Senior Spotlight: Nick Carbonaro, Crew
4/4/2020
A four-year member of the Owls, including a two-year team captain, Carbonaro has left his mark on Temple crew. He walked on to the team as a freshman, earning a spot in Temple's top freshman boat where he won gold at the Bergen Cup, Murphy Cup, and SIRA Regattas. His second year with the Owls, he made the leap into the top heavyweight eight, where he'd stay for his final three years at Temple. A Dad Vail gold medal winner as a member of the 2018 heavyweight varsity eight, Carbonaro was part of the Owls' crew that raced in the Temple Challenge Cup at the 2018 Henley Royal Regatta. He also owns a San Diego Crew Classic gold medal (V8, 2018) and raced with the varsity eight at the IRA Championships. Carbonaro will graduate from the College of Public Health in May, with a degree in kinesiology.
Owlsports.com caught up with Carbonaro, as he finishes his final semester at Temple.
In the book of your life, what’s the title of the Temple chapter? I would say that Temple is just the intro chapter in my book of life. After finding my love for the sport of rowing and meeting some of my closest friends, I look forward to what I can achieve and how I can use what I learned throughout the “intro” in order to make my book of life one that is worth reading.
What’s the best part about being a member of the crew team at Temple/what will you miss the most? Now while it may seem crazy, my favorite part of TUMC was waking up at 5:30 every morning. While the workouts were hard and typically I was exhausted, seeing the sunrise behind the skyline of Philadelphia made it all worth it. Also, it allowed me to hang out with my boys every day and work hard in order to make the boat faster.
What is your favorite memory of being a student-athlete at Temple? My favorite memory of being a student-athlete comes from my sophomore year at the Dad Vail Regatta, which is what we train for all year. The moment that we crossed the finish line, hearing the crowd cheering and my teammates losing their minds because we had just come in first while setting a new course record, is a feeling I will never forget.
If you could give advice to your freshman year self, what would it be? The advice that I would give to my freshman year self is to just take things day-by-day. I spent so much time worrying about the deadlines or events approaching that I lost track of what was happening right in front of me.
A quote by Mike Tyson that I often like to think about is “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." So my advice would be to live each day like it is the last time you get to enjoy a sport or activity that you love because one day you might get “punched in the mouth” and your plan will change.
Where do you see yourself in five years? In five years, I would like to be starting my physical therapy career. I am taking a year off in order to improve my resume and hopefully get admitted to Temple University's Physical Therapy program. This would be great because it would allow me to spend more time in a place that I have grown to love and get to spend time with my team and watch the boys crush it on the river
There is a huge list of people that I want to thank for helping me along this journey. For starters, my family, my mom, dad, and younger brother have supported me from the moment I got the crazy idea to walk on to a D1 sports team. I don’t think I can put into words how thankful I am for the support they have shown me, showing up to all my races, dealing with my attitude when I was tired from practice, and pushing me to work harder so that I could help my team win more races.Nick Carbonaro, Temple Crew Class of 2020
My coaches, walking on to a sports team is no easy task but Coach Perkins, Coach Gus, Coach Fergal, and Coach Jim made me feel welcomed and never let me take my eyes off the prize. If it were not for them I would have been at a different school, I met with Coach Perkins briefly asking about trying out and I was so convinced and felt so welcomed that one my way to my car I canceled my admission to a different school and put my deposit down for Temple University. I would also like to Scott Waters, he was another one of my coaches, but if it were not for the interest he took in me and the lessons that he taught me every day I would not be as successful as I am today. Lastly, my friends and teammates, I love you boys.
