One Boat

When we all work for the team, we know that everything we do - pushing ourselves and our team mates - contributes to the success or failure of the crew. This excerpt is from the article published by John Powers in the Globe last week prior to the Harvard Yale race. This exemplifies the spirit and commitment to one another that I would like to cultivate in our program. All of you, please accept my thanks for a good year.


This year, though, Harvard's seniors are likely to have the final say across the board. Three of them - Gawlik, 5-man Henrik Rummel, and 3-man James Bayley from Watertown, Mass. - are in the varsity eight. Four more, including captain Teddy Schreck, compose the bow four of the JV, while another three were in the combination boat, the assemblage of spares that raced yesterday afternoon.
It's not unprecedented for Crimson crews to be top-heavy with seniors. In 2004, the national champion varsity and Sprint-winning JV sported six apiece. What makes this class unusual is that all of the oarsmen have been in one or both of the two boats at one time or another. "That's really exceptional," says Parker.
His captain's four-year progression is telling - from the second freshman boat to the third varsity to the varsity to the JV.
"I've rowed in four different ranks of boats, so I know how that feels," says Schreck, who was in the varsity for the first two races this year.
What he understands is that nothing is guaranteed around Newell, where it's not rare for the captain to be in the JV. "You work for the reward of knowing how hard you worked," Schreck says.
What sets the Class of 2009 apart is its competitive camaraderie. "They're all just very good friends," says Parker, "and the common link is the rowing."
That deep bond proved critical going into this season with Harvard coming off a disappointing 2008 campaign, having missed the Sprint finals for the first time in 45 years.
The challenge for the seniors was to get the varsity back on track, which they did by fighting fiercely for seats. "They all had aspirations of making the varsity or JV," says Parker, who has been mixing and matching his second and third boats all spring and has used three different JV strokes.
With three underclassmen returning after a year off, cracking the varsity was tough. But all of the seniors stuck it out, even if it meant rowing on the 3V. "People just feel committed to each other," says Gawlik, who with Rummel were the only seniors to spend all three years with the varsity. "For a lot of guys, it is fun just to be on the team."
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Losing the 4-miler is no joke, especially if you're a senior. By comparison, getting your diploma by mail is a mere inconvenience. "There are very few things that are more painful than losing this race," says Gawlik, whose next one likely will be for Oxford. "It's one on one. There's no silver medal."