When You Least Expect It

In this realistic fiction novel, 17-year-old protagonist Holly Callahan is facing a majorly disappointing summer. She has just failed to qualify for the last seat on the Canadian Junior National Rowing Team and is devastated to watch her teammates leave town to compete overseas. Holly is left to spend her summer rowing with a recreational level squad, not a conducive training environment to support her dreams of becoming fast enough to earn a place on next year’s squad or a university scholarship. An additional frustration is her single mother’s decision to move in with her boyfriend Stew and his two young sons. Holly previously enjoyed a close relationship with her mother, and the big reveal that Holly’s mother is pregnant caps off her misery. With the expenses of a new child, Holly’s backup post-secondary plans are also in jeopardy if she can’t earn tuition.

Although Holly’s summer dreams are shattered, if there is one thing the discipline of rowing has taught her, it is resolve. She soon finds a summer job at a nearby restaurant and tries to make the best of her current situation. Then, when Holly least expects it, she meets a man at the local rowing club. After several chats about their shared rowing interests, he generously offers Holly the use of his single scull boat along with free coaching sessions. This amazing opportunity totally switches up the young athlete’s plans as it becomes clear that Coach Alan is a responsive and talented coach with national level experience and the ability to provide Holly with the rigorous training she needs. But, instead of sharing this exciting development, Holly selects the more spiteful route and deliberately withholds her news from her mom.

Holly’s new coach is equally reticent to talk candidly about his past coaching experiences but, as their daily practices get underway, Holly is slowly able to piece together small clues to learn more about him. She discovers that Coach Alan and his wife are still struggling with intense grief after losing their only daughter Lily in a rowing accident. The opportunity to coach again presents Alan with a shaky path back through this darkness.
“What’s going on with you?” I asked, staring at his silly smile.

He shrugged. “I’m back in the mix. It feels good.”

“Back in the mix! I laughed out loud.

“What? Isn’t that something you young folks would say?”

“Uh…maybe.”

He touched my shoulder, in a fatherly gesture, like Stew did with his boys. “Thanks,” he said. “Your hard work has contributed hugely to this…well…this lightness I feel.” He took his hand off my shoulder. “I like being out here.”

“Me, too,” I said. Even if you’re mean sometimes.”

“Such is sport,” he said, with a silly smirk.

“I’m looking forward to racing,” I said.

“You’re practicing to race. That’s what it’s all about.”

“You think I can win?”

“Do you?”

I sucked in a deep breath, then exhaled. “Yes,” I said. “I do.”

“That’s what’s important. You’re the one in the boat, not me. I can only take you so far. The rest is up here.” He pointed to his temple. “Next week will be tough. I would prepare. Rest this weekend.”

I looked at him and, for the first time ever, I saw a twinkle in his eyes. “I’m going to hate you. Aren’t I?”

“Yes, Holly. That’s a given. He glanced at his watch. “I have to get going. My wife needs me to build a shelf.”

“She’s okay with this. Right?”

He sighed. “It’s still really hard for her. She’s trying.”

Free form poems are interspersed between the book’s chapters. At first, the reader is uncertain as to the identity of the omniscient poet, but the clues eventually identify the speaker as Lily. These poems retell the events connected to Lily’s death, her decision to venture onto the water during a storm despite knowledge of clear safety rules, and the circumstances of her death from hypothermia in the freezing water. The poems serve to fill in many of the unknowns and provide Coach Alan’s backstory without fully delving into his point of view.

Although the novel addresses coping with change beyond one’s control, it also touches on a variety of current topics. Holly experiences a range of big emotions as she works her way through these upheavals. Her new boyfriend Tim introduces the unfamiliar and powerful reactions that accompany new relationships and sexual explorations. Tim’s BIPOC related challenges are addressed, along with underage drinking. The dialogue is authentic, sometimes explicit, and Holly makes a few questionable sideways decisions but, for the most part, is able to juggle her training schedule, work, and home issues. However, with Alan suggesting that she compete at the Canadian Henley Regatta, Holly realizes that she has painted herself into a corner and is unsure how to share the news of her training and an upcoming regatta with her mother at this late date.

There is a lot packed into Holly’s summer, and a few story details suffer in their believability. The reasoning as to why Holly chooses not to tell her mom about training could be better developed. She is understandably miffed that her mom didn’t share the news of her pregnancy with her first, but it’s unlikely that Holly’s mom would host serious objections to her opportunity to be coached at this level. Holly’s mom also doesn’t notice her daughter’s hands which should be torn up and heavily blistered from switching to sculling.

Additional reality stretches include Holly’s ability to change from sweeping using one oar in the big coxed eight boat to so easily learning to scull with two oars in the smallest boat – all in one summer and based on only one water-based workout a day. It’s more common for a sculler to switch to sweeping than the other way around. There was brief mention of weight training, but, as committed as Holly is to her sport, it is a reach to become a competitive level sculler in only a couple of months. For the story’s conclusion, perhaps just making the B final at the Henley Regatta would have been a more realistic outcome, rather than making the Under 19 Junior Women’s Single A final. But these are aspects that don’t significantly interfere with the novel’s plot.

Lorna Schultz Nicholson, who has been a radio host and reporter, now lives in Edmonton as a full-time author. She has contributed nonfiction titles to the “Amazing Hockey” series: Connor McDavid, Hayley Wickenheiser, P.B. Subban, Mitch Marner (2020), Alex Ovechkin, and has written other titles related to Canadian sports figures. Her fiction credits include the “One-2-One” novels of Fragile Bones: Harrison and Anna and Born With: Erika and Gianni (2016), as well as the hockey-themed story Taking the Ice.
In When You Least Expect It, the storyline is clearly influenced by author Nicholson’s knowledge and passion for rowing. It is also likely that writing this book may have offered a healing catharsis as the author’s interview on the last pages references the tragic drowning deaths of two university rowers during her tenure as a junior rowing coach. In 1988, a sudden storm blew in on Elk Lake, a training venue for the University of Victoria’s novice rowing club, capsizing Darryl Smith and Gareth Lineen’s rowing shell during a practice.

There are very few, if any, fictionalized accounts related to the sport of rowing in Canada, and When You Least Expect It does an outstanding job of filling this niche, conveying the overwhelming physical demands and tenacity that are hallmarks of the art of rowing. An examination of the book cover spots adds further credibility with a recommendation written by Al Morrow, acclaimed and now retired Canadian Olympic Team Rowing Coach. This story is a compelling, page-turning read and was selected as a finalist for Alberta’s 2022 R. Ross Annett Award for Children's Literature.