Shortly after joining the women's rowing coaching staff at a deep-pocketed Power Five school, Sonya began to feel uneasy about an aspect of her new job.
She didn't like that women's rowing was required to stuff its roster with dozens of excess athletes in the fall and shed the unneeded newcomers by the spring.
At the start of each new school year, Sonya and her rowing colleagues would scour campus for tall, physically fit incoming freshmen who were interested in trying a new sport. Some years, women's rowing had to carry at least 90 athletes on its roster through its first fall competition, Sonya said.