USD Magazine Spring 2017

TORERO ATHLETICS

While her coach thinks that Collegiate All-America rower Uche Anyanwu is powerful enough to one day compete for the national team, Uche may have another path in mind.

Women’s rower Uche Anyanwu credi ts hard work for her success [ c o m p e t i t o r ] POWERING THROUGH

by Don Norcross

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oard games, horseshoes, grades … the sisters competed at everything. “If I was ever beating her at anything, that was the end of the game,” recalls USD rower Uche Anyanwu, the younger sister. “I was the emotional one. I’d toss the board game aside,” says older sister Nneka. “Com- petition was love, and we loved each other very much.” Nneka sampled rowing first, dipping her toe in the water late in high school after a family friend invited her to watch the San Diego Crew Classic. Uche watched from the shore for a while. “Then I did what little sisters do,” said Uche. “I joined in.” The sisters, whose parents were born and raised in Nigeria, proved skilled with an oar in hand. Nneka earned second team All-America honors during her senior season at USD in 2015. Uche one-upped her sis- ter, earning first team All-Amer- ica honors in 2016 as a junior. Pronounced Oo-chay On- YA-wu , her athletic story is fascinating. Uche played soccer and basketball in her youth. As a freshman at San Diego’s Westview High, she played junior varsity basketball, suf- fered a knee injury and never played basketball again. She did not play any sport at the high school varsity level.

CHRIS PARK

Now she’s a collegiate All- America rower, powerful enough, her coach thinks, to one day compete for the na- tional team. “It just goes to show that working hard can give you the success you thrive on,” says Uche. “I never once thought this would happen to me.” Her relationship with the sport was not love at first sight.

“Rowing is a difficult sport, so at first I butted heads with it,” she recalls. “It requires a men- tality I didn’t have at the time.” That mentality? “A toughness that requires you to embrace an endurance sport with sprint- ing elements. There were mo- ments I loved it, and there were moments I truly hated it.” Her rowing route proved circuitous. Initially, she attended

USC for one semester before transferring to Alcalá Park. While she enjoyed the academ- ic setting at USC, something was amiss. The environment on the team didn’t feel right. Also, as one of five siblings — there are two younger brothers and a younger sister — she longed for her family. Reminded that Los Angeles is only two hours away, Uche says,

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