CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – When Shelby Bavin arrived at the University of Virginia, she defined herself as a student-athlete. But finding herself down the pecking order among the Cavaliers’ rowing team’s coxswains as a first-year, Bavin quickly determined to expand that identity.

So, going into her second year, she began volunteering at the Seminole Trail Volunteer Fire Department in Albemarle County.

“I was having a hard time my first year and I was like, ‘Okay, I’m putting too much of my identity into rowing,” Bavin told Cville Right Now. “Rowing, it’s a big part of my life, but it can’t be everything. There’s more to the athlete than what you see on the water or on the field. And I think I realized something that I wanted to identify with was serving other people.”

That identity helped Bavin earn the recognition of being named the captain of the Allstate Spring Good Works Team, a 20-person squad of college athletes honored for their community service work.

Bavin has volunteered for over 2,000 hours as a firefighter and emergency medical technician with the Seminole Volunteer Fire Department, in addition to being involved in a number of other community service organizations and initiatives locally.

Earlier this month, ESPN personality Holly Rowe presented her with flowers and a varsity-style jacket as the captain of the All-State Goodworks Team, surprising her at UVA in a gathering that included her team and coaches and members of the fire department.

Virginia rowing coach Wes Ng called Bavin and told her she needed to cancel an appointment at be at a team meeting. At first, Bavin was perplexed.

“I was like, ‘What in the world could be so important that you couldn’t tell me afterwards?'” she said. “And then Holly Rowe was there and I was like, ‘Oh, I get why I had to be here now.'”

Saturday, UVA raced to a second-place finish in the ACC championships at Lake Wheeler in Raleigh, N.C., finishing behind Stanford’s 132 points, but ahead of California (108), Syracuse (103), Miami (77), North Carolina (75), Duke (69), SMU (47), Notre Dame (37), Louisville (35), Clemson (29) and Boston College (25).

The Cavaliers are among 22 programs that will compete in the NCAA championships starting May 29 at Lake Lanier Olympic Park in Gainesville, Ga.

Bavin got her start in coxing in high school. When her school’s girls’ team had a long line of coxswains, she decided to join her brother on the boys’ team.

Bavin’s father, an avid sailor whose passion for the water led her to rowing, is also a UVA graduate. She grew up attending football and basketball games with her dad and said Virginia was her “dream school.”

Former Virginia rowing coach Kevin Sauer said Bavin is defined by her persistence, something he and his staff first noticed when she reached out to them as a high schooler, hoping to join UVA’s team.

“She kept, I wouldn’t say bothering us, but it was pretty close. She kept sending emails, and we, as the coaching staff, were going, ‘Who is this kid?’ But she kept at it,” Sauer told Cville Right Now. “That’s the quality that she has is just that she’s very persistent. She doesn’t give up.”

That mindset helped Bavin work her way up into the coxswain rotation with the Cavaliers, progress that continued even after Sauer retired following the 2024 season.

Bavin credits Sauer with nudging her into community service.

“He was transformational and not just developing me as an athlete, but as a person, too,” Bavin said. “He’s probably one of the main reasons I take service so seriously. I think he kind of set that precedent. He always taught us, ‘You’re not entitled to anything, but you should be grateful for everything you have.’ He’s somebody that truly came from nothing and built such a great life for himself. And so, I just really looked up to him.”

Bavin and Sauer have stayed close. Both are heavily involved in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ Athletes in Action. Bavin runs a bible study session for athletes with Sauer’s wife.

“I just really thought that, you know, we’re a pretty fortunate group, right, and it’s really important to give back,” Sauer said. “I preached it, but she took it to another level. ”

After her sophomore year, Bavin went back to the cold emailing that helped land her at UVA. This time, she reached out to fire chiefs in Alaska, looking for a summer job. One in Ketchikan hired her.

“I’ve always loved like adventure, and I love to travel, and I was like, you know what? Like, I don’t want to, I want to go somewhere cool. And I always like thought Alaska was just like the coolest place ever,” Bavin said. “So I bought this one-way plane ticket.”

She brought that experience back to the Charlottesville area and resumed her work with the Seminole department, her schooling and her coxing.

Bavin will be in graduate school at UVA next year and plans to use her redshirt season to be with the rowing team again. She also wants to continue her climb up the ladder in the fire department, completing training to be able to drive trucks.

For her post-college career, Bavin is interested in working in the intelligence community, “a different route to continue public service,” she said.