• Yale has a new HW Coach.  On 3 August, after eight seasons as Yale's heavyweight crew coach, John Pescatore announced that he was resigning from his post.  The Bulldogs had some significant accomplishments during Pescatore's tenure. That included an undefeated dual racing season in 2006-07, when Yale earned a silver medal at the Eastern Sprints Championship, a bronze medal at the Head of the Charles in the Championship Eight (the U.S. National Team finished first) and a gold medal at the Princeton Chase Regatta. That same year, Yale defeated Harvard in their annual four-mile contest in what newspapers have called "the greatest comeback in the history of the regatta." 

  On 23 August, Steve Gladstone, regarded as one of the premier rowing coaches in the United States, was named the new head coach of Yale's heavyweight crew for the 2010-11 season. Gladstone led the University of California men's crew program to six IRA championships during two coaching stints with the Golden Bears and also served as the director of rowing operations at Brown where he won four Eastern Sprints titles. Most recently he was a director at the California Rowing Club, helping develop post-graduate oarsmen for the U.S. National Team.

Gladstone's 11 IRA championships tie him with Charles "Pop" Courtney of Cornell (1901-15) for the most varsity eight titles in the history of collegiate rowing. In all, Gladstone's Cal crews medalled at the IRA regatta 11 times in his 12 seasons since 1997 – five gold and six bronze – an unprecedented achievement in the 113-year history of the championship. Over that same period, he directed Cal to seven of 12 Pac-10 championships.

During his first term at Cal from 1973-80, Gladstone guided the Bears to three undefeated dual-race seasons, an IRA title in 1976 and a Pac-10 championship in 1979.

As the director of rowing operations at Brown from 1981-94, Gladstone's crew triumphed four times at the Eastern Sprints, five times at the IRA regatta and twice at the National Collegiate Rowing Championships.

He returned to Cal in 1997, taking over a program that finished as high as third at IRAs just once since his 1980 departure. The Bears saw immediate success, capturing a bronze medal at the national regatta in 1997 and running off a string of four consecutive championships from 1999-2002.

Gladstone began his coaching career in 1966 as freshman coach at Princeton for three years. He then took over as varsity lightweight coach at Harvard, leading the Crimson to four straight undefeated seasons, four titles at the Eastern Sprints and victories in the 1971 Thames Challenge Cup and Wyfold Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta in England. During his tenure at Harvard, he served as the U.S. National team coach (1969 and 1973) and was a selector for the 1972 U.S. Olympic team.

Some of the Yale LWs from our generation remember that Harvard LW success well.  Our firmest hope, however, is that Coach Gladstone will make amends for those Harvard victories with many wins for Yale over the Cantabs at the Sprints, IRA and on the Thames in New London.

•  International Rowing. A large number of the Blue Crews past and present were well represented in international championships in the past year.
  • Three Navy Lights — Jimmy Sopko '05, 2nd LT Julian Bowling '10, 2nd LT Michael Kerrigan '10 and former Navy assistant coach Matt Muffelman (Dartmouth '03) all made the US Lightweight Eight that raced at the World Rowing Championships at Lake Karapiro, New Zealand November 3rd-7th 2010. [see e-mail from Jimmy Sopko, USNA '05 below]
  • Four current and former members of Navy Lightweight Crew were selected to the United States National Team earlier this past Summer.  Jimmy Sopko ’05, Julian Bowling ’10, Michael Kerrigan ’10 and Ed King ’11 traveled to USRowing’s high performance center in Oklahoma City, OK.

    Sopko was selected for the USA lightweight men’s four to race at the Lucerne World Cup Regatta on July 11th.  Bowling, Kerrigan and King spent their summer training in pairs and fours to determine who would represent the USA at July’s U23 World Rowing Championships in Belarus and October’s World Rowing Championships in New Zealand.   King was selected for the U23 lightweight four, while Kerrigan won the selection trials to earn his seat in the U23 lightweight pair.  Navy travels to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for Regatta de Escola [13 September] As reward for runner-up at the 2010 IRA the Navy Lights, representing the USNA, finished third in an exhibition regatta held on the 2016 Olympic rowing course in Rio de Janeiro.  Hosted by the Brazilian Naval Academy, the crew entered three events, only losing to the Brazilian national rowing team.  Pictures from the trip can be viewed at

  • http://picasaweb.google.com/101215572461559335477/Brazil?authkey=Gv1sRgCMmp-M3FtPSOwAE
  • Senior Yale 150 rower William Zeng was chosen as one of 32 American recipients of the Rhodes Scholarship.  Zeng, who will study at Oxford University, was one of two Yale students and three Ivy League athletes awarded with the Rhodes Scholarship. [see complete news from Yale Sports below]. 

     

    With the lightweights, Zeng is a three-time top-three finisher at the EARC Sprints. As a freshman, he stroked the first freshman eight to an undefeated season and Sprints victory. As a sophomore, he was a member of the third varsity eight, which followed an undefeated regular season with a third-place finish at Sprints. Last year, Zeng earned another Sprints bronze as a member of the varsity eight. This fall, he rowed in the varsity eight at the Head of the Housatonic and Head of the Charles before missing the Princeton Chase with a rib injury.

    Zeng, who plans to continue rowing at Oxford, credits some of his academic success to his rowing background.

    "I'm proud of the drive, discipline, and character that rowing has shown me. Particularly, living and working while training has made acute my sense of the balance and structure that working my body gives my mind," said Zeng. "Lessons from rowing background my approach to day-by-day work toward the long-term, self-stipulated goals that organize scientific work, and after practices I'd never shirk at needing to get into the lab."

And for those of you who understand such things:

Zeng, a Physics major, will pursue an M.Sc. in Mathematics and the Foundations of Computer Science while at Oxford. In particular, he will work in an emerging branch of physics called quantum information in the Oxford Computing Lab with Professors Samson Abramsky and Bob Coecke.

"We try to take advantage of the weird and unintuitive behaviors of quantum mechanical systems to design new technologies and experiments," said Zeng. "There's much promise for this approach to revolutionize both information processing and our understanding of quantum mechanics."

• The United States' gold medal winning eight at the 2010 World Rowing Championship had a distinct Yale flavor. Jamie Redman '08 and Taylor Ritzel '10 both helped the U.S. row to a nearly four second victory over Canada on a spectacular spring afternoon. It was the fifth straight gold medal for the U.S. eight at the world championships, but the first that Redman and Ritzel have been a part of. Ashley Brzozowicz '04 won a silver medal with the Canadian eight.

The victory capped a remarkable year for Ritzel. In May, she stroked the Yale varsity eight to the NCAA title for the third time in the last four years. Then in July she helped the women's eight to a gold medal at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Belarus.  At the same regatta, Catherine Hart '10, won silver in the Canadian eight.

• The U.S. men's eight took sixth in the A final of the World Rowing Championships, bringing the 2010 racing season to a close.  Charlie Cole '07 sat in six seat of the U.S. crew, and this event marks his first international appearance in the eight at the senior level.

• IRA Re-enactment Regatta in Poughkeepsie.  The Navy men's heavyweight rowing team overtook Cornell in the final seconds to earn an exciting come-from-behind victory in its season opener at the four-mile Poughkeepsie Regatta.

Navy and Cornell had a battle for the ages, as both teams went back-and-forth until Navy squeaked out the narrow winning margin of 1.7 seconds.

 

The Mids' jumped out to an early lead and held a half-length advantage over the Big Red in the first mile. However, Cornell drove back in the second mile to take a small lead.

 

The Mids then got right back in the race and Navy and Cornell were even for the third mile.

 

Cornell took a slight lead in the fourth and final mile, but Navy closed the gap right at the end to rush past Cornell and cross with a time of 17:46.0. Cornell was just 1.7 seconds behind, Penn came in third at 18:40.3, nearly a minute behind Navy and Cornell.

 

————————–

 

Having earned the trip finishing second at 2010 class day over Spring Break the lightweight Firsties – class of 2011 – fell to the Cornell lightweights over the 4 mile Hudson River race course.  Navy lead by 7 seconds over the first 2 miles, Cornell rallied and upped the Mids over the second half to win the race.

• Head of the Housatonic.  All Yale Crews competed. Yale 150 Coach Andy Card said — "We had a good day … competing against the re-energized HW squad in eights, and against each other in 4+ and pairs."  With entries from Radcliffe, the HoH "changed from a warm-up to a full pull" according to Yale women's Coach Will Porter.  The Bulldog Women took 1st, 5th, 8th and 9th in Division I Women's Collegiate Eights.  Most importantly, Yale finished over 19 seconds ahead of 2nd place finisher Radcliffe over the 3 mile course.  Yale HWs entered five crews in the Men's IRA Collegiate event, finishing 1st, 3rd, 4th, 10th and 11th.

• Navy Crews dominated the Occoquan Challenge.  Navy Lights reclaimed the Champ Eight and held Champ Four titles over UVA, who broke Navy's eight-year streak winning the eight event in 2009.  Navy set two course records, in the eight by 19 seconds and by 36 seconds in the four en route to winning.

  After coming up just short on Saturday in Poughkeepsie, the Midshipmen came out strong on Sunday at the Occoquan Challenge as they took four of the top-five spots in the varsity eight and swept the first four places in the varsity four.

  "We really showed our depth today," Perry said. "The thing I'm most happy about is the fact that all four of our varsity boats finished in the top five in the varsity eight. It was a goal we set and it was nice to achieve that."

  It was Navy's seventh year competing in the meet and Sunday marked the Mids' sixth varsity-eight title at the event.

• All three Navy rowing teams combined for a total of six first-place finishes at the Navy Day Regatta in Philadelphia. 

  Competing in a total of five races on Saturday, the Navy heavyweight team had boats place in the top two spots in four of the five events.

  The heavyweight squad started the day by taking the top-two spots in the collegiate four and the collegiate novice four.

  Both the heavyweight and lightweight teams had two boats entered in the collegiate/Frosh novice eight and the two combined to take four of the top-five spots. The lightweight squad, racing in even lineups, took the third and fourth spots, while the heavyweight boats took the first and fifth places.

  In the second varsity eight, the heavyweights finished in first and second.

  In the open/collegiate varsity eight race – the final race of the day for the heavyweights – the Mids finished second by just under five seconds behind club team Penn AC.

  In one of the tightest races of the day, the Navy lightweights just beat out Delaware in the collegiate eight. The Mids' first boat crossed the finish line edging Delaware by just .45 seconds.  "Doubling Up" – racing in the four event two hours before the eight, Navy cruised to first through fourth place finishes in the light four and put three eights in the top four of the light eight event.     

• Head of the Charles.  All Blue Crews competed.  The Yale LWs took the top two spots in the LW4+, holding off 2009 winner Canadian Don Rowing Club and crews from McGill, Georgetown, Navy and Harvard.  Yale's entry in the LW8+ finished 9th.  The Yale women's crew team finished its fall season by participating in the Head of the Charles. Yale sent four boats to the race—two Championship Eights, one Championship four and one Club Eight. The Elis finished in fourth and 28^th place in the Championship Eights race, tenth in the Championship Fours, and third in the Club Eights.  Kicking off the second day of racing for the  Yale heavyweights was the championship four, which took 11^th place.  The event was won by a crew from the USRowing training center in Oklahoma City.  In second came Cal, followed by Stanford in third.  The Bulldogs finished ahead of Penn and just half a second behind a Harvard crew. 

  Shortly after the champ four came down the course, the Yale championship eight rowed to a 14^th-place finish in one of the fastest races the regatta has ever seen.  Yale quickly walked through the Dutch crew from Skadi Rowing Club Rotterdam and would go on to finish behind Penn AC and in front of Princeton.  12 crews finished in the space of 30 seconds separating Yale from first place.  As predicted, the winner of the event was a collegiate crew — University of Washington.  Sunday's racing followed two medaling finishes for the Bulldogs on Saturday.  Yale's club four posted the fastest time of all the collegiate boats in its event.  Here the heavyweights finished fourth out of 59 and made their way past six other crews. 

  The club eight also rowed on Saturday, finishing fifth out of 42 crews.  Yale was the fourth fastest collegiate boat in the event.

The Navy heavyweight team had a tough start to the day in the championship fours as a one-minute penalty for interference pushed them back to 15th place. Th Navy heavyweights fared much better in championship eights however, taking 12th out of 35 boats. The finish was ninth-best among college teams in the race.

The Navy men's lightweight team's best run of the afternoon came in the lightweight fours, placing eighth out of 19 boats. It was the third-fastest time among college teams in the race. In the lightweight eights race, the Midshipmen were hit with 1:10 in penalty time, pushing them back to 19th place.

Tom Cook USNA '76 continued to carry the colors for his LW mates.  Tom rowed with San Diego Rowing Club.  We do not have results for SDRC, but reportedly Tom is still rowing 3 – 5 mornings per week.  There are usually a number of Blue Crew alumni rowing in the HoC.  Get back with a report on participation and performance.

• Princeton Chase.  The Navy heavyweight and lightweight rowing squads put forth solid showings alongside some of the top crews in the nation.

  In the first race of the day, the men's varsity heavyweight 8+, the Navy `A' boat rowed to a fourth-place finish – its best finish ever in the event – just four seconds behind first-place Princeton. The Navy `B' boat took 12th overall , posting the second-fastest time for all `B' boats.

  In the heavyweight varsity 4+, the Mids posted two top-11 finishes. The Navy `A' boat took seventh place , while the Navy `B' boat placed 11th.

  In the heavyweight team's final race of the day, the freshman 8+, Navy posted a second-place finish.

  Equally as impressive on the day was Navy lightweight squad. In the varsity lightweight 8+, Navy placed two boats in the top 11. Navy's `A' boat placed eighth  – finishing just three seconds out of the top-four spots. The `B' boat placed 11th. The top-finishing Navy boat in the varsity lightweight 4+ took 12th out of 30 crews with a time of 15:49.65. 

The Yale lightweight crew also concluded its fall season at the Princeton 3-Mile Chase, with the varsity eight finishing sixth overall. With most of the Bulldogs' EARC opponents and several other lightweight crews present, Yale was able to test its speed and depth against its spring competition as the team prepares to head into winter training. Their sixth-place finish, only 0.3 seconds behind Cornell, marked a significant improvement over results at the Head of the Charles. The Yale "B" crew finished 14^th overall, with the Yale "C" crew finishing 15^th, first among "C" crews. The Yale freshman eight, which included the members of the Head of the Charles-winning lightweight four, finished fourth overall in the freshman event, second among lightweight crews with a time of 13:52.5. In the varsity lightweight fours event, Yale raced four boats, finishing 11^th, 19^th, 20^th, and 25^th. The Bulldogs also raced four pairs, with the top boat placing fifth.

• Other Good Stuff

  • USNA Hubbard Hall Boathouse scheduled to re-open in March 2011 after complete renovation.  New apron, bays, boat racks, erg rooms, N-Room/King room, tanks and much, much more.  Follow progress on the project here
    http://www.navycrewcamp.org/Camp/Boathouse.htm

The $14 million government project will modernize Hubbard to compete with the best boathouses and athletic facilities in the country. 

The centerpiece of the project is the state-of-the art tank facility which will accommodate 16-20 athletes rowing at speeds close to six meters/second, enabling the oarsmen to receive better sport-specific training during the winter months. Since rowing tanks at school's like Harvard and Yale have water speeds near 4 m/s, Navy’s tank will become the fastest in the country and possibly the world.

      

The new tank will be built on the West side of the boathouse where the weight/erg room used to reside. The old tank will be deconstructed to make room for a small-boat bay and full workshop for shell repair. The remainder of the boathouse will be reconfigured to create three ergometer areas, larger men’s and women’s locker rooms, a new video/team meeting room, industrial laundry facility, while keeping a refurbished N-Room in tact.

    

The “apron” and docks will be restored and expanded to launch eight boats at a time. The reconfiguration will allow boats to land, be cleaned and stored quicker and more efficiently. Grand trophy cases with a championship picture wall in the N-Room will display the rich and storied tradition that is Navy Crew.

 

You can review the architectural floor plans at the URL above.  It is most excellent that final plans included the "tank".  You will also note that there is allocation for 86 ergometers!  For those of us from days past — wooden shells and iron men — the single significant item may very well be the wooden shell hanging from the overhead in the renovated N-Room.

 

Make sure that you read the two articles below from The New York Times describing the "new" boathouse and the renovations underway at USNA.

 

• Carl Ullrich Christening.  On October 16th, the U.S. Naval Academy and the Class of 1973 honored Carl Ullrich for his dedication to Navy Crew. Carl was the Navy Head Coach from 1968-1974, during which time he mentored countless midshipmen to become world-class oarsmen, officers and human beings.  The Class of 1973 has created a perpetual boat fund that will keep an “Ullrich” racing shell inside the Navy boathouse forever.  “The theme of the christening of the new Empacher racing shell was one of selfless service and being a role model for each person with whom Carl came in contact with,” remarked Dirk Mosis ‘73. “No one worked harder, loved the Mids more, and focused on the purity of rowing than Carl Ullrich.” 

Bravo Zulu and congratulations to Carl and Becky.  Coach Ullrich was a mentor and friend to Navy LW rowing [kept me and the LWs of 74-76 out of "hack" with the Commandant] and most importantly is enshrined in the pantheon of LW Bowmen!

• Reunions.  The Yale 1970 LW crew assembled in June to celebrate a 40th reunion of fine rowing and a trip to compete in the Thames Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta.  Tom Weil hosted a gathering of 16 out of 18 members of the "A" and "B" boats [one being excused due to trans ocean distance and the other in sickbay, but joining the festivities via conference call] as well as their coach Jimmy Joy.  Even after an evening of celebrating Jimmy's 75th birthday, libations, stories of amazing feats of athleticism — classic "wooden shells and iron men" and sharing of wisdom and Dave Vogel's representation of a Mory's Cup, the crew was able to assemble at the Gilder Boathouse the following day.  Jimmy and one other demonstrated prowess in the single — one of the two managed to remain dry.  Following a bit of encouragement from the Coach [he also did a post-row critique] the group boated the James C. Joy [an Empacher dedicated in 1995 – still proudly displaying Canadian and US flags] and set out on the Housatonic for pictures and even a bit of spirited rowing.  Some "graduated" to the coaching launch, joined by Jimmy and assembled friends and significant others.  Following the event at least one of the assembled oarsmen, said that he was in training for the next reunion row.

Perhaps there will be the opportunity for a Yale-Navy former LW challenge at the next 74-78 Lightweight Reunion and Boat Dedication scheduled for Spring 2012.  Short pieces on College Creek followed by libations, stories of amazing feats of athleticism — classic "wooden shells and iron men" in the N-Room of the New Hubbard Hall.  LW crews from Navy and Yale are invited.  Jimmy and Cele Joy as well as Carl and Becky Ullrich are planning to be there.  Others of the Yale contingent from prior USNA events along with "Big Gulp" are also expected for a return performance — plan your schedules accordingly.  

•  Winter Training — Spring Racing.  Blue and white oars broke the surface of the St. Lucie River on 28 December as the Yale heavyweight crew team convened for the first practice of its winter training trip in Stuart, Florida.  The trip will span roughly a 10-day period, equivalent to one full month of training during the academic year.  In the Fall Crew Newsletter, Yale HW Coach Steve Gladstone said "I wanted the men to understand that the determining factor to success in the spring was their ability and willingness to give full measure each stroke.  The majority of rowing in 49 fall workouts was done in eights, rowing by sixes between 18 and 24 strokes per minute. I felt that it was essential to work on the fundamentals of the stroke".  Yale HWs open 2 April 2011, versus Brown on the Seekonk River in Providence, RI.

Andy Card reports that his charges are around the country and the world individually preparing for the winter training period in anticipation of the spring season opener, 2 April 2011, versus Navy [at Princeton] in competition for the Eads Johnson Cup.

 

Will Porter's YWC start their season a week earlier, 26 March, hosting Penn and Columbia, rowing for the Connell Cup at Derby.

 

It is likely cold on the Severn in Annapolis, but with 86 ergometers and other training regimen, it certainly is not quiet. Rick Clothier [36th season at Navy] and Rob Friedrich will open Navy HW 2011 competition 8-9 April at the George Washington Invitational on the Potomac.  Steve Perry and the Navy LWs will face the Princeton Tigers on 26 March for the Murtaugh Cup on Lake Carnegie, a week prior to meeting the Yale 150s on the same course.

• Rowing History.  Immediately below you will find a fine true rowing tale — Navy Crews, IRA at Marietta, OH, George Pocock, Buck Walsh, Rusty Callow, Tip Goes and the “worst Navy disaster since Pearl Harbor.”  Enjoy.

And it is a bit of a stretch to call it rowing as we know it today, but a promotional film clip from the US Navy in 1915
http://www.filmpreservation.org/preserved-films/screening-room/u-s-navy-documentary-1915

Early on you can see some onboard fitness, and at 10:25 you begin to learn about the Racing Crew of the USS Wyoming — there even are "Ergs" albeit fixed seat with pulleys and stone weights, lapstrake "racing boats" [starboard stroked] with a coxswain — upright [standing] and no concern for "making weight".  Enjoy.

 

• Supporting Credits and Attention to Detail.  Thanks to sources from articles from Row2k.com, Yale and Navy Sports, Yale and Navy Crew Newsletters and e-mails from the "guys" — some of which are included below.  Remember the mantra of the Blue Blog is cut, paste and comment.  There are two fine Q & A sessions with Yale coaches Andy Card and Will Porter in this group that also make for interesting reading.  If you have comments, suggestions or errata, please feel free …

Jon Eric VanAmringe
1369 Shore Road
Lamoine, ME 04605-4645

412-680-9733 [cell]

VanAmringe@aol.com

LAT 44 27’ 30.60” N

LON 68 20’ 16.30” W

So come out for some sailing and boating [you need wait for summer], lobster, fresh scallops and fresh Maine shrimp, watch the Coach build a barn [wait for summer as well – we stopped that effort when the snow, winds and 9 degree temperatures came] and maybe even help unpack!  Verizon promises to improve cell service, and cable modem is pending — such is life in rural Maine!]

……………………………………………………………………………

P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

The contents of this e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended to be read solely by the individual to whom it is addressed, and are further subject to copyright protection.  This e-mail communication may contain material that is privileged, confidential, or protected from disclosure under applicable law.  If you are not the intended recipient or the authorized agent of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you are strictly prohibited from viewing, printing, storing, disseminating, distributing, copying or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this communication.  Please be advised that if you are not the intended recipient of this communication, the viewing, dissemination or distribution of information contained in this communication may constitute a violation of state or federal law.  If you have received this e-mail communication in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the message from your system.  Thank you.

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The Birth and Death of a Navy Shell

Frederick L. Taeusch (Retired US Navy Captain)

In November, 1949, I had command of the submarine BLENNY when we put into Seattle, Washington, during a West Coast fleet problem. For four years I had been on the Naval Academy crew squad in the late 1930’s, when the University of Washington had dominated the crew scene, except for Navy’s great victory at Poughkeepsie in 1938. I wanted to see the spawning ground for this rowing power.

On a bleak, gray, rainy Sunday afternoon I found myself at the apparently deserted Washington boathouse. Peering through a few windows, I saw a light and some movement in the interior of the building. Trying a few doors, I found one that was unlocked. Inside was a distinguished looking gentleman working on the framework of an eight-oar racing shell. I introduced myself and discovered that I was talking with the legendary George Pocock, British oarsman and builder of the vast majority of the shells and oars in use at that time by all of the U.S. rowing colleges. He was the ultimate authority on shells.
It was a most pleasant and informative afternoon, while Mr. Pocock worked on the construction of a shell that had been ordered by the immortal Buck Walsh, the Navy crew coach. Mr. Pocock was building the shell in accordance with instructions from Buck. “I think it is too big,” said Mr. Pocock, “but that is the way he wants it, and that is the way I’m building it.”

Then in the spring of 1950 I had my orders to the Naval Academy. I reported in during the summer, went to see Buck Walsh, and discovered that he was dying of osteomylitis. He died that fall and was buried in the Naval Academy cemetery in a plot overlooking the route from College Creek that the Navy shells take from the boathouse to the Severn.

I went to the boat house and met Rusty Callow, the “Dean of American
1 From Shipmate, Vol. 49, No. 7, September, 1986 (pp. 21-22)
Rowing Coaches,” who had inherited Buck’s throne. Rusty was great, generous, open hearted personality, a real gentleman of the old school, and an inspiration to all who knew him. I offered my assistance, and Rusty asked me to be the Plebe crew coach. I gulped and accepted. This was in addition to my primary duty in the Executive Department.
I was blessed with more than fifty Plebe candidates, most of them big, powerful, and eager. Six crews!

Interested in the shell I saw being constructed the previous winter, I asked Billy Wiedefeld, the rigger in the boathouse, about it. Billy pointed it out in the racks and said the Varsity had bad luck with it that spring and did not like it. It looked great to me, and I asked Rusty Callow if I could have it for the Plebes. He agreed.

During one of the early season workouts we were way up the Severn and I sent all the other boats back to the boathouse, intending to give the first boat a little more mileage. We came to the turning around point at Round Bay five or six miles from home when Jim Dunbar, then rowing at number seven, had a cramp in his leg which would not go away. What to do? Let them row back lopsided or get in there and row myself? I debated about one second, got Dunbar in the coaching launch and climbed in to the spot where I rowed on my Plebe crew in 1935. We came back to the boathouse where most of the oarsmen were hanging around before returning to Bancroft Hall. There was a great ostentatious show of helping “old Commander Taeusch” out of the Plebe shell and helping him carry it to the rack. All of which I scornfully declined.
Thanks to this wealth of material the Plebe crew had a semi successful season. We lost to Princeton by a nose in the first race, but won all the rest up to the Intercollegiate Rowing Association regatta. Midway through the season we could beat the Varsity at any distance from a racing start to a three mile time trial. The Varsity IRA distance had changed after WWII from four miles to three. The Plebes won the Eastern Sprints, the best of the Eastern crews, trouncing Princeton en route.

Then the IRA regatta, the climax of the rowing season. Traditionally they were held at Poughkeepsie, but due to complaints of currents, rough water, and unfair advantages in the different lanes the regatta was changed to the Ohio River at Marietta in 1950. The Army Corps of Engineers claimed they could control the Ohio River at that spot to “pool” conditions. The 1950 races at Marietta were held in an uncontrollable flood! It was a disaster.

We went to Marietta and the Plebes drew the outside lane next to the West Virginia shore. Heavy torrential downpours came, flooding the Ohio River at that point beyond the Army Engineers’ control. The evening before the regatta I went out in a boat to look over the course. A tremendous, swirling current! I crossed the river dropping markers to see where the current was greatest – relatively quiet along the banks, but much stronger in the center. And the races were downstream. That night I asked Tip Goes, the referee, if it was legal to cross lanes to get in the middle of the river to utilize the current. He told me it was O.K. if we did not interfere with any other crew. Tip was a former Syracuse Cox under coach Jim Tenyk and donor of the Goes Trophy Cup for the winner of the Navy, Cornell, Syracuse regatta.

On race day the conditions were worse, if that was possible. I told the Plebes to concentrate on the start and get out in the middle of the river. Coming to the starting line, the Plebes collided with our starting stake boat, their shell filled with water and sank. There were other collisions with river debris, and Tip postponed the freshmen race to after the Junior Varsity race so the Plebes could use the damaged freshmen could use JV shells. The JV race started, and the Navy boat came in second best with a log and sank. The freshmen race was then postponed to after the Varsity race so the Plebes could use the Varsity shell. During that race the Varsity lost an argument with a log and sank, and there was no shell for the Plebes! A newspaper the next day said it was the “worst Navy disaster since Pearl Harbor.”

We commandeered an old shell in the Marietta boathouse, completely unadjusted and rowed out to the starting line. En route, a power boat with a huge wash swamped us! The Plebes bailed with their hands and jerseys, made the starting line at dusk, and Tip said we could not delay any longer. It was a heartbreaking, uphill struggle, like running Secretariat in the Kentucky Derby with a broken leg. We could not get into the good current with a strange boat half full of water. In spite of all these handicaps we finished third. The MIT freshmen, whom we had beaten handily earlier in the season, won. My heart bled for the Plebes who had rowed their hearts out.

But later they went on to much greater glory. They formed the backbone of the Navy crew that won the Olympic world championship in [Helsinki] Finland the next year and were undefeated for three glorious years under the great Rusty Callow.

This was the end of the IRA regatta at Marietta. The next year the races were held on Lake Onondaga at Syracuse, New York, where the waters were more manageable. The regatta is still held there with the distances all lowered to two thousand meters, the Olympic distance, instead of three miles for the Varsity and two miles for the JV and freshmen.

The poor old shattered Plebe shell was sold or given to Dartmouth, then just starting its rowing program. I heard later that in the winter of 1952, it was stored in a shed which collapsed in a heavy, wet snowstorm, wrecking it beyond repair.

May its star crossed remains rest in peace.

From New York Times [8 August 1897]

From New York Times [10 June 1898]:

From Yale Sports [6 August]:

Q&A With Lightweight Men’s Coach Andy Card

Recently The Yale Sports Info team sat down with Coach Andy Card, long-time mentor for the Yale lightweight crew. In his long and storied career at Yale, Card's crews have won multiple IRA and Eastern Sprints championships, as well as HYP, Head of the Charles, and Princeton Chase titles. As he prepares for the upcoming fall campaign in September, Card shared his thoughts on his coaching staffs, the success of his Y150 teams over the last decade, and the outlook for 2011.

SPO: Where's the team now and what's going on this summer?

AC: Oh man we've got guys all over the globe right now. Off the top of my head, let's see first, we had two guys racing at stroke and three for Yale in the Prince Albert 4+ at Henley [Royal Regatta]. This is the second year they've gone. Last year they lost in the final on Sunday to Oxford Brookes, and this year they drew Brookes in the first round and got a little revenge by rowing through. And we have guys in Delhi, Beijing, Zurich, Paris, Croatia, Kazakhstan, you name it. And all over the U.S. of course, including guys taking classes here in New Haven. We always have some athletes coaching with our Community Rowing program right here in Derby. They're all training with what they have where they're at; there have been some very creative workouts from all reports. Some of these guys are abroad for work, and some for study. It's really remarkable what these guys get into over the summer.

We're also sending a crew to China to race later in July. They'll race in Beijing on the old Olympic course, as well as in Chengdu. That'll be an eye-opening experience to be sure. Colin Farrell, my freshman coach, is taking the crew over.

SPO: Speaking of freshman coaches, you've had a remarkable number of freshman coaches who have gone on to head coaching positions. Could you speak to why that is?

AC: You mean why they were so eager to get away? [laughs] Actually, the program has attracted some great people to coach here, and great people can really make a difference. The only credit I'll take is being able to recognize quality, and then getting out of the way and letting them do their thing. Mike Irwin with the Penn lightweight men, then Eric Carcich with the George Washington women, Wesley Ng with the Trinity women, and Pat Tynan with the Wesleyan women. Yeah, I'm pretty proud of that. They all brought unique qualities to the program and I really liked the coaching teams that we formed in their time here. They continue to be a strength for our program, as they are terrific sounding boards as we go through the years. And I would be remiss not to mention Joe Fallon '06, whose freshman crews won two Sprints titles. But he was the smartest of all and now has a real job with a real income [laughs].

SPO: And Coach Farrell…?

AC: Aside from Wes and Joe Fallon '06, Colin is the first freshman coach that I also recruited as an athlete. I loved competing against his Cornell crews, he always had my respect. And of course I followed his progress on the National Team. Then during the interview process for the freshman job, I talked with Todd Kennett [of Cornell], who recruited, coached, and hired Colin at Cornell. Todd couldn't contain himself with praise for Colin. And he's proven even better than advertised. Colin brings such a wealth of experience as an athlete who performed at a high level for so many years.  I think he can hear me in the other room, so I have to watch what I say. In that case I'll remind him that we've gotten him back in great shape over the past year! But what he's done for us this past year is remarkable. I just love talking rowing with the guy. We're having a ton of fun as a coaching team. Colin is my first freshman coach from within the league, and it was Colin's first time coaching a college other than Cornell. It's going to be even better in year two.  I owe Todd a big favor. Don't tell him I said that though.

SPO: What's your take on the lightweight league, circa 2010?

AC: It's getting to be a lot like the Original Six of the NHL, what were they, Boston, New York, Montreal, Toronto, Detroit, and Chicago, right? And with so few teams but so many hockey players, only the best of the best made the NHL. And these high-quality teams played each other so much, they knew each other so well, it made the rivalries incredibly intense, passionate, and visceral. Our league is like that. Just seeing the blades of the other teams gets you fired up. And out of that comes this close racing, and lots of "turn-abouts", where like in '09 when we were 5th at Sprints and then came back to take second at the IRA. Navy did the same thing this year and it was called "pulling a Yale." You see that all the time in our league. And when one crew moves higher, that by definition moves another lower, and out of that turbulence comes a renewed desire to turn it all back again, and the cycle begins anew. It's awesome. 

SPO: Why is that?

AC: We're all the same size man! It's like stock car racing, we all got the same engines, the same bodies, the same everything. Even the kids in our league who are going to be on the National Team in the future can't go that much faster than a good varsity guy. Our performance range is tighter. And that makes for tight racing. Thus the margins you can earn through harder or superior work are meaningful. What an individual athlete does can make a difference; that's empowering. You're not a victim of your size, like if you are a 6' 2" 180-pound heavyweight taking on a 6' 6" 215-pound bruiser.

SPO: What qualities do you look for when recruiting high school rowers?

AC: Recruiting lightweights is an art, although many have tried to make it a science. We look for "want-to"; do they want to be a lightweight and all that entails, especially with regard to body weight? Like in basketball, sure, a guy might be seven-feet tall, but does he want to play basketball? Or is he doing it because everyone says he should just because he's tall? Does he love the sport? In our case, a guy might weigh 160 in high school, but does he want to work hard and stay there and get faster? Making weight isn't hard if there's "want-to." It's all in the attitude. Is being a lightweight a burden, or is it the most freakin' awesome thing in the world? I know which guy I'd like to coach.

We look for athletes with a demonstrated comfort with high efforts and a low success rate. More "want-to"… they want to work hard, and often, even if they are not very good at things at first. I wish more kids played baseball and rowed; it's too bad they are both spring sports. What I mean is that the best baseball players are comfortable with success only three out of 10 times. As a rower develops true mastery of himself and the shell,  and then tries to make that work with his teammates, the per-stroke success rate is similar or sometimes even worse. Of course, it's hard work that increases the success rate, and we look for that trait. That's "want-to".

"Want-to" also means a desire for challenge. Listen, I say it's harder in many ways to row in college than it is for the national team. Who goes to the Olympic training center and also goes to Yale Law School at the same time? Maybe only scullers, since they can set their own training times. But you get the idea. Yet Yale places that kind of dual demand on people. The guys who have thrived here have loved that kind of a challenge. Athletes who like full plates and seek to get a lot out of everything they do. Rich Littlehale '10 is a perfect example: he rowed for us, rowed for the heavyweights (ok, he could have managed his weight a little better there), took a year off, started his own business, and then came back and rowed this past year while continuing to run the business and finish his Yale academics with success. He's an incredibly hard worker and high achiever. Yourenew.com, had to get the plug in there. Guys have to want that. You can't be scared. You gotta have the "want-to".

SPO: The program has been very successful for the last decade. What seems to be the differences between the championship years and the almost-championship years?

AC: Well first, thanks for saying that about the past decade. Sometimes it is good to look back at what Y150 has accomplished, as long as you don't do it too often. We didn't win our last race this past spring, so I'm still processing that. What did Pat Riley say, "There's winning and then there's misery?" That's kind of how it is. I also like this one from Bill Parcells, and I'm paraphrasing, "No matter how many games you win, no matter how many championships, no matter how many Super Bowls, you're not winning now, so you stink." Every year we don't win I think that.

Second, like I said before about the NHL, in our league non-winning doesn't mean a failure necessarily. Our league has great coaches in it, and the margins are so tight, it's really the best and wisest course to give credit to the winner and not bang on the rest. I've got the World Cup on the brain right now, and of the teams left, who's the best? Netherlands? Germany? Uruguay? Spain? If Netherlands beats Spain, does that mean Spain stinks? No. Just that they couldn't handle one aspect of the Dutch game most likely.

OK so what was the question? Oh yeah, the difference in the championship years. First thing I would say is it's always the athletes. The years that we have won it all it seemed that the group really knew what they wanted, had the physical capability to get it, and then worked their butts off to create some luck and magic just in case. They showed up early rather than just-late. It seems like a small thing, but being on time means a lot.

And you know what else? Great personalities. Not all the same, of course, but great personalities. Strong ones, yes, and sometimes there would be a little stormy weather, but mostly they had optimistic, positive attitudes. Like I said before, rowing is such a low-success rate thing, that if you don't have some PMA [positive mental attitude] it just stinks. They could talk intelligently about the sport, and they had self-insight if that's a word. They could call themselves on their own BS, and they would admit mistakes when they made them. Because of this, they didn't make many of them. They believed in the team: the program, the coaches, and themselves. And they could laugh at themselves, man did we laugh.

This doesn't mean that the guys who didn't take home a gold medal at the end of the year aren't great guys. Like [Yale women's crew coach] Will Porter says, it takes talent, hard work, and luck to win. If you don't have one of those, it's hard to win. Sometimes real tragedy strikes. People forget that in 2006, we had won all our races except a crazy-current race on the Raritan, and then on the Thursday before Sprints Alex Capelluto '08 was killed riding his bike. Can you imagine? True grief is more tiring than a thousand workouts. I still am in awe and proud and amazed that my team could go ahead and compete two days later at the request of Alex's family and in his honor. I have no idea how we did it. We were all in a daze. And the day after the Sprints was graduation and Alex's funeral. How do you think about the catch with real life going on like that? I thought we were good enough to win that year, get the back-to-back national championships, but it was too much. I wouldn't wish what we went through on anyone. If only… if only… it took us a while to get back on track to be honest. No one remembers '06, but I do. There was only a little press, but I thought our effort was heroic, but it had a lasting effect on the team. Joe Fallon '06 was captain that year, and he deserves a lot of credit for holding things together. Who knows how a back-to-back would have changed things in '07? We've won three Sprints titles since Alex died, but not at the varsity level. The last guys who knew Alex directly have graduated now. We try to keep his spirit alive. Alex worked so hard and got so much out of life. I think it has made me more appreciative of guys since then who remind me of him, and a little bit less tolerant of those who take the awesome chance they have at Yale for granted. 

SPO: Usually it's coaches who get asked why student-athletes should go to their school. Let's turn that around, what do recruits tell you about Yale?

AC: Overwhelmingly the recruits say that everyone at Yale really loves the school way beyond the norm and are incredibly friendly and welcoming. It's obvious right from the moment they first step on campus; people love to be here. It might sound trite. Doesn't everyone like college? But in my experience the recruits say the "happy factor" really is way higher at Yale than anywhere. That comes directly from kids who are visiting lots of programs and talking to students directly.

And the next thing out of their mouth is a rave about the residential college system. It's really the coolest thing about Yale — besides lightweight rowing of course – and it's what really separates Yale from the rest. Often imitated, never duplicated, that's the saying, right?

The next thing the recruits ask me is, how come when they go on visits to other schools, the rowers they meet bring up where the Yale boathouse is? Huh? Yes yes we all know that our boathouse is not directly on campus. I wish the recruits would ask why these guys are so afraid of Yale that they have to run us down like that? If the trip to the boathouse is so inconvenient, how come we've won all these races and championships? I mean, lightweight rowing itself is inconvenient too, and very difficult. Colin and I often joke that we wish the boathouse was farther away just to make it harder. Then we'd find out who really likes to row.

SPO: What is the outlook for the future of Yale lightweight crew?

AC: We're always looking for the right guys who fit with Y150. Liberal arts engineers we call 'em. Oarsmen who are familiar and comfortable with objective standards, repetitive learning regimes, and technical group achievement. These things are not exclusive to engineers, but they are integral to our successful crews. It's all about the athletes. My best crews are the ones who like it when it's difficult, and love it when it seems impossible. I think we have guys like that in our program right now. No one can guarantee wins, but I can guarantee we'll go really fast.

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From Yale Sports [22 June]:

Q&A With Women’s Crew Coach Will Porter

Will Porter at the post-race meeting (Tim Bennett photo)

Discusses Varsity Eight's Three NCAA Titles And Coaching Philosophy

On May 30, Yale's varsity eight won the grand final at the NCAA Championship. It was the third time in the last four years that the Bulldogs had the fastest crew in the nation and the fourth straight year a Yale boat captured an NCAA crown (the second varsity won in 2009). Yale has now been selected to the NCAA Championships in each of the last nine years. In addition, Yale has won the Charles Willing Team Trophy at the Eastern Sprints in two of the last three years, and has been the Ivy League champion in four of the last six years. Head Coach Will Porter has guided the Bulldogs to all that success and he recently sat down to discuss the state of the Yale women's crew program.

SPO: The program has been very successful for the last decade. What were the keys to taking the next step and winning individual NCAA boat titles?

WP: Looking back it has been a steady build. When I took over as the head coach, Yale had not been to the NCAAs in two years. Our 1V and 2V had just finished in the third level finals at the Eastern Sprints. There was nowhere to go but up.  Most people think Yale has always been a powerhouse, but if you look closely that is not necessarily the case.  In 2000 we were able to make the finals at the Sprints and we got an at-large invite to the NCAAs. That was important. Those rowers in '00 got the ball rolling. In '01 we got an at-large bid again and that led to a team bid in '02. That is why I believe so strongly in the NCAA defining rowing as an individual/team sport because I built our success on the at-large eight bid.

In '04 we finished second both as a team and in the 1V and that was a key moment. I think we came out of that championship believing it was possible to win. In '05 we won the Sprints out of nowhere in the last 500. '06 was a tough year, but we carried over Rachel Jeffers who was in the 1V from '04-'07. In her senior year she stroked our 1V that broke through and won the national championship. If you look at it closely and you know the athletes, you can see how the Class of 2002 is connected to the success of '04, and '04 led to the '05 sprints which led to the '07 season which runs straight to 2010.

The keys to breaking through are the athletes. The fundamentals of the program have always been solid and as the athletes have gotten better we have gone faster. That is not to say the earlier athletes were not as good as the current athletes, but they did not benefit from the momentum in the program the way the current team does.
 
SPO: You have won four individual championships at the NCAA's but you have not won the team title. How do you feel about the team title versus winning the varsity eight?

WP: I would always want to have the fastest crew in the country. That is not to say I would not want to win the team title. I think it is important to recognize individual crews as well as teams. Rowing has been around for a long time and the national champion has always been the fastest varsity eight. Look at every other major championship in this country – the IRA, Sprints, PAC-10, South- Centrals, on the high school level Stotes, Scholastic Nationals, NEIRA, CJ's, USRowing. The winner of the varsity eight is regarded as the national champion. It is engrained in our sport. Now the NCAA comes along and has to find a fit for a large roster so they create a team championship which is great, all the major regattas have team championships as well. But the national champions have always been the fastest eight in the country. I will say the rowing media could do a better job of staying  true to our sport by covering the varsity eight winner a bit more than a one line mention in every article.

SPO: Has the success changed the perception of Yale women's crew nationally?

WP: When you win people either love you or hate you. Look at the Yankees – you either love em or hate em. I do not see us as the darling of the rowing media. I know high school athletes like our program because they come here and see how fun it is. Like I said before I think the current perception nationally is that we have always been good. I do not think we get enough credit for the success we have had.

Winning three of the last four national championships in the varsity eight is an amazing accomplishment. It has not happened in the NCAA era. The '07 crew was legendary. They went undefeated, won the Sprints and the NCAA's. They won every heat, semi and final. That is unbelievable. They were flawless. That does not happen too often.

I do not care what program you are, it is never easy to go fast. It takes hard work, talent and luck. There are definitely schools that it is easier to recruit to because they are attractive for one reason or another. But Yale is a highly selective school and there have been plenty of great athletes who would love to have come here but were not academically able to. I am ok with that. This place is about excellence and it fits well with what we are trying to do at the boathouse. Yale is not for everyone, it should be hard to get in here. We want the best of the best. We want athletes who want to race at the highest level and are not willing to compromise their academics to do it. At Yale we believe you can do both at a very high level.
 
SPO: One of your main philosophies is to make sure your rowers have fun and enjoy the experience. Explain why that is so important to you?

WP: Rowing should be fun with a capital "F". To me rowing and racing has always been a blast. I love it. I loved it right from the first stroke I took. It suits me. I love hard work and I love being flat out on the edge flying on the water, working my body to its limits. I miss it. I miss the freedom that you find right in the middle of a big race when everything is churning and you are not thinking – you are just being.

As a coach I look around at regattas and I see so many athletes and coaches who just do not seem to be enjoying it. I kid my team all the time about how uptight rowers are. I do not want to see us acting like that.  As an athlete I was coached many different ways and I know the most powerful motivator is to love what you are doing. True success comes from passion. Our motto has always been to go as fast as we can.  It is not personal. I could care less who we are racing, ultimately we are racing to be our best.  We have always said we will be our own judge of our performance because only we know what we are capable of and what we are trying to achieve together.

I want my athletes to take that with them after Yale. I want them to pursue their lives on their own terms with passion and a desire to become the best they can be in everything they choose to do. I don't want them to settle. As a parent that is what I want for my children. Ultimately I want them to be happy, that is all any parent truly wants for their kids. Rowing is a place where you should be having fun. Yes we are serious about our pursuit but we are not going to operate in fear and stress. Those are negative. I prefer positives.
 
SPO: The Class of 2010 played a major role in the recent success. What made that class so special?

WP: It has to be regarded as one of the best classes in the history of women's rowing. There are two world class athletes in the class, but we have had athletes just as good as them in the past and we have never had the kind of success this group had. The things that make them great go beyond rowing. They are a very close class, they are honest people and sincere. They also happen to all be very driven and very competitive, but they were able to compete against each other without destroying each other. In the end they put the team first and that is sometimes tough for high end, talented athletes to do. From top to bottom the class was full of winners.

SPO: Did you expect the class to make such a major impact when they first arrived?

WP: I knew Tess Gerrand was good. But Taylor [Ritzel] and Alice [Henly] were way better than I could have ever hoped. Maren[McCrea]was a known talent but Chart [Catherine Hart] and Mia [Kanak] were just way better in reality than on paper. The rest of the class – Katherine Adams, Mary Pat Wixted – were great leaders in our lower boats. The answer is no I could never have expected them to be as dominant as they were. I also am very skeptical of recruiting classes. I never think an athlete is that great until they are here and prove they can perform daily at this level. It is still a big step from high school to what we do.
 
SPO: What were your emotions when this year's varsity eight crossed the finish line first at the NCAA Championship? Were they different than the first time in 2007?

WP: In '07 I was relieved that we won because we were perfect up to that last race. It was almost too good to be true and I really wanted those guys to get that one for themselves, they had come so far. In '08 I was pleasantly surprised because we were third with 500 to go. I was standing right at the 1500 meter mark and I saw we were on the move. We had not won the Sprints so I was psyched to see them get it right in their last race. I came out of '09 frustrated because I believed we were better than we showed all year. We never made it to our top speed.

This year I was standing in the exact same spot as '08 and I knew as soon as we got out off the start we were in a good place. When they won, I was on the phone with [my wife] Mia yelling. I was pumped. They are the fastest crew I have ever coached. They could really move the boat when they were on.

All three [championships]were awesome. It never gets boring and I try to savoir it because you never know if it will happen again.
 
SPO: What qualities do you look for when recruiting high school rowers?
 
WP: Recruiting is tricky. There are many different things that go into success. In the end we look for those athletes who are good students, who education matters to as well as athletes who want to be the best they can be. Obviously it takes certain physical qualities, but to me the personality and the character of the recruit is the most important thing. I want determined athletes who like the hard work, the struggle, the process of going fast. I am not interested in high maintenance people or drama. I want real people who are sincere and earnest in what they do, willing to work for results.

SPO: What about Yale attracts potential rowers?

WP: Everything. The place to start is the University. Yale is arguably the best university in the world. There are Yale graduates at the top of every profession worldwide. It is an internationally known university full of world class facilities and world class professors.

It also happens to be the birth place of collegiate rowing in the US with a great history in the sport. Between our boathouse, our three indoor rowing tanks and our weight room we have more space dedicated to rowing than any other program in the country. As soon as athletes visit Yale it becomes clear why we are able to do what we do.
 
SPO: You have an experienced coaching staff in Kate Maloney and Jamie Snider. How important have their contributions been to the success?
 
WP: Kate has been here since '03 and Jamie joined us in '05. Kate brings a level of consistency to her position. She is certainly one of the best assistant coaches in the country and she has been approached by several other universities about head coaching positions. I think Kate has a great situation at Yale and she enjoys working with high level student athletes and they love rowing for her. She knows her main job is recruiting and development and she embraces it. A former Olympian, Kate is a strong woman with a big personality. She is a great role model for our athletes. There is no doubt she plays a big role in our success.

Jamie is flat out the best second assistant in the country. He has more rowing knowledge than most head coaches and I am lucky to have him as part of my staff. He has made the most of his athletes and they know it and love him. The funny thing about Jamie is very few coaches throughout the league think he is a coach. They all think he is our boatman. They never remember him! It cracks me up.

SPO: You had two former rowers – Ashley Brzozowicz and Rachel Jeffers – at the 2008 Olympics representing their countries (Canada and the United States). What did that mean to you?

WP: That is awesome. I love to see our former athletes take it to the next level. Both Kate and I rowed for the U.S. Team and we know how hard it is to perform at that level. Whenever a former Yale athlete makes it, I smile because I know she must love rowing at some level and that means we did our job right.

There are plenty of great athletes who never make it to the next level because they get burned out rowing in college. It is not a physical burn out, they just loose the joy and rowing becomes work. To me the Olympics is still the ultimate peak for our sport, but it is a very different experience than being part of a collegiate team. Rowing on the national team is an individual pursuit and rowing on a collegiate team is all about the team. I know Ashley is still training as well as Jamie Redman, Taylor Ritzel and Tess Gerrand. If they all make it to London [for the 2012 Olympics] it would be amazing.
 
SPO: What is the outlook for the future of Yale women's crew?

WP: More of the same. I know our results lately have been pretty amazing but the day-to-day running of the program is no different than it has been for the past 10 years. The athletes make all the difference. If you are asking what is next as far as results, I have no idea. If you are asking what is next as far as what we do on the water every day, it will be the same. Do we want to win? Absolutely, win every race, every event, but that is not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is to do a "little Yale rowing" and go as fast as we can.
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From Yale Sports [04 June]:

YALE WINS THE EASTERN SPRINTS, IVY LEAGUE AND NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP FOR THE THIRD TIME IN FOUR YEARS!!!!!!!

Yes it is true the Yale Varsity Eight won it all again this year and with their final race at the NCAA’s the class of 2010 goes out in style. I am not sure there has been a more dominant class of women rowers to tear through the collegiate ranks. The group of three, Taylor Ritzel-stroke, Tess Gerrand-7 and Alice Henly-5 all rowed in the 1V for four years and won 3 Eastern Sprints and 3 NCAA’s with an overall regular season record of 40-4. Coxswain Mia Kanak, has 3 National titles, 2 in the 1V and 1 in the 2V as well as 2 Sprints titles while 5 seat Maren McCrea has 2 Sprints and 2 NCAA’s and Catherine Hart rounds out the mix with 1 Sprints and NCAA’s. Hart was in the crew last year but went down with a severe back injury right before the Sprints making her comeback that much more sweet this year. The underclasswomen in the crew are next year’s captain Caroline Nash-4, Stephanie Madner-2 and Dara Dickson-1. 

The regular season was intentionally a slow build for this crew. I altered the winter training to facilitate a strong base, the winter was spent long and low for a longer time than ever which made us slow in the early season but fast late. It was a calculated risk. The weather was no help this spring and did hamper us right before the Princeton week when I had planned to ramp it up but it was not to be as we went down hard to a very fast and very polished Princeton crew who was racing at a 36-37 in mid April and UVA. We knew they had nowhere to go from there and all we had to do was get up to speed by the Sprints and make up a whopping 7 seconds. Which we did. The Princeton loss was a good thing as many have said it woke the Yale bunch up and they started pulling like I not seen before. Beating Brown at Brown was exciting and something this group wanted to do badly. It was the first win on the Seekonk since ’87. The inside scoop on th! at race is that  it is the only course in the country that lines the sterns up on the starting line, not the bows, the referee is a Brown parent and steered the Yale varsity 6 times to 1 time for Brown, the water is not controlled and motor boat wakes are routine. We knew it would happen going in and we met the challenges and beat them. 

The Sprints– Going into the Sprints we knew we had to stay with Princeton in the first 1000 to have any chance of beating them. They were the crew to beat going into the Sprints and they had never been behind all year. If we could stay close or better yet get ahead of them in the first 500 we thought it would rattle them and force them to row outside their comfort zone. As luck would have it we put our bow ahead by 1 foot on the third stroke of the race and never let up. The most we were able to push out was only about ½ a length and to Princeton’s credit they never let up. They were ready for the challenge and kept fighting all the way to the finish. It was one of the best battles I have ever seen in a six boat race. The intensity was so hot between Princeton and Yale that we pressed out to 11 seconds ahead of Brown who finished 3^rd and 23 seconds ahead of sixth place Cornell who we beat by approximately 2 seconds in the regular season. The slow build in speed was in clear effect. 

The NCAA’s– One of the biggest challenges of the NCAA’s for Yale is getting through Yale’s graduation without totally exhausting the seniors. With 6 seniors in the 1V, one in the 2V and 1 in the four it was particularly important to come through graduation in one piece. I was happy to see we had our legs under us by our last row Thursday before racing started Friday am. Through the heats and semifinals it appeared that Yale, Cal, UVA, Stanford and Princeton were all within 1 second of each other. The talk around the coaches was what a great race the final would be with 5 crews the same speed. We (I) did not agree with that conclusion and our plan was to blow the race open as fast as possible and push the pace . That is exactly what we did blasting out with only Princeton staying with us we almost opened water by the 1000 and when the crew passed me with 500 to go we had a solid 7 seat advantage over Princeton and UVA who were! ere locked in a battle for second. Both Princeton and Virginia closed on us but there was never a doubt we won by a solid 3 almost 4 seats. I am pretty sure we had the strongest athletes in the race and I thought we could dominate the field if we rowed up to our true potential, which is really the trick to everything we do, chase our full potential down the course. In the end I think we rowed a very good race, not a perfect race, I think we could have gone 2 seconds faster but it was good enough! 

The lower boats– This was a tough year for our lower boats. At the Sprints the 2V finished 3^rd and the four finished 2^nd. The great thing about the Sprints was winning the Charles  Willings  Points Trophy for the 3^rd time in four years. As the points played out we won by 1 point and if any of our crews were to finish just 1 place slower we would not have won. Our team goal for the Sprints was to perform to our seed or higher which everyone was able to do with 3 crews stepping up 1 seed the 1V, V4a and V4b. At the NCAA’s our lower boats just did not have the depth of experience that is required to run with the big state schools, many of which have well over 70 women rowing while we have about 40. The 20 full ride scholarships are also starting to fill these program with big athletes in their lower boats. Our 2V went to the NCAA’s with 3 freshmen and 4 sophomores and 6 athletes who were m! making their first appearance at the NCAA’s.  The V4 also had 2 first time rowers and a coxswain making her debut. I was disappointed to see them struggle as they did but I hope it will serve them well  next year. We all know the first step towards success is often failure.

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From Jimmy Sopko, USNA '05 [06 October]:

Family and Friends,

It's been too long since I have spoken with most of you.  I hope all is well and you are preparing for a little bit of fall weather and then winter.  Personally, I can't wait for fall and am a bit sad that I will be missing my first East Coast fall since 2005.  MAN I'M GETTING OLD. 

Shaunnah and I have moved from Seattle and now live in Annapolis.  She is the Superintendent's Aide and is going 100 mph all day/everyday.  The job is definitely keeping her busy while I'm off rowing.  Needless to say, there is a reason why Admiral's Aides only stay on the job for 1-2 years and no longer.  We moved in to an apartment just a block and a half away from Church Circle and love it.  Unfortunately I am only able to enjoy the Annapolis scenery Saturday afternoons through Sunday evenings.  The rest of the time I have been living in Princeton training with the national team.  That will change after I return from Worlds and train in Annapolis through the new year.

After I separated from the Navy I began training full time with the national team in Princeton.  It has been an amazing experience.  Having rowing as my sole focus has required a bit of an adjustment.  At Navy I was used to dealing with the extra “Mother B” stuff and at Pocock I had to worry about SWO stuff.  Now I’m focused on getting faster in a boat and painfully admit that I sometimes miss the hectic SWO/Navy life.  The new schedule and less responsibility outside of rowing have been effective.  Last year I was at the lightweight four camp and was pretty far behind the power curve.  There were probably 7 or 8 guys that were in serious contention for the boat and I was not one of them. This year has been a different story.  During the 2010 lightweight four selection I was in a number of dog fights.  There were 5 guys in serious contention for 4 spots.  We would race 2000 meters against the heavyweight fours up to 3 times a week for 4 weeks, switching line-ups between races and noting the differences.  It was a taxing endeavor and unfortunately I came up a bit short of making the boat.  However, this year I was tenths of seconds behind instead of 6-8 seconds behind.  The goal is to keep improving and at the same time help the US lightweight four become competitive and respected internationally.

Being cut from the four is bittersweet.  No one likes to be cut.  The sweet part is now I’m in the lightweight 8.  I was stoked last year when I made the 8 and we went on to earn a silver medal at worlds.  Last year’s 8 was fast, but this year’s is faster, no doubt.  We have 5 returning rowers and all have improved physically and technically from last year.  The 3 new guys are forces to be reckoned with.  Two of them are Navy Lights so naturally, they are gifted oarsmen.  The third is a St Joe's Prep guy and Columbia Lightweight.  I was never a SJP fan, but I have a soft spot in my heart for Columbia because a few of my cousins ran/run track there.  These three bring A LOT of horsepower and passion into the boat.   They are all straight out of college and can move eights.  When we turn on the switch the boat jumps!

The current lineup in the 8 is:

Cox – Steve Young MIT ‘09

Stroke – Jimmy Sopko Navy ‘05

7 – Matt Kochem Cornell ‘08

6 – Kenny McMahon       Wisconsin ‘08

5 – Matt Muffelman         Dartmouth ‘03

4 – Michael Kerrigan       Navy ‘10

3 – Julian Bowling           Navy ‘10

2 – Bob Duff                    Columbia ‘10

1 – Skip Dise                    MIT ‘03

The World Championships will be at Lake Karapiro, New Zealand during the first week in November.  The goal is to improve on our silver from last year.  The only way to do that is to WIN and we are gearing up for it!  The first step was selection and after that we had to solidify our spot on the National Team by winning the US Trials.  The event has been uncontested for years so all we had to do was start and finish. The next step is to fly to Oklahoma City for a 2 week training trip beginning on October 7^th. We are excited about this.  Oklahoma has built a beautiful new state-of-the-art facility solely for the National Team.  We will be training side by side the USROWING entry for the Head of the Charles and participating in the Head of the Oklahoma.  On October 21^st we take off for New Zealand and I get to cross the international dateline for the 5^th time.  The difference is this time I'll be at 35,000 feet instead of at sea level.  We arrive on the 23^rd (yes, I lose a day) and get to work. 

 

Four Navy Lights selected to 2010 United States National Team.

Four current and former members of Navy Lightweight Crew were selected to the United States National Team earlier this month.  Jimmy Sopko ’05, Julian Bowling ’10, Michael Kerrigan ’10 and Ed King ’11 traveled to USRowing’s high performance center in Oklahoma City, OK.

Sopko was selected for the USA lightweight men’s four to race at the Lucerne World Cup Regatta on July 11th.  Bowling, Kerrigan and King spent their summer training in pairs and fours to determine who would represent the USA at July’s U23 World Rowing Championships in Belarus and October’s World Rowing Championships in New Zealand.   King was selected for the U23 lightweight four, while Kerrigan won the selection trials to earn his seat in the U23 lightweight pair.  Bowling is still training at the lightweight eight-selection camp in OKC.  

This is Sopko’s second time on team USA; he was seven-seat of the 2009 silver medal USA lightweight eight.  At Navy he was seven-seat of the 2004 Navy lightweight eight that won the Eastern Sprints and the National Championship.  Originally from Matthews, VA, Sopko recently separated from the Navy, his final post was Navigator on board the USS FORD (FFG 54), to pursue his rowing aspirations.  While at the Academy, Sopko was a three-year member of the varsity eight.  He completed two undefeated seasons and won gold and silver medals from the Eastern Sprints and a gold medal at the National Championships. 

King, from Ironton, MO, was a member of the 2009 U23 lightweight four.  He returns to the 2010 U23 World Championships to avenge last summer’s 10th place finish.  ‘Mix’ – as he is referred to at Hubbard hall – is boated with Princeton lightweight rower Robin Prendes and a duo from the Harvard lightweight crew – Austin Meyer and Will Newell.  Mix was a walk on for Navy in 2007.  In 2010 he was four-seat of the 2nd place varsity eight at the IRA National Championships.  Each season at Navy, Mix has earned a seat in the top eight and is intending to select Navy SEALS as his service selection this next academic year.

Kerrigan, also a novice rower when he arrived to Annapolis, hails from Charlottesville, VA.  At selection camp he earned a berth in the U23 lightweight pair.  To finalize the entry Kerrigan and his pair partner, Princeton lightweight oarsman Christian Klein, won the U23 lightweight pair trial race.  At Navy Kerrigan completed two undefeated seasons with two gold and two silver medals from the Eastern Sprints.  He was a mainstay in the lightweight varsity crew this year, helping his boat to a silver medal at the IRA.  Kerrigan is currently serving as a 2nd LT in the USMC and obtained a special assignment to train with the US team this summer.

In 2009 Bowling rowed at the U23 World Championships with fellow midshipmen Chad Healy ’09 and Ed King ’11.  Now outside of the age limitation, Bowling is vying for a spot in the USA lightweight eight.  He has fared well at selection camp and will be in the running for the eight when selection is completed in September.  Bowling was a three-year varsity oarsman at Navy.  While at Navy Bowling completed an undefeated season with a bronze and silver medal from the Eastern Sprints and two silver medals from the IRA National Championships.  Bowling hails from Shelby, NC and rowed at the McCallie School before spending a post grad year at the Kent School in 2006.  Bowling serves as a 2nd LT in the USMC and has also been assigned to train with team USA.
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From Yale Sports:

 

Zeng Wins Rhodes Scholarship

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senior lightweight rower William Zeng (Great Falls, VA.) was chosen this weekend as one of 32 American recipients of the Rhodes Scholarship, as announced by Elliot F. Gerson, American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust. Zeng, who will study at Oxford University, was one of two Yale students and three Ivy League athletes awarded with the Rhodes Scholarship.

 

Rhodes candidates, who are selected on the qualities of "high academic achievement, integrity of character, a spirit of unselfishness, respect for others, potential for leadership, and physical vigor," must undergo a two-part application process. Over 1,500 candidates seek endorsement from their college or university, the first step in the process. This year, 837 candidates were endorsed by a total of 309 institutions. Committees of Selection from the 16 U.S. Rhodes districts then select the top endorsed candidates to be invited to be interviewed. After these interviews, two scholarship recipients are selected from each district.

Zeng, a Physics major, will pursue an M.Sc. in Mathematics and the Foundations of Computer Science while at Oxford. In particular, he will work in an emerging branch of physics called quantum information in the Oxford Computing Lab with Professors Samson Abramsky and Bob Coecke.

"We try to take advantage of the weird and unintuitive behaviors of quantum mechanical systems to design new technologies and experiments," said Zeng. "There's much promise for this approach to revolutionize both information processing and our understanding of quantum mechanics."

With the lightweights, Zeng is a three-time top-three finisher at the EARC Sprints. As a freshman, he stroked the first freshman eight to an undefeated season and Sprints victory. As a sophomore, he was a member of the third varsity eight, which followed an undefeated regular season with a third-place finish at Sprints. Last year, Zeng earned another Sprints bronze as a member of the varsity eight. This fall, he rowed in the varsity eight at the Head of the Housatonic and Head of the Charles before missing the Princeton Chase with a rib injury.

Zeng, who plans to continue rowing at Oxford, credits some of his academic success to his rowing background.

"I'm proud of the drive, discipline, and character that rowing has shown me. Particularly, living and working while training has made acute my sense of the balance and structure that working my body gives my mind," said Zeng. "Lessons from rowing background my approach to day-by-day work toward the long-term, self-stipulated goals that organize scientific work, and after practices I'd never shirk at needing to get into the lab."

Head coach Andy Card described Zeng as the quintessential Rhodes candidate.

"William is the number one exceptional guy on a team full of good guys. He is dedicated to making not only the experience of being on the Yale lightweights one of the most rewarding endeavors possible, but also to the idea that everyone on the outside who has interactions with the team – be they fans, parents, opponents, officials, bus drivers, hotel personnel, little kids learning to row, anyone – comes away thinking that 'wow, those guys are good guys.'"

"Every summer Will has been academically focused, yet if you check his training logs, the amount of work he can do while studying and working hard is astounding," said Card. "Whether Will was sweating like a fountain and making up his own workouts in India, or hitting the water or erg in Switzerland while still making it to the lab at 4:00 a.m. in Zurich, it's all a testament to Will's ability to balance work and, well, more work. He is very structured without being an automaton." 

Zeng will begin his studies at Oxford in October. To date, 3,228 Americans have won Rhodes scholarships, and Zeng will be a part of a group of approximately 80 worldwide scholars selected this year. While its value varies by the degree program chosen, Gerson estimated that the scholarship, which includes all university tuition and expenses, as well as a living expenses stipend and travel to and from England, averages approximately $50,000 per year.

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From Yale Sports [7 November]:

Jamie Redman ‘08, Taylor Ritzel ‘10 Help U.S. Eight Win Gold

 

Jamie Redman (top left) and Taylor Ritzel (top right).

Ashley Brzozowicz '04 Earns Silver Medal With Canadian Eight

 

LAKE KARAPIRO, New Zealand – The United States' gold medal winning eight the 2010 World Rowing Championship had a distinct Yale flavor. Jamie Redman '08 and Taylor Ritzel '10 both helped the U.S. row to a nearly four second victory over Canada on a spectacular spring afternoon. It was the fifth straight gold medal for the U.S. eight at the world championships, but the first that Redman and Ritzel have been a part of. Ashley Brzozowicz '04 won a silver medal with the Canadian eight.

The U.S. women's eight came to New Zealand as the favorite to win, despite the crew's age and experience. In the heat the U.S. backed those expectations with the fastest time of the day and moved straight to final. Staying focused and on target during the four days off, they came to the line Sunday prepared.

The start was a bit off and they rowed through the opening 200 meters fighting in the pack. The U.S. had the lead by the first quarter buoy, and just kept building until they pushed into open water, finishing nearly four seconds ahead of second-place Canada with a time of 6:12.42.

Canada finished with a time of 6:16.12 and Romania took bronze in a time of 6:18.96.

The victory capped a remarkable year for Ritzel. In May, she stroked the Yale varsity eight to the NCAA title for the third time in the last four years. Then in July she helped the women's eight to a gold medal at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Belarus.

"It's been quite a whirlwind summer," Ritzel told US Rowing. "Coming to the senior group, I felt like a novice again. I had so much to learn, and continue to have so much to learn, but the women who are in this boat, the older women, with all their experience, I just so admire it, and I have that to look up to."

Redman has considerable experience with U.S. Rowing. She won a gold medal in 2008 with the women's eight at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships. At the 2009 World Championships, she won a silver medal with the women's four without coxswain.

At Yale, Redman was a 2007 CRCA All-America selection and twice earned All-New England honors. She helped the Bulldogs varsity eight to an undefeated season, including the NCAA title, in 2007 and then another national championship as a senior.

Brzozowicz is a veteran with Canadian Rowing. She joined the team full-time in 2006 and has competed in numerous international regattas, including the 2008 Olympics.

At Yale, Brzozowicz was in the No. 6 seat in Yale's varsity eight that finished second at the 2004 NCAA Championships. She was the first athlete to row under head coach Will Porter's tutelage to earn a spot in the Olympics.

Ritzel, Redman and Brzozowicz were all coached by Will Porter at Yale.