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 Kerry Simmonds of the 2015 USA W8+.

Princeton Hot Seat - Why are you in Princeton?

Kerry Simmonds - I'm in Princeton training with the US Women's National Team with the goal of racing at the 2016 Olympics.

PHS - If you could row a coxed four with anybody, who would you want to row with?

KS - So, I've actually already done that, and it was a dream.  It was the "UW" coxed four at last year's Head Of The Charles and we had Adrienne Martelli (Washington), Megan Kalmoe (Washington), Vicky Opitz (Wisconsin), and myself (Washington), with Kendall Schmidt (Wisconsin) coxing us.  That boat was a lot of fun and we won!

PHS -  If you could live anywhere, where would you live and why?

KS - I would like to try out San Francisco.  Not for the rowing, just because I hear it's a cool city.  I would also like to live in a beach house in Austrailia for a bit, but I would definitely need to wear a lot of sunscreen there.

PHS - What song or songs are guaranteed to drop your split on the erg?

KS - Let's see: definitely "Pursuit of Happiness", the Steve Aoki remix.  I want to say "S&M" by Rihanna, but that's more of a song for Musnicki.  Then there's this song called "The Fire" by Felix Cartal, which Schmetterling hates, but it's the song you want on during a 2x6x workout when it's 'time to go'.  

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