Mind & Body
A dedicated
CREW
Members of the
University crew team
brave the cold pre-dawn
to prepare for upcoming
spring competition
By Jack Clifford
Oregon Daily Emerald
~ j« he night still controls the sky
as 35 groggy yet focused Uni
1 versity crew members and
one purposeful reporter bound off
the bus in search of the team’s nir
vana. The Dexter Reservoir is
somewhere on the landscape, and
the charcoal water awaits the ath
letes’ presence. These sporting
Ducks represent an exclusive
squad, although they share a com
monality with another.
Simply put, this UO club squad
does more before 8 a.m. than some
people do all day.
Six days a week, the team catch
es a 5:15 a.m. ride from campus to
travel 20 or so miles to the reservoir
for a strenuous two-hour workout.
They meet during the spring be
tween 10 and 12 times a week,
with afternoon practices three out
of seven days.
As the crew readies its gear for
another drill, a subtle cadence has
already begun. Carefully lifting the
crafts from their boathouse cradles,
the men and women are already
working in sync. Once upon the
murky lake, the symmetry of four
oars on each side and the rhythmic
sounds of the paddles caressing the
water betrays the intensity of the
experience.
One day of the exhausting rigor
can be enough to scare off the less
committed, so imagine pulling off
such a strict regimen on a regular
basis.
It s the most dedicated sport in
club sports, concerning practice
time,” says first-year coach Scott
Jones, who oversees the novice, or
first-year, rowers. "Their entire
lives are focused around crew,
everything is scheduled around it,
and we’re gone every weekend
during spring.”
The crew team is the largest in
number of any club sport, so a
greater force than the chance to ex
ercise must drive a person.
“The camaraderie,” says Joe
Neron, a second-year rower. “It’s a
great feeling when I get up at the
butt-crack of dawn, show up at the
bus stop and there are 50 other peo
ple there. I couldn’t do it if was just
me or me and a couple of other peo
ple.”
Additionally, cfiimes in Neron’s
teammate Jason Bodie, they do it
for “the perfect row. It’s when you
have a row where everything’s set,
the power is there and you’re just
flying like you’re on glass. ”
The rowing club was “swoosh
ing" across the Willamette Valley
waterways long before that other,
more well-known image made a
splash. Crew started at the Univer
sity in 1967, says Sandy Vaughn,
Club Sports director, and is subsi
dized partially through student
fees. Participants pony up their
own money to cover some costs
and devote a lot of free time to fund
raising.
Besides the financial obligation,
the heinous practice times and the
seemingly inherent lack of a social
life, the squad members also must
be enrolled as at least full-time stu
dents. The motivations for joining
-——— --—■—I- --—— mxMhVfmMia
Jessie Libfeld (top) stmggies against heavy winds on Dexter Lake. Women’s crew members (above) return to shore after practice.
are varied, and to an observer can
seem obsessive.
“My initial reason for starting
was partly curiosity, and the other
half was I wanted to stay shape,”
says club coordinator Ruth Golar,
a three-year veteran. “Plus, it’s
beautiful to watch the sunrise in
the morning, and it’s amazing
when you’re with seven other peo
ple in the boat and you’re all as one
person rowing. It takes a lot of skill,
coordination and cooperation to be
able to balance the boat and row as
you’re supposed to.
“For me, when school starts,
crew starts, and it’s not an option
for me to not row.”
On this particular morning, two
other obstacles met the rowers face
first: The temperature was below
freezing, probably about 25-30 de
grees, and a blanket of fog hung
over the reservoir. The heavy,
frigid air didn’t stop varsity coach
Phil Holmes, however.
Holmes has been at the main
helm for three years and touts 32
years of overall rowing experience.
Dressed this day in a orange slicker
suit, sporting a slightly graying
mop of hair topped with a black
cap, he looks more like a retro-icon
for Old Spice cologne than a crew
coach.
During the practice, Holmes ma
neuvers a motorboat around three
rowing vessels, giving out orders
and comments over his mega
phone. He sometimes gently coax
es — “Jessica, square the blade a
whole lot earlier” — or his voice
glides across the water: “Slow
them down a bit, Andrea” he says
to guide a coxswain, a person who
acts as a coach on the water.
Other times, he's about as subtle
as a train wreck. "If any of you
knotheads miss any more prac
tices, you will be skinned. ”
The gruff persona belies a high
ly-respected, inspirational individ
ual.
“When you get a comment from
Phil, it’s so well-deserved and you
work so hard for that one compli
ment,” says second-year rower
Wendy Martin. “It really makes
you strive to do better. ”
Holmes returns the appreciation
for his rowers.
“I really respect this team no
matter how they do [competitive
ly],” he admits after practice. “Not
only for the crew, but they’re also
serious students, most of them
have part-time jobs, and they will
be competing against other teams
who are there on scholarship.”
Ah yes, the payoff for these sog
gy, icy mornings is just around the
comer.
During spring break, March 26
27, competition will begin. The
University team will skim across
San Diego’s Mission Bay during a
two-day meet against their Pacific
10 Conference brethren and the
likes of Harvard and Yale. These
races and the two-month spring
season which follows consist of
2000-meter timed events.
Holmes can’t yet say how his
charges will stack up against an op
ponent that isn’t weather-related.
“We’re practicing in a vacuum
right now, so we don’t know how
fast we are,” he says. He adds that
his team will be severely under
manned: Yale and Harvard each
will have five lightweight eight
man squads in San Diego; the Uni
versity has a total of nine guys in
lightweight.
Whatever impending struggle
the team may face in southern Cali
fornia aside, most members talk
about the trip as if it were the Holy
Grail.
“It’s pushing us right now,” says
Janette Sherman, a varsity light
weight rower. “It’s all we want,
warm weather. It’s the mortar in
the brick wall, to get a little poetic
for you.”
Speaking of brick walls, when
does a crew member hit one once
he or she tackles the rest of their
day?
“I’m pretty awake up until
breakfast,” says Andrea Butler,
second-year coxswain. “But by
about class time, noonish, I’m just
worn out. I’ve become the master
of 10-minute power naps.”
Butler successfully led eight of
the Ducks through those pea-soup
environs in practice, not an easy
task under even the best condi
tions.
It s a really big responsibility,
because the other coxmen and I
have to communicate and if we’re
not paying attention, then the
boats can converge on one anoth
er,” she explains. “Everything
seemed cold today. The weather
was a little hampering because
when it’s foggy, you’re kind of
tense because you don’t really
know what’s out there in the wa
ter.”
At one point, Holmes booms
out what seems like a fairly impor
tant question: “Does anyone have
a compass?”
As die boat moves on, with the
sun just starting to peek through
the chilly haze, and the only other
sound coming from a crew boats’
eight oars slicing though the wa
ter as one, a better question comes
to the reporter’s mind: Does any
one have a portable heater and a
nice cozy cot? The need for a 10
minute power nap is coming on.