asOQwO
Tuesday, July 13,1982
Feature on Page 8
Oregon daily
emerald
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 84, Number 7
‘Cinderella’ crew strokes to the nationals
By Randy Malat
CHUM Enwratd
The sun-glazed surface of
Dexter Reservoir reflects the
green mesh of pines on the
surrounding hillsides. The
prow of a rowing shell slides
atop the water, and four oars
men, their backs to the course,
pull and push through the
dense, indifferent weight of
the lake.
The coxswain, a woman,
steers the shell from the stern
and urges on her teammates.
The coach follows in an out
board, shouting instructions
through a megaphone
“Try to move from the waist
at the catch. "
“Push down and then
feather.'’
“Reach and hook on the
recovery “
The University’s men's
heavyweight four crew is
training for a race nobody
thought they’d be in. Bucking
the odds all the way, this crew
beat Cai-Berkeley by one foot
to win the Pac-10 title, and
defeated Washington to win
the Northwest Regional. They
then conquered a heavier
UCLA team to win the Western
Regional and an invitation to
the upcoming National Sports
Festival in Indianapolis, July
23-27.
Hugh Watson, a 32-year-old
Australian, is the team’s veter
an Watson started rowing the
year before his 19-year-old
teammate Sietske Fockens, of
Reeuwijk, Holland, was born.
Fockens is completing his first
year of competitive rowing, as
are teammates Bryan Andre
sen, of Junction City, and John
Bigelow, from Beaverton.
Coxswain Brenda Thornton is
in her second year of compe
Photo by Jay Jollon
In the national competition the University team will be the underdogs. But they have the confidence that
comes of winning the Pac-10 title and Northwest Regionals.
tition.
The unpaid coaches are Jim
Petrusich and Dick Hersh. Pe
trusich is a lightweight crew
member and recent graduate
of the University. Hersh, dean
of the University graduate
school, is a new member of the
team with a long rowing his
tory. Lori Huseth coached the
University crew earlier in the
year.
The oarsmen average 6 feet
2 inches and 175 pounds.
UCLA oarsmen averaged 6
feet 3 inches and about 195
pounds. In a sport in which the
larger team usually wins, the
University heavyweight four is
this year’s "Cinderella.”
Their training season began
last September, with 5 a m
workouts five days a week.
They ran five or six miles daily,
worked on their rowing tech
nique, ran stairs, lifted
weights, rode bikes, swam.
Oregon State beat them by
two lengths in one race. When
the four-man shell is 42 feet
long, a two-length margin
represents a thrashing.
Then, Watson says, "we
clicked in the last three weeks
of the season.”
The University team won a
rematch with the Beavers by
four lengths.
A few weeks before the
showdown with UCLA, Watson
got wind of a secret. Dick
Hersh, disguised as graduate
school dean and University
vice-provost, was an oldtimer
in the world of competitive
rowing. After four years on the
Syracuse crew, Hersh had
been coxswain on the U S.
team at the 1966 world cham
pionships in Yugoslavia. He
then coached at Harvard and
coached two of seven Olympic
rowing teams at Mexico City in
1968. Watson contacted him.
"He was skeptical,” Watson
says. "I think he thought that
nobody in Oregon could be
competitive on a national level.
He came out for one row and
was surprised at our standard.
He's been out for every row
since.”
“I told them that I felt I could
make them six or seven
seconds faster than they
were,” Hersh says, “and that
they needed to do 2,000
meters in six minutes, forty
five seconds to beat UCLA.
Well, they did six forty-six and
won."
Oarsmen Fockens says that
about 80 percent of the phy
sical strain is in the legs.
Hersh, quoting a Sports Illus
trated article, says rowing is
the most demanding sport in
terms of cardiovascular
capacity and physical stress.
He compares the exertion and
endurance requirements to
“each man lifting an 80-pound
weight from the floor up over
his head every two seconds for
over six-and-a-half minutes."
And coxswain Brenda
Thornton, who weighs 103
pounds, isn't exempt from the
training. Besides steering, she
must communicate with the
oarsmen about their position
and initiate "power-fives,''
"power-tens" and "power
twenties,” which are like the
kicks of a runner.
"If you're not part of the pain
of working out, when you race
the guys can’t relate to you,"
she says.
In the nationals, the
University four will remain the
underdog Their competitors
will be five larger teams from
schools that offer rowing
scholarships, and four teams
from the national Olympic
camp. But for a team that gets
no athletic department fund
ing and rents all but one of the
shells in its oarhouse, Hersh
says "they’re in pretty fast
company.”
Meanwhile, the workouts
continue, five times each wee
kend, the daily running, and
the pain of training. "We row
as far, but about twice as hard
since Hersh came out," Wat
son says.
Chancellor creates new planning position
By Debbie Howlett
Of the Emerald
Larry Pierce is a reluctant warrior.
Appointed as the Chancellor’s new
special assistant for long range plan
ning, he accepted the position despite
having already planned a year-long sab
batical.
“When I was approached, I was dis
appointed to have to give up the sabba
tical — but I felt I had an obligation to use
some of the background I had to assist
the Chancellor in improving higher
education,” Pierce says.
Pierce, previously the head of the
University's political science depart
ment is an accomplished voice on fi
nancing elementary and secondary
schools.
If he is reluctant, or just slightly hesi
tant, Pierce jumps headlong into his new
assignment. “There are a lot of things we
want to do with it,” Pierce says. “We ll be
moving very quickly.”
Pierce has moved very quickly indeed.
He hopped a plane to Seattle last wee
kend and this week is headed on a tour of
southern Oregon with other state system
officials Next week he will be at the State
Board of Higher Education meeting in
Ashland.
His travel itinerary seems to go forever,
but Pierce also has plans other than
travel for his office. Of the items on his
work agenda, he speaks only of the ones
the Chancellor has OK’d. That list is even
longer than his travel plans.
“Generally, our goal is improve the
quality of higher education in Oregon
and improve its funding,” Pierce says.
His plans include:
• Taking a much better look at “who
are the students in the state system."
• Carefully examining the way higher
education is funded.
• Reviewing admission requirements.
Pierce says requiring entering students
to have certain amounts of course-work
in specified areas may be more important
than a grade point average.
• Ensuring students are prepared for
college-level course work.
• Looking at the whole “program mix”
in higher education; certainly looking at
duplication and looking at what is the
‘ appropriate’' mix for the 1980s.
Pierce will also work to inform the
Oregon Legislature about the state’s
higher education system.
"Our goal is to present a very coherent
statement as to the value of higher
education,” Pierce says. ‘We ll try to
have an outline of a study by the begin
ning of the legislative session in
January,” he adds.
Pierce’s goals are similiar to the goals
of the Chancellor’s office. He explains
that he wants to expand his function.
"I don't want to use any criticisms, but
we haven’t done as good a job as we
should have in explaining the value of
higher education.”
But most of Pierce’s job will involve
long-range planning. In May, the board
asked to be provided with alternative
long range plans for higher education.
Davis responded by appointing Pierce to
the temporary post.
Pierce calls it “a chance of making a
difference.”
Photo by Peggy Meneice
Larry Pierce, the Chancellor's planner