USRowing Announces 2021 Referee Award Winners

USRowing is pleased to announce the recipients of its referee-selected annual awards for 2021. The following four referees will be honored for their outstanding contributions to our sport:

Jack Franklin Award – Roger Frederick

Julian Wolf Award – Ruth Macnamara

Joan "Mama Z" Zandbergen Award – Melanie Salter

Barbara "Corki" Rawlings Award – Lloyd McDonald

The award winners will be honored at the 2021 USRowing Virtual Convention, scheduled to take place December 7-11. The exact time and date of each award presentation will be announced closer to the convention.

About The Winners

Roger Frederick – Jack Franklin Award

The Jack Franklin Award recognizes an individual for a lifetime of contributions to our sport. The winner of the Franklin Award is selected by the Referee Committee.

USRowing annually names a national team boat for the winner of the Jack Franklin Award. At the 2021 World Rowing Junior Championships, the men's four with coxswain raced in a shell named for Sam Dempsey, the 2019 winner.

Roger Frederick became involved with refereeing in the 1990s and received his formal referee license in 1997. Since then, Frederick went on to be the Chief Referee at dozens of regattas, including regional championships, USRowing national championships, Big Ten Conference championship regattas and countless other events and intercollegiate races.

In addition to his contributions at regattas, Frederick also significantly contributed to the Referee College, hosting annual clinics and recruiting new clinicians to better serve candidates and assistant referees in his region and beyond. He served as the Midwest Regional Coordinator and as the Referee Committee chair for many years.

Frederick served in Vietnam as a member of the U.S. Navy. He recently retired from active refereeing, having acted as Chief Referee of the Head of the Oklahoma one last time.

Ruth Macnamara – Julian Wolf Award

This award pays tribute to the one rowing official in the United States who stood apart from the rest in his/her contribution to rowing in the past year. It is based upon one, several, or all of the following: outstanding performance, dedication, heroic acts or outstanding contributions to officiating. The winner is selected by past five Wolf award winners.

Rarely will a resume for a year's worth of refereeing be more impressive than Ruth Macnamara's work in 2021. Macnamara served as the Chief Referee at Olympic Trials 1, which was the first full Team USA selection event post-pandemic in any sport, as Chief Referee at the U19/U23 World Championships Trials, as a jury member of the Beach Sprint National Team Trials, as National Technical Officer at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, as a jury member at the World Rowing Junior Championships in Bulgaria, and as Chief Referee of the 2021 USRowing Youth National Regatta. The latter was the biggest, and perhaps most crucial, USRowing Youth Nationals ever and USRowing's first national-level regatta since the Covid-19 pandemic.

This was not an easy year to be a Chief Referee. Yet, Macnamara repeatedly worked with USRowing's staff and local organizing committees to meet the countless logistical challenges the pandemic created. A licensed referee since 2006 and a FISA umpire since 2015, Macnamara's nomination letter could not have said it better when her peers praised "her high level of officiating expertise, skilled leadership talents, unselfish time and energy commitment, together with her love and dedication to the sport and the athletes at all levels across the United States and internationally."

Melanie Salter – Joan "Mama Z" Zandbergen Award

The Joan Zandbergen "Mama Z" Award for Sustained Superior Performance is presented to one USRowing official who, over a period of 3-10 years, has stood apart from the rest of his or her peers.

Melanie Salter earned her assistant referee license in 2018 and recently completed her third year as an USRowing official. She also is an accomplished rowing coach, presently with Row West Racing, an elite group rowing camp. In her short time as a member of the Referee Corps, Salter's peers describe her as a referee who continuously "exhibits high rowing IQ and an ability to quickly learn and adapt to situations."

Her work and decision-making with a calm demeanor and her interactions with athletes, coaches and fellow officials at prominent regattas including the Southwest Youth Championships, WIRA, SIRA and NCAA Championships has been praised by attendees and fellow referees alike.

Earlier this year, Salter served on the 2021 USRowing Masters National Championships jury (her second since becoming licensed and assisting at the 2018 Masters National Championships in Oakland) and for the second time she was asked to work as a volunteer technical assistant at the NCAA Women's Rowing Championships -- a phenomenal early resume for a young referee, speaking to the positive impression she has continuously left on athletes, her referees and anyone with whom she's worked.

Lloyd McDonald – Barbara "Corki" Rawlings Award

In recognition of continuous and exemplary mentoring, coaching and friendship that foster esprit de corps and the love of rowing, the Corki Award is a special award to be held in reserve by the Committee until such time as an appropriate recipient surfaces.

An active referee for more than 20 years and representing at least four regions during that time, Lloyd McDonald left a lasting impression with fellow referees and competitors alike. His gentle, but transparent, style of problem solving, his optimistic approach to running a regatta, and his kindness touched many across the rowing community.

McDonald would have served as Chief Referee of the 2020 USRowing Club National Championships had the COVID-19 pandemic not led to its cancellation. It would have been a return to that event for McDonald, having previously led the regatta, as well as having served as member of the jury at many other USRowing national championships.

His friends described McDonald as someone who never lost his cool, who made his peers better by always being his best, and whose warm personality put athletes at ease. He was a Chief Referee who handled events and solved issues with style and grace, using his booming voice with impeccable timing.

Lloyd McDonald passed away earlier this year at the age of 67. He is missed by his fellow referees and the staff at USRowing, who enjoyed working closely with him over a span of two decades. As his nomination letter read: we are all better for having known him.