With each precise stroke, Ellie Kovalick ’25 brings her team closer to the finish line. Guided by the rhythmic splash of the oars against the water, the boat inches past the others. In a succinct, combined effort, Kovalick and her teammates secure 15th place out of a total of 90 competitors in the 2024 USRowing National Championships.

Despite doing track in middle school, Kovalick began focusing on rowing as her main sport starting freshman year. She specializes in rowing eights, the largest, fastest, and most competitive type of boat.

“I started rowing the summer before my freshman year, and I kind of just knew that I loved it,” said Kovalick. “And the thing about rowing is that it’s year-round, so it’s hard to do multiple sports at once. So once I discovered that I loved rowing, I looked back. I never really looked back. I’ve never considered doing another sport since I started.”

This commitment has propelled her to find success at the highest level. Kovalick has gone to Nationals during her sophomore and junior year. In addition, her team, Mercer Juniors, was the 13th fastest in the nation last year with this year’s national championships yet to take place. However, the achievement comes with challenges.

Throughout her high school career, Kovalick has seen three changes in coaching, turning what can be a very chaotic, fast-evolving sport into a test of resilience.

“Our team has gone through a lot so there have been rebuilding years in a way, for sure. But one of the athletes has to step up and take a more active role in how we want the team culture around how we want the dynamic of our team to be,” said Kovalick. “But overall, I think we’re a resilient group, and we managed all right, even through coaching changes.”

Despite the stress, Kovalick and her team are still very competitive. Rowers have to row nonstop for races that can be up to three miles long, such as the Head of the Charles in Boston that Kovalick’s team will participate in this fall.

Kovalick’s impact isn’t limited to her contributions on the water. Yita Moss-Wang ’25, Kovalick’s teammate and long-time friend, explained what helps Kovalick set herself apart from the rest.

“What’s really unique about Ellie is … [her] consistency, every day at practice, every day on the water; and you can see that when she rows, she’s very decisive with her stroke,” said Moss-Wang.

Sam Atter, Kovalick’s coach on the girls rowing team, confirmed her dedication.

“I think that’s been a consistent theme for Kovalick from 2023 to now: her ability to be in these hard situations, these hard races, and [being] this kind of a leader, demonstrating and acting on this is just great. If you get the job done, don’t talk under pressure kind of success,” said Atter.

Here at PHS, Kovalick has taken the initiative to expand the sport of rowing to a wider audience, founding the PHS Crew Club from its few year hiatus.

“I’ve definitely been trying to get more PHS kids involved in the sport, because it’s not too good in Princeton right now. And it’s just such an awesome opportunity … I have nothing but good things to say about [Mercer Rowing],” said Kovalick.

Kovalick is now committed to continue rowing at the Division I school of Wisconsin, in addition to serving as the Collegiate Rowing Commitments Intern. As she embarks on the next chapter of her rowing career at the collegiate level, Kovalick reflects on her choice to row.

“There’s people that discover this sport their year and immediately quit [rowing], and then there’s people that stick with it. And I think I [have] just found a passion, and it’s not something I ever want to give up,” said Kovalick.

Photo: Charley Hu

Kovalick, who has commited to the University of Wisconsin, continues her senior rowing season while looking forward to competing at the collegiate level.

Ellie Kovalick '25: rowing

Conversations at PHS are often embedded with strings of expletives, which occasionally result in teachers warning students about their language. This seemingly normal occurrence demonstrates that although profanity has become desensitized for younger generations, it still carries weight for the older population and in professional environments. According to a paper from the International Journal of Literature, Language, and Linguistics (IJLLL), a survey comparing Generations X, Y, and Z reported that only 4 percent of Generation Z respondents reported no use of profanity, contrasting with a larger 43 percent of Generation X participants. Despite this disconnect between profanity and past generations, most popular curse words have deep historic roots and come directly from the Middle Ages.


According to the Saturday Evening Post, profanity in medieval times mostly revolved around religion and eventually became associated with immodesty. These examples allude to a greater trend in profanity — historically, profanity matches the needs and desires of its users and the society it exists in. For example, general profanity revolved around racial slurs in societies where racial discrimination was a norm. Today, what we define as profanity is once again changing, and it will likely cause a rift between Generation Z and older generations such as Generation X. For example, the word “damn” was considered a serious profanity in the 16th century. However, in the modern era, its profane nature has more or less dissipated. For instance, The New York Times and other major print publications have loose regulations surrounding the printing of  “damn” in article titles, but will only include the word “f—” in “highly contentious quotations and interview transcripts”. The IJLLL paper found that Generation Z is more likely to use profanity light-heartedly or in casual conversation. Words currently still generally considered profane, such as “f—” or “s—,” may join “damn” and quickly lose that designation if they continue to be used in normal contexts.


   In contrast to “damn,” certain words have had their profane statuses elevated. The r-slur, which began as a professional medical term for neurodivergent people, quickly became common profane vocabulary. After various social movements pointed out the r-slur’s derogatory nature towards neurodivergency, it began to be considered as a slur. Its slur status was then solidified in 2010 when President Barack Obama signed “Rosa’s Law,” which changed “mental retardation” to “intellectual disability.” It’s likely that the next wave of profanity will not be any new, strange words, but rather a revival of what is currently considered unacceptable. For example, most PHS students have likely heard at least one slur in the hallways. Offensive slurs such as the f-slur and the r-slur that have been phased out of popular vocabulary seem to be making a worrying comeback. Interestingly, this coincides with the rise of conservatism among U.S. youth alongside racism, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, etc. These ideas and associated slang spread quickly in the fast-paced digital age, contributing to the loss of meaning for otherwise offensive words.


It is important to recall, though, that these changes in profanity are generally concentrated in younger generations. Older generations are less likely to change their perception of words they have always known as profane. This results in a generational language gap — when younger generations casually use words older generations may still perceive as highly hurtful, it can cause conflict. In the workplace, which many PHS students are only years away from entering, this dissonance could have particularly negative effects. Although curse words being used more casually isn’t inherently negative, it is important for younger people to remember that language does not change at the same rate for everyone.


As we, the younger half of Gen Z, begin to enter the professional sphere and transition into a world where we are not always mostly surrounded by our peers, we should start to be more mindful of our words — we will need to communicate effectively with other people, and profane language, although more casual for young people, is intrinsically divisive.


Traditional curse words are losing their meaning for younger people as they use them as casual terms, not as expressions of significant emotion. These developments should be taken seriously, as they will not only create far-reaching professional and interpersonal consequences, but could also accelerate the use of bigoted slurs in common conversation. Although these linguistic developments seem out of our hands, by consciously making an effort to remove profanity from our vocabularies, we can still make a difference.

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