Training, whether for athletes or dogs, is all about repetition.
And rowers, as a breed, are distinctively and incredibly well trained.
Their physical training begins and ends on the ergometer — "ergs" to the educated — little machines that are about as much fun as their name suggests. Want to know how they work? You sit down, strap your feet in, and pull. Then you do it again. And again. And again. That's pretty much all there is to it. Sometimes it makes me wonder if the sport is about endurance of pain or boredom.
But the physical training is only part of the magic. It's their media training that would make them the envy of even the White House press corps. Much to my chagrin as a reporter, rowers are trained, perhaps from birth, to provide NOTHING interesting or controversial to the media. I understand the idea of wanting to keep your quotes off of the opponents' locker room walls, but rowers are ridiculous.
Regardless of whether they beat a team by thirty seconds or three-tenths of a second, the postgame reaction is exactly the same. "They're a good team, and we really had to race hard to beat them. We're just need to keep working harder."
Case in point. This year, the men's heavyweight varsity Navy by 32.5 seconds. In crew, a five-second margin is something like a 42-12 victory in football. 32.5 seconds is just mean. What does captain Mark Flickinger say? " I think all aspects of our racing could use some work."
Right.
Frankly, Flickinger has nothing to be worried about.
In recent years, University of California men's crew has been all about repetition, too. For the past three years, they have been repeating as national champs. But now there is good news for male members of Cloister Inn — just like the Yankees this season, California crew's reign as champs is in serious trouble.
The Yankees? That's correct. The Yankees are in big trouble this season. Yeah, just like Cal, they've won those three World Series in a row now. But I think it's pretty obvious that the dominance is done.
After watching them destroy my native Royals six straight times, I feel pretty confident saying this. I mean come on — they've got no fifth starter. Sure, their top three starters have 512 career victories and five Cy Young awards. And their fourth is some shwag named El Duque — the man who doesn't lose in October. But they've got no fifth starter.
Important guy, that fifth starter.
Cal men's crew is going the same way. Going in to its first race of the season, there were four rowers wearing the navy blue uniform who had no experience in the varsity boat. This includes both the coxswain and the stroke seat, the heart and soul of the boat. That's half the boat. Obviously Cal is in serious trouble.
All right, so it's true that Cal had to replace six rowers in its varsity boat last year — when they won the national championship by about five seconds.
And fine, so they're filling the empty spots in the varsity boat with some Olympians. Six of them, actually.
Sophomore Filip Filipic, sophomore Mladen Stegic, and freshman Ivan Smiljanic made up three quarters of the Yugoslavian coxless four boat in Sydney.
Junior Nito Simonsen spent the summer in Syndey as a part of Norway's coxless four.
Jake Wetzel, the lone American of the group — frankly pretty much the lone American in Cal's boathouse — was part of the US quad sculls boat.
And finally, senior Kevin White, who was an alternate for the Canadian men's eight.
Well, actually, not Kevin White. In Cal's first race, White was in two seat of the JV boat. Seems the Olympian didn't quite make the cut.
Did I mention they had a hole at coxswain?
Important person, you know, that coxswain.
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