Not a "replacement year" for upbeat crew team

Steven Beauregard Guest Writer

Fresh off spring training in DeLand, Florida, the Vassar men’s and women’s crew teams are gearing up for a promising spring. With just three more days until the beginning of the season, a regatta in Worcester, MA against WPI and Bates, the teams will bring more than just sore muscles and newly acquired tans to the table. They are eager to build on the success that they achieved during the fall season.

Crew, arguably one of the most demanding sports that Vassar offers, requires constant physical exertion and long practices at the crack of dawn every weekday morning. The teams depart Vassar for the Hudson at 5:30 a.m. and return at 8:20 a.m. in time for the team breakfast at ACDC, a much loved tradition that allows the rowers to bond and unwind before class.

Why such early practices one may wonder? The calm morning water, although not necessary, is ideal for practicing. Though the timing and the cold temperature are a drawback, the rowers agree that it is more than worth it for a sport that they love.

“When we arrive at the river, we get to see the sun rise. It reflects in the windows of houses on the opposite bank. It’s really pretty,” said first-year-rower Rebecca Rozin ’07.

When not on the Hudson, due to inclement weather or other problems, the teams practice on rowing machines, completing 2000 meter races while staying indoors.

Coxswain Jason Stahl ’08 is use to the demanding schedule, having rowed throughout high school. However, he said that he still needs to “plan his schedule extremely well” in order to get by. The teams take confidence into their first tournament at Worcester after experiencing significant improvement, especially among the novices, in Florida. Rozin, a novice rower and varsity coxswain said “the team, especially the novices, improved vastly.” This improvement can be attributed to the rigorous double practices every day, training that is impossible to do while at Vassar. “Basically, the trip was composed of eating, sleeping, and rowing,” added Rozin.

“We really took advantage of our ten days in Florida. It was much more productive than last year,” said co-captain Jacqueline Sans ’05. Last spring, over half of the crew team caught the Norwalk virus and spent time in the emergency room. “Luckily, this year no one got sick,” assured Sans. It seems that luck was not on the women’s side last year.

Although the women’s team has lost nine graduates from last May, Rozin says that “we’re a pretty strong team. This isn’t a replacement year.” However, there is no doubt that the team must pull out all the stops to reach the level of success they attained last spring season, their best since becoming a varsity sport. Their success during the 2004 spring season prompted the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) to rank the Vassar women’s team the sixteenth best varsity eight (number of rowers in the boat) in Division III.

Despite switching from the varsity eight to the varsity four after last season, the men’s team is also aiming high this spring. They are hoping to duplicate the success that the 2003 season brought them when they made the grand finals of the New York State and the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) championships.

“We’re small; it’s hard to keep people on the team,” says rower Ryan Mason ’06, citing one of the challenges the men’s team faces each year. However, Mason also believes that the team has many strengths, including efficiency in the boat and strong sprints at the end of races.

Vassar’s crew teams are unique in that the men’s and women’s teams practice side by side and spend lots of time together. “This year the men’s and women’s teams seem much more united than ever before. It’s like we’re a family, we’re even beginning to look alike,” joked Sans.

They are lead by returning head coach Michael Alton and assistant coach Kelly Harris, who have worked hard training freshmen, which allowed them to move up from novice to varsity. “Their patience and passion always show in our races,” Sans said of her coaches.