The Drake University rowing team had its 2020 season canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States. Drake was getting ready to depart for Florida in mid-March for the program's annual spring break training trip in the sunshine state when the season came to an abrupt and heartbreaking end.
 
The Bulldogs were only able to race twice in the fall, both times in Des Moines, as the team's other race scheduled in Minneapolis was canceled due to high water levels on the Mississippi River. Drake was able to compete in several exhibition races at the Head of Des Moines in late September. The annual race returned after being canceled in 2018 due to high water on the Des Moines River. The weekend was extra special as the program hosted its official grand opening and open house for the Bright-Beckwith Boathouse. The boathouse is now joined by the Buroker Family Dock in Prospect Park that allows the team quick access onto the Des Moines River.
 
Guided by longtime head coach Charlie DiSilvestro, the Bulldogs were excited for the spring portion of its schedule looking to build on last year's third-place finish at the 2019 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship. It was the highest finish at the conference championship for Drake since 2016. The team was picked fourth in the 2020 MAAC Coaches Preseason Poll.
 
"When the news came that the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak I was so devastated for our team," said DiSilvestro. "They worked so hard since September and to not be able to compete is disappointing."
 
With the spring season over before it started, the decorated careers' of Drake's three seniors, Madison Coffman, Liz Rambhia and Erica Thacker, also came to an early end. The three were voted team captains this past year.  
"I'm most sad for our three seniors, Madison, Liz and Erica," DiSilvestro said. "Those three young women gave so much to us these past four or five years that they've earned the right to compete one more time for the Bulldogs."
 
Coffman was a four-year rower who joined the team in 2016-17. She was a member of the varsity 4 boat that claimed a third-place finish at the 2019 MAAC Championship. Coffman, who owns a 3.64 cumulative grade point average in health sciences, is a three-time honoree on the MAAC All-Academic Team. She will graduate in May and is training to climb Mount Rainer in Washington state in September along with planning her wedding scheduled for June.
 
"Madison has been such a great rower for us these past four years," DiSilvestro said. "Madison is from our second class of scholarship rowers. What I remember most about recruiting her was her strength of character. I could tell that she was a great leader on her high school club team. Each year she kept taking on more and more leadership responsibilities. Madison has an amazing way of looking for the good in everyone. The team chose her to be one of our captains this year because of that. She was never the tallest or strongest on our team but she was always one of our toughest rowers and we'll miss her leadership and energy."
 
Rambhia was a four-year coxswain for the Bulldogs who also joined the team in 2016-17. She coxed the team's varsity 8 boat her entire career, including the boat that placed third at the 2018 MAAC Championship. Rambhia is another three-time selection to the MAAC All-Academic Team and holds a 3.39 GPA in mathematics and math education. After graduating in May, Rambhia will work for Kum & Go in Des Moines.
 
"We've never had a cox better than Liz at Drake University," DiSilvestro said. "Liz is the kind of cox where once you send her off with the race plan you know she will follow it exactly unless she feels the need to change it so her crew has a better chance to win. Another strength of Liz is her ability to teach the younger cox their job. This is a rare quality in a student-athlete because Liz knew there was a chance that other cox might take her seat, but that just shows the quality of character Liz has always putting the team ahead of herself."
 
Thacker is a fifth-year senior who joined the program in 2015-16 and redshirted the 2016-17 campaign due to an injury. She earned 2019 second-team All-MAAC accolades and was a member of the varsity 8 boat with Rambhia that took third at the 2018 MAAC Championship. Thacker is another three-time MAAC All-Academic selection who holds a 3.76 GPA in pharmacy. She is a two-year team captain who will finish her final year of pharmacy school in 2020-21 and after doing her spring rotations nationwide will graduate with her doctorate in May, 2021.
 
"Erica is one of the most intense athletes I've ever coached," DiSilvestro said. "As a walk on five years ago I could tell she was something special. Her desire to always improve herself so her team would be better was amazing. Erica pushed herself very hard every day not so she would be in a better boat but so her team would be better no matter what boat she was in. As intense as she was, Erica always had the respect of her teammates and coaches. This was shown by the team voting her captain for a second year, something that has only happened four times in my 27 years at Drake."

Coffman, Rambhia and Thacker helped lead a team that featured many freshmen and sophomores on the novice and varsity rosters. The younger members of the program are already looking ahead to the 2020-21 season.
 
"I know our team will come back strong and hungry to finish the work they started this year," DiSilvestro said.