Greco, O'Brien star rowers at St. John the Baptist
Tori Greco and Kristine O'Brien are two of the best athletes on Long Island who most people never heard of. The St. John the Baptist seniors already have two national championships and are headed to prestigious colleges: Greco to the University of Virginia and O'Brien to Boston College. But you've probably never heard of them because while the Friday night lights are on running backs plowing down defensive linemen on football fields, and people are root, root, rooting for the home team in baseball, Greco and O'Brien are adrift on the water. As part of St. John the Baptist's rowing team, they and almost four dozen other students take on the water daily. In yesterday's Big Duck Regatta, the girls varsity team took the gold medal in eight-person, four-person and double boats, and the boys varsity team took the silver medal in eight and four-person boats. St. John the Baptist is one of about a dozen schools, including St. Anthony's, Chaminade and Bay Shore, with an official rowing program on Long Island. "When you play soccer, you're lucky if you're able to score a goal,'' coach Miroslav Jezdanov said. "When you row, it's all about work.'' He would know. Jezdanov started his rowing career in 1992 in his native Serbia. Just 12 years old, he competed with an international team for Yugoslavia and in 1995, at the age of 15, was a world champion. He came to the United States in 2002, and while at Washburn University in Kansas, acted almost as a player/coach to the younger, less experienced kids. In October 2008, he started his official coaching career at St. John the Baptist, which had already won two national titles, and found fertile ground for future championships. "When I first came, we had the Oyster Bay Regatta and they did pretty good," Jezdanov said. "For the amount of work I'd done with the kids, I was pretty pleased with the outcome and their attitude. Rowing is very competitive, very demanding; you don't have to be just tall and strong. How hard you work and how much work you do directly results in if you win." And the work is grueling. The team practices six days a week, twice a day: from 5:30-6:45 a.m. and again from 3-6 p.m. On the seventh day, they race. "You really have to believe that you can do it, because sometimes the night before the race, we get the worst anxiety and we get so nervous," O'Brien said. "It's so intense and sometimes your legs hurt so bad that you want to give up in the middle of the race, but you know you can't let yourself or your partner down.'' The work has paid off for St. John the Baptist, which has been state champion three years running, in addition to those two national titles won by Greco and O'Brien, who've both snagged rowing scholarships to their intended colleges. The pair has been linked since they first started the sport at their parents' urging their freshman year, first in a four-person boat and now in a double. The combination has resulted in an undefeated record the last two seasons and an unbreakable friendship. "Basically, our lives are each other,'' O'Brien said. "We wouldn't want to row with any other person and we're so comfortable with each other in the boat. After playing sports all my life, I can say that rowing is the most team-oriented sport. When they say there's no 'I' in team, when it comes to rowing, it's so true.''
