With only one senior lost to graduation from last year’s varsity squad, the men’s crew team is looking to its incredible depth to improve on last year’s fourth-place finish in the New England Championships. While the majority of the team’s competition, including the New England Championships, takes place during the spring season, the crew team’s fall schedule includes three competitive long distance races.
This fall, the men’s crew team sports 28 returning varsity rowers and 10 novice members, one of the largest and most talented groups in terms of depth that the crew team has seen since its first-place finish in the 2004 New England Championships.
“There are a lot of good rowers on the team right now, all with a new pressure to perform,” said captain Matt Carey ’07. “Usually there has been a clear first boat, with a few exceptions here and there. This year, seven guys from first boat are returning, and a strong entire second boat returns. A bunch of new freshmen who have great potential give us a strong talent pool to choose from.”
Carey, one of the anchors of the crew team since his freshman year, will again be counted on to carry the load on the first varsity boat this fall. Despite a debilitating arm injury that has forced him to miss several weeks of training in the summer, Carey should be back in full force once the season is underway.
Another returning letterman is Chris Cody ’07. Cody notes that this year’s team is much deeper and more talented across the board than the roster that claimed the New England Championships in 2004.
“This team returns with lot of experience,” Cody said. “Varsity rowers who are freshmen, or even rowers on the novice squad, can turn to anyone for advice in any type of situation in the water. We have a big support structure; it seems to be that everyone can go to anyone in terms of help in any situation.”
For the large crew squad, one of the main goals of the fall season is to gain chemistry in the water and get accustomed to rowing with members of the boat they have never rowed with before.
“In the fall, we really want to focus on getting to know each other,” Carey said. “There might be standouts in terms of physical fitness, but it takes eight guys moving together to move the boat. The slightest difference or misstep will result in the boat not moving as fast as if you’re on the same page. You have to have the same patience as everyone else, otherwise it will screw up the whole boat, especially with races decided by just seconds. It’s important that we’re all on the same page.”
For the crew team, the fall season’s races are largely long distance, as opposed to the spring when the team competes in shorter sprint races. Additionally, the fall season contrasts its spring campaign, as the team looks to find a group of eight rowers to occupy the first varsity boat in later spring races, and its main competition of the fall, the Head of the Charles race on Oct. 21.
Returnees from the first varsity eight boat who look to compete for a starting spot in the boat once again include Carey, Cody, Jeremy Brown ’08, Brian Studwell ’09, Doug Cody ’09 (Chris’ brother), Tom Volgenau ’08, and Alpay Koralturk ’08.
For this weekend’s race, the team enters the competition without the goal of finishing with a certain time, but rather to gain experience as a team in the boat.
“We’re looking to get the incoming freshmen and other rowers accommodated to racing with each other,” Carey said. “We’re not putting together the fastest varsity eight boat, and we’re not putting a whole lot of pressure to perform and winning races at this point. For now, we’re sorting out all the pieces for the Head of the Charles.”
Looking to the spring, the crew team undoubtedly has the resources and talent to improve on last year’s finish in the New England Championship.
“If this group makes a decision to commit to a goal of a champion of ending in the medal docks of the New Englands, they absolutely have the capacity to do it,” Carey said. “The talent is there. It’s a matter of work.”
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