Windermere Cup Preview | UWs Isabelle Woodward has grown into role of coxswain

Already conversant in Arabic and French, Isabelle Woodward over the past three years has mastered another language: the larynx-strafing linguistics of crew.

Woodward — Ballard High School grad; honors student; an international business administration major with aspirations of working in the Middle East; former baton-pumping drum major of Seattle's All-City Marching Band — is the inquisitive type. So, for a hobby during her college years at Washington, she sought out crew.

The result? High achievement, naturally. Woodward, a junior walk-on, has risen to the role of coxswain of Washington's eighth-ranked women's varsity eight.

Woodward will be perched in the stern of the women's V-8 boat Saturday when Washington hosts the Brazilian Rowing Federation, Oregon State and Miami on Montlake Cut for Opening Day and the 23rd annual Windermere Cup at 10:20 a.m.

Woodward is 5 feet 3, barely 100 pounds. Yet she is responsible for steering, managing race strategy and, critically, projecting a commanding presence throughout the boat that evokes confidence, focus, cohesion, endurance and intensity. Lots of intensity.

"I remember the first time I heard somebody really coxing," said Woodward. "It can be a little scary the first time you hear it. It's incredibly intense.

"My coxswain voice is very low, very aggressive. I sound a little bit like an old smoker. It sounds like I'm literally ripping the words out of my throat, just forcing all the air out."

Asked to demonstrate, the articulate Woodward growled through some of crew's curious argot.

"Prryyyy, set! Lock, send! That's one, push it!" she intoned as if channeling Ramtha, warrior spirit. Or Hulk Hogan.

"That's part of our job, to be that intense with our voices, because that's how hard rowers are pulling," she said.

Forcefulness, though, did not come instinctively to the introspective Woodward. In peer evaluations that are part of UW crew culture, early on she drew dismal reviews as a motivator. "She was more of a liability than an asset," recalled women's coach Bob Ernst.

And she knew it.

"Halfway through freshman year I was literally the worst coxswain," Woodward said. "I'm naturally laid back and calm, and that's something rowers appreciate now. But at the time I was too relaxed, or I seemed really serious to some people. 'Intellectual' was one of the words someone used.

"They kept telling me they wanted me to, you know, yell at them. So I listened to other coxswains, and one day I let go and just did it.

"When we got to the end of that race, one of the rowers looked at me and said, 'That was it. That's what we want from you.' Once you do it, you kind of understand. I just decided I wasn't going to be afraid to do it any more. I wasn't going to be afraid to sound stupid."

Ernst noticed Woodward was suddenly "on fire." On short notice he assigned her to cox the junior-varsity eight in a race in San Diego. Her boat won. As a sophomore she coxed the women's varsity four to an undefeated season. She debuted as varsity eight coxswain in the NCAA title race last year.

"Isabelle really understands how to manage people," Ernst said. "It can be stressful inside a boat with all kinds of emotion flying around. But people twice her size don't scare her."