have never rowed before and start competing against other schools within a month of starting on the team. 

“We go to these regattas, and the main thing I worry about is how they take it, finishing last or not coming in the place they want,” said Whicker. “Then I start to doubt my ability as a coach.” 

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But his self-doubt has not affected his coaching.

Ethan Penny, an HPU junior, began rowing his freshman year for the first time, and this past summer he attended a US national team training camp in Vermont. “He has got a ton of experience coaching novice rowers,” said Penny. “I think that really speaks to his coaching and how he has been so successful with getting new people to a point where they can race pretty quickly.”

Now designing his own training plans, Penny goes to Whicker for advice and guidance to make sure it will benefit his rowing skills and fitness. “I would not be where I am today without his coaching in the beginning,” said Penny.

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Whicker’s success in coaching has not come from just his knowledge of the sport. “If it had been anyone else that I first talked to, I do not know if I would have gotten involved or stayed with it,” said Brooke Allen, a former athlete of his. “Seeing his dedication to the team makes you want to give as much as you can for everyone to succeed."

He takes care of all his athletes, making sure they are able to come to practices or regattas, and if they can not he tries to find solutions and compromises with jobs or professors.

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Whicker has been successful at every career he has tackled in his life, no matter how different each one was from the next. After spending over a year working on an oil rig boat in the Gulf of Mexico doing shallow bottom surveys, he moved back to N.C. He then won a fully funded grant as an artist/photographer in residence at James Sprunt Institute, where he taught and showcased two galleries of his work in a year and a half period.

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His longest job was working as a furniture photographer. Owning a studio in High Point, Tatum Toomey & Whicker Inc., they became the second-largest studio in town.

Furniture in High Point is a massive industry, with the furniture photography business being worth about $50 million dollars when Whicker started in the 1970s.

Starting your own business in an industry that size is going to be an uphill battle. “The measure of success is usually; did we make payroll this week?” said Whicker. Even still, Tatum Toomey & Whicker Inc. was a successful business in town for 30 years. The building still stands in High Point, even though it is not home to Tatum Toomey & Whicker Inc..

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In 2002, the company split. Whicker took the photography division and had an agreement with two new partners to buy him out over five years. In 2008, they exercised that option and Whicker entered retirement until he began coaching.

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Even through a successful collection of careers, it has not come without strife. “I have always, sort of struggled with, ‘Am I really good enough to be here?’” said Whicker. “And I think that’s why I have worked hard at anything I do because I want to be taken seriously at it.”

But he has learned how to measure success in a way that means the most to him.

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It is not his achievements or the achievements of the teams he has coached. His business made it possible for people to earn a living and advance their careers. His athletes have gone on to become successful adults, not just in terms of wealth, but with confidence and happiness.

Standing on his desk rests a wedding invitation from a couple that met through the rowing program. “They were able to connect through rowing and have built a life together,” said Whicker.

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What he is most proud of though, is his family. “One of the best things that has ever happened to me was marrying my wife,” said Whicker. “She has made me a much more civilized human being.” Whicker also has two daughters, 40 and 36. His oldest has three children and is a writer working on her second novel. His younger daughter lives in Brussels and teaches at the French Lycée.

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Now, as the sun begins to set, the light filtering between the trees along Oak Hollow Lake, Whicker is out there again, studying the rowers as they glide across the lake. As they come to a stop, Whicker pulls his boat close to theirs. He sits up in his chair and explains the technique of the movement as he always does, “It’s like a deadlift,” he says, pushing his legs straight, then leaning his upper body back, and finally pulling his arms. When the athletes begin again, he observes their form closely before he leans back slightly, and his face relaxes into a smile.