Rowing and Growing: Triad United Rowing
Hoisting their boats over their shoulders, the young athletes of Triad United Rowing make their way down to Oak Hollow Lake’s dock. Though inside High Point’s city limits, the waters have a remote and peaceful atmosphere. With the rowers on the lake, slender oars cut through the surface of the water, propelling the boats forward. The team is calm and collected, moving and breathing in rhythm across the beautiful lake. Bullhorn in hand, their coach follows along, giving instructions from a separate motorboat.
“There’s something about being out on the water,” says Gene Kininmonth, head coach and founder of Triad United Rowing. “It's a very personal experience, even when you're in a boat with seven other people rowing with you.” For Gene, rowing runs deeper than Oak Hollow Lake.
A former Australian National Team Oarsmen and the founder of Triad United Rowing, Gene is the driving force behind rowing in High Point and has never known a life without the sport. After all, rowing has been in his family for three generations.
“I remember visiting my grandfather’s house,” recollects Gene, “and seeing all the sterling silver cups that he had won over the years, going back to 1916, 17, and 18. It was a real connection to history for me.”
Eventually, after moving to California, Gene coached rowing for more than 20 years, serving as head coach for several schools such as the University of Southern California and UCLA. After his wife took a professorship at High Point University, Gene moved to High Point in 2008. While he originally worked in HPU’s advancement office, Gene remained eager to start a rowing program and share his passion with the community.
“When I moved to High Point, there was no rowing here,” says Gene. “If there was going to be rowing, I was going to have to start it.”
Pitching the idea to High Point’s Parks and Recreation department, Gene was met with positive reception, as the city was looking for new ways to utilize its parks. Gene purchased some equipment, did a little bit of advertising, and launched what was then High Point Rowing Club in 2012.
“I started the youth program first, and everybody was brand new,” says Gene of the early days. “They were just looking for something new and from the get go, we were able to recruit quite a large team.”
Since the program’s inception, High Point Rowing Club has evolved into Triad United Rowing. While the program has its headquarters at Oak Hollow Lake in High Point, the growing demand for the new sport allowed Gene to offer rowing in Greensboro on Lake Brandt as well. The program has rowing opportunities for curious middle school and high school students, as well as adults of all experience levels.
“I started the adult master's program a couple of years after that. The first night we had 74 people show up ready to row,” recalls Gene, chuckling. “It was a little overwhelming at first, but we got through and it was a lot of fun.”
Outside of the growth of their youth and adult programs, Triad United Rowing has made a splash in the rowing world with their races, or in rowing terms, regattas. With the help of Gene’s continued efforts, as well as the addition of a floating rowing dock courtesy of Visit High Point, Oak Hollow Lake has become the premier rowing destination in North Carolina, hosting the North Carolina Rowing Championship several years in a row.
“When I started the Rowing Club, there were no races at all in North Carolina,” says Gene. “I didn't want to have to drive five to six hours just to have a race, so we started hosting other teams. They always said, ‘Wow, this is a great lake to race on,’ and now it's grown to the point where it is today.”
With its beautiful surroundings, central location, and 800 acres of water surface, Oak Hollow Lake is the ideal setting for water sports, as well as regattas like the North Carolina Rowing Championship. As a result, the event draws in more than 800 rowers from the youth to collegiate levels and is the largest regatta of its kind in North Carolina.
“We've been doing these regattas for about five to six years, and they've just been growing each year,” says Gene. “We're getting more attention from bigger and farther away programs.”
The annual regatta draws in rowers from Tennessee, South Carolina, Florida, and even Washington DC. High Point even garners international rowing attention. The University of Cambridge in England planned a trip to High Point for the regatta last fall, and while the event was canceled due to Hurricane Ian, the Cambridge team enjoyed a visit to High Point.
“Whenever Cambridge comes out to the United States, they're sort of like royalty in the rowing world,” Gene explains. “To have them come and race here will draw a lot of international attention from the rowing world to High Point.”
In addition to bringing in big rowing names like Cambridge, Gene is glad to see that the regattas and their influx of rowers have been a boon to High Point’s restaurants and hotels.
“They're booking out 50, 60 hotel rooms for five or six nights straight,” says Gene. “It's a sport that I think adds an economic benefit in its own way. Being a destination for rowing crews has a significant economic impact for our hotels and restaurants.”
While the program as a whole has seen plenty of success, Triad United Rowing has also proved itself as fertile ground to produce top-level athletes from High Point.
“It’s a sport with a lot of college scholarship opportunities on the women's side,” says Gene. “Every single year I’ve been with the program, we’ve had a girl go to a division one college program.”
As the head coach for High Point’s High School team, Gene’s real joy is seeing how the sport has impacted the kids he works with. Not to mention his own sons, Jack and Harry.
“My son, Jack has fallen in love with the sport. And my 11-year-old son, Harry is about to join as well,” Gene says. Having rowed for most of his life, Gene takes great pride in watching his sons, as well as the students he coaches grow up in the program and is overjoyed to see how the sport is affording new opportunities for High Point’s kids.
“Every year, I'm just amazed at some of the kids that come through the program,” reflects Gene, “They start off as 12 and 13 year olds, and then suddenly they're these really mature leaders – juniors and seniors – that are paving the way for the new generation of younger kids. It really warms my heart to see other people falling in love with the sport and then sharing that passion.”
“There’s something about being out on the water. It's a very personal experience, even when you're in a boat with seven other people rowing with you.”
Gene Kininmonth, Founder of Triad United Rowing
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Photography by Maria West Photography