The Princeton Hot Seat is a new recurring photo blog to highlight the transient nature of the rowing community in the Princeton, New Jersey area.  It's open to anyone directly involved with the sport of rowing that comes to Princeton on rowing "business".  Could be rowers, coxswains, coaches, boatmen, officials, etc.

How does the Hot Seat Work?

Each subject gets four questions to answer, the first of which is simply, why are you here (in Princeton)?  Then the subject randomly draws the remaining three from a pool of pre-determined questions, of which half are rowing related, half are not...and can be pretty random.  They get one pass.

On the Hot Seat today is Matt Miller of the USA Men's Eight.

Princeton Hot Seat - Why are you in Princeton?

Matt Miller - I am an athlete training for the Rio 2016 Olympics, mostly in sweep boats with the US Training Center.

PHS - What coach has had the most impact on your rowing and why?

MM - Definitely Frank Biller, my coach at Virginia as I would have stopped rowing after college if not for him.  He helped me see my potential and was the first coach to really introduce the training as a physiological science where there was always a long term and short term plan for what we were doing.

PHS - When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

MM - A fighter pilot.  My sister and I would watch Top Gun probably four times per summer throughout elementary school and Maverick was a hero for us.  Unfortunately my vision is bad so I had to change plans!

PHS - Do you have any pre-race routines, superstitions, or habits?

MM - I don't have any superstitions, but I have routines and habits because I think those are important.  I generally follow the same warmup we've been doing for the practices leading up to the race so everything stays consistent.  Typically that involves some erging or running, then some stretching.  Nothing out of the ordinary!

Coming to Princeton and want to give the hot seat a go?  Contact row2k here.