Issue link: http://catalog.e-digitaleditions.com/i/287439
61 24 Hawkeyes to Watch: Gabby Watson A n interesting thing happened on Gabrielle Watson's way to a University of Iowa choir audition. She took a detour toward the P. Sue Beckwith Boathouse and… "It was magic aer that," said Watson, a third-year member of the Hawkeye women's rowing team. How Watson came to the UI, and how she joined the rowing team, make for interesting discussion. Watson's father, Gregory, was adamant that his daughter visit at least three colleges before making a final decision. Watson knew her father's deadline was approaching, yet she procrastinated. One day, while sitting in an aer-school program at Danville (Ill.) High School, a classmate named Lauren Drennan shared her excitement about being accepted onto the Hawkeye swimming team. at information came in handy when Watson returned home that evening. "When I got home my dad asked, 'OK, what are your three schools?' Watson remembers. "I said, umm, Illinois, Illinois State, and Iowa. Iowa just came out, but we booked the orientation, I came here, and absolutely loved it. It is all because of (Drennan) speaking about being accepted to Iowa. I never researched this place, but we came here and loved it." Watson didn't participate in athletics in high school, opting instead for show choir and a capella groups. It's not that she didn't enjoy athletics, her 5-foot-8, muscular frame made Watson an ideal shot put and discus thrower in junior high. She attended basketball camps; her father played football and basketball at Kansas Wesleyan University. "e (show choir) competition seasons were at the same time (as athletics) in high school," Watson said. "I had done show choir in middle school, excelled at it and decided to go on and pursue that in high school." Watson thought she would continue with music at the UI. Her main area of academic interest was audiology, but she didn't want to quit her pursuit of music. e ink had not dried on her choir audition signature when former Hawkeye novice rowing coach Courtney Valerious approached Watson at orientation. You are tall, Valerious told Watson. You look pretty athletic, Valerious added. Why don't you join the rowing team? "(Valerious) was very convincing," Watson said. "She really sold the program. I came to college saying I was going to pursue music, but when I got the opportunity to do rowing, I thought, 'Why not try something new?'" at news was music to her father's ears. "Any time someone in high school would ask if his daughters played sports, (my dad) would say, 'No, they do music,' Watson said. " When he heard I was doing a sport, he was like, 'at's amazing, my daughter's a rower now.'" In her third season with the UI program, Watson has introduced herself for a third time to a different UI head coach. In 2011-12 it was Mandi Kowal, Steve Pritzker in 2012-13, and now Andrew Carter. "One of the first things that stuck out is that she is very bright," Carter said. "During my first opportunity to see her train it became obvious that she is a hard worker. She doesn't make a lot of fuss about anything, there isn't a lot of fanfare and she doesn't draw a lot of attention to herself. But anybody who watches knows that she is absolutely a leader in that department on our team." Watson is majoring in communications science and disorders with a minor in linguistics. By DARREN MILLER