Norwich’s Billy Bender Qualifies for World Rowing Championships

This summer, Norwich native and Hanover High School graduate, Billy Bender, had a decision to make. Head to the United States men’s senior team selection camp (where he had earned an automatic invitation) or try to make his second U.S. Under-23 rowing team (at a camp that was being held in his backyard at Dartmouth College).

Bender decided to push the boundaries by attending the senior team camp…and it paid dividends.

“I feel like I have always been the best athlete when I’m out of my comfort zone,” he said. “When these guys are better than me and I know I need to step up my game, that’s when I’ve been my best. Sometimes when you’re the best guy on a team or in an environment, it can become easy to be stagnant and complacent.”

Now a two-time first team All-American at Dartmouth, Bender qualified for the World Rowing Championships in the men’s pair (two rowers sweeping with one oar each) after winning the USRowing Senior National Team Trials in late July. The championships run from September 3-10 in Belgrade, Serbia.

“Obviously, it’s super cool,” said Bender. “It’s coming a little faster than I thought it would.”

What Bender means is that in the days and weeks after qualifying, everything hadn’t quite set in.

“I raced for the U.S. two years ago for Under-23s,” he explained. “It will probably set in once I get over to Serbia, but it didn’t initially because the main competition that we raced (in the lead-up to the World Championships) were rowers I have competed with and against before – in U23s and the IRA National Regatta. 

“I think once I arrive to the world championships and I’m lining up against the best guys in the world, then it’ll really hit me,” Bender continued. “Right now, I’m training in Hanover. The gravity of it isn’t right in my face the way it will be (soon).”

All this likely wouldn’t have been possible without Bender’s success at Winter Speed Order in Sarasota, Florida with Dartmouth alum Oliver Bub ’20. There, they finished third in the pair to earn automatic invitations to the first USRowing men’s senior selection camp in Princeton, New Jersey. 

This winter was also the first time Bender knew he truly belonged with the best of the best.

“I went out and was training with – and racing – the best guys in the country (at California Rowing Club), and I beat a lot of them,” he said. “The pair is obviously a very different boat than the eight (eight rowers sweeping with a coxswain), but that definitely made me think this isn’t a pipe dream.”

Which it wasn’t; it was reality.

From the first selection camp, Bub was named to the men’s eight. Bender was cut, but he had another opportunity to represent the Red, White and Blue.

“I called Wyatt Allen (Dartmouth’s Betsy and Mark Gates 1969 Head Coach of Men’s Heavyweight Rowing) and asked if it was worth trying to do some trial boat or come back to Hanover and reset for the year,” said Bender. “What was really clear about senior camp is I have to get faster on the erg. At Dartmouth, I have relied pretty heavily on my boat-moving abilities and my ability to win swaps. That works at the collegiate level and U23 level, but not at the senior level.”

After selection camp, Bender wasn’t sure if he should focus on training for his final season as a Big Green student-athlete or take another opportunity to reach the world stage in the pair.

“If I can just get more horsepower, get a bigger ‘engine,’ it will help me,” he said. “Wyatt obviously thought that was a good idea, but also said it may be worth going down (to senior trials in the pair) and seeing where I stacked up. Either way, it would be a good training opportunity (even) if I didn’t win.”

It ended up being both a valuable training opportunity and a win for Bender and his pair partner, Evan Olson.

The two initially met through a mutual connection. “We had a phone call and we got along, so Evan came up here to Hanover, we trained for a couple weeks and went down to New Jersey for trials,” said Bender.

Bender also knew he and Olson would have a reasonable chance for success in the pair, based on the competition.

“In some ways, the pair is slightly less contested than the single,” said Bender. “If you’re a good guy, you enter the single. In the pair, you need to find another good guy to row with and you have to match up and be in the same training location. There are a lot of good guys who can train by themselves and make a single go fast.”

Bender has been making boats go fast for some time. He began rowing at an early age, due in large part to his brother Ryan who rowed for Colgate University. Ryan originally joined the rowing team at Hanover High because next-door neighbor Blair Brooks was the freshman coach.

“We actually didn’t know this about Blair for a long time because he would never tell you, but he was a super successful rower back in his day,” said Billy. “He was captain of the mid-1970s Harvard crew that was called the ‘rude and smooth’ and they won everything. They were absolutely dominant.”

The Brooks connection got Bender’s brother Ryan into rowing, which led to Bender taking up the sport. Bender attended elementary school in Norwich where he grew up, then middle and high school in Hanover. He also rowed for the Upper Valley Rowing Foundation.

“The Hanover program is really fun and a good group of guys,” said Bender. “The coach, Andy Hilton, is great. The program was founded by Julie Stevenson, a former Dartmouth rower and current principal at Hanover High.

“I was pretty proficient by the end of high school, maybe better than a lot of high school rowers, but there wasn’t very much time on the water,” Bender continued. “We were pretty limited by the rules, without that many water sessions. I didn’t build the fitness, strength and endurance necessary to be really strong.”

All that said, Bender was in a good place at the end of high school. 

Allen, a former Olympic gold medalist, played an integral role in getting Bender to Dartmouth, and his subsequent growth and improvement.

“Wyatt really took a chance on me, and he recruited me when I was still pretty slow on the erg,” said Bender. “He recruited me in my gap year. I went to Thames Rowing Club in London and lived and trained with them for the year, which was a great experience. That was when I got into a full-time training program and really started to take some steps forward in terms of my fitness.”

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic hit that year. Bender’s time in England was cut short, but was still worthwhile. 

It set the stage for an already decorated collegiate career, and it’s not over.

“Wyatt is a rockstar,” said Bender. “He’s such a resource because he’s been on a bunch of teams and he’s an Olympian. He knows the players, he knows the system and he’s been through it a bunch of times himself, so he can call up to coaches because they coached him or because he rowed with them. He’s got this unique perspective where he’s been through it a bunch of times as an athlete, so he knows what I’m thinking, feeling and worrying about.

“I didn’t really realize when I was looking at and committed to Dartmouth how lucky we are with Wyatt,” Bender added. 

The feelings are mutual.

“We definitely got lucky with Billy in the recruiting process,” said Allen. “We took a chance on him as a local kid with great grades, a good mentality and a promising frame, and he took his gap year opportunity and ran with it. It’s a real credit to him and his hard work in England. He walked in the door for his freshmen year way stronger, more skilled and he had even grown another inch or so.”

Bender is hoping to follow in his coach’s footsteps. Bender’s goal for the upcoming world championships is to finish top 11 out of 26 entries and qualify the boat for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

“It’s not necessarily guaranteeing our (Billy’s and Evan’s) seats, but it’s two more seats for America,” said Bender. “It’s another boat that America gets to send to the Olympics.”

There are two opportunities to qualify any boat, the first and most direct route being the world championships the year prior. The other is the final Olympic qualification regatta, which comes during the Olympic year.

“There are a lot of really good guys in the pair,” said Bender. “Great Britain has arguably their best guys in the pair, and a lot of small countries that don’t have the talent to field a good eight, they have two good guys who can make the pair go very fast. We’re pretty quick and we’re getting better. We haven’t been together for that long, but I believe it’s definitely possible.”

As Allen said, “Billy is one of the best boat movers I’ve had the opportunity to work with. Most impressively, he’s effective across all boat classes: he can scull, he can move a pair, and he’s really good in the eight. The fact that he’s had good results at the elite level this year with two different pairs partners is very impressive, especially given his relative young age.

“There’s no hiding in the pair,” Allen continued. “If you’re not holding up your end of the bargain, the boat is not going to go.”

Bender has aspirations to go and qualify for the 2024 Olympics, which makes him think of the John F. Kennedy quote: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things. Not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

“I feel like I have to try,” said Bender. “I’m good enough that if I don’t try, I’ll look back in five years or ten years and think I should have tried. If I don’t make it, that’s okay, but I want to know I gave it my best shot.”

Before any Olympic dreams come the world championships, which run from Sept. 3-10, right before the start of the fall term at Dartmouth. From there, Bender would like to return to Dartmouth for the fall, then take the winter off to train and race at Speed Orders.

“By March, I would have a pretty good idea if I’d make a (U.S. Olympic) boat, or at least be in contention,” said Bender. “And if I’m not at the level, which is definitely a possibility, then I would come back to Dartmouth, race in the spring, and get on with my life. 

“If I think it’s a possibility that I could make a U.S. boat, then I would likely take the spring off (to train),” he added. 

At this point, Bender’s exact plan is far from finalized. But for now, he is focused on representing the Red, White and Blue in September. 

Regardless of what the near and distant future holds, Billy Bender will continue to push himself out of his comfort zone, which helped him reach the 2023 World Rowing Championships in the first place.

It’s something that will continue to define him as he moves forward, no matter what comes his way.

In our Winter/Spring 2022 issue, the Norwich Times took a look at local rock music school, Tuck’s Rock Dojo, run by Norwich resident husband and wife team Tuck and Kata Stocking. We caught up with the Dojo this summer as we ran into their students performing some radical rock at the 2023 Norwich Fair hosted by the Norwich Lion’s Club in August.

The Norwich Lion’s Club first invited the Dojo to perform about 13 years ago when a former student’s parents, Laurie and Rob Sabatelle, introduced the school to the club. Now, in their 10th or so performance at the fair, Tuck can’t say enough good things about the opportunity the Norwich Fair creates for the students to perform the craft they spend hours honing, live in front of an audience: “Norwich fair feels like home. It’s a real festive time for our bands. There is a magic to playing under the fair lights that never gets old.  The kids get to shine on stage then go and ride the Hurricane – it’s an adventure that is hard to beat.” 

Kata, who runs the administrative side of the business and was busy introducing acts and taking phenomenal photos of the students rocking out on the day of the performances, agrees. She notes how, while the students get to perform in a variety in venues, taking the stage in front of their own friends, family, and community members is something special: “For us the Norwich Fair is one of the biggest highlights of the year. We are performing with the bands in many different venues and the Norwich fair definitely is the cherry on top. The kids absolutely love it.”

Juliette Gemignani, 10, a Norwich student who performs vocals in the band Black Iris, agrees: “It was a great experience! I really enjoyed performing for my family and friends and with the other kids in the band.”

Juliette’s parents, Liz and Tony, were excited for the memories their daughter would make performing live at the Norwich Fair: “Of course we were super proud of her but we also felt so lucky that she was given such a great opportunity. Performing for her friends, family and community is something that will stick with her for a long time.” They reiterate that these platforms that Tuck and Kata and the Norwich community provide to express and experience music helps them build confidence. “It’s really incredible.” 

Katie Bucci of Norwich, mom of performer Lila, values the opportunity to watch her daughter perform: “Seeing Lila up there on stage, singing her heart out, being such a cool rock star, it’s almost unreal. It fills me with so much joy.” Norwich parents Katherine and Enrico Riley of drummer and guitarist Alex, 16, and guitarist and vocalist Etienne, 10, feel the same: “There is no joy quite like watching your kid embodying music.” 

Both Alex and Etienne name the fair as one of the highlight of their summer and one of the favorite things they’ve ever done. “It feels great to be able to show off the music you worked hard to perfect,” Alex says.  Etienne loves the chance to make music with her friends: “I think when you’re having fun on the stage and the audience is having fun watching the performance, it’s one of the best things you can do.”

The audience jammed to the young musicians tunes amid rowdy rides and just a stone’s throw from the Lion’s Club dunk tank. Jaden, Tuck and Kata’s ten-year-old son who is talented on multiple instruments including drums and bass, recalls being one of those audience members before taking the stage himself: “I grew up seeing kids rock out – it’s awesome to finally be up there too and rock out. I love the Norwich Fair. It has such a great energy.” 

Kata says creating that great energy and putting together these shows “always takes a village,” noting that another community member Neil Odell, a musician himself, was helping with the sound.

This was the first year for Lila, 14, to sing at the Fair and her first chance to sing in a band by herself without a co-lead singer. “Performing at the Norwich Fair for the first time this year was a very exciting opportunity for me. Tuck, my friends, and my band (Rockology) did a great job of cheering me on and encouraging me. Tuck always makes the performance of it so fun, even when I am super nervous.” 

Fellow vocalist Juliette similarly say that while she also was nervous at first, “after it was over, I just wanted to do it again.” And luckily, with a community like Norwich that provides the town with events such as the Norwich Fair, she can!

To check out photos of a variety of young musicians – past and present – visit tucksrockdojo.com/gallery. You can see video of the musicians featured in this article on Tuck’s homepage.