Crew Is Ready at the Oars for New Season

Every year, they leave the rowing machines, tune out the alternative rock radio, and emerge from their caverns of Dodge. The months of training are at an end-the new spring season of Columbia crew has reached the Hudson shore.

Lightweight crew kicks off the new season on March 13 in Charlottesville, Va. against the University of Virginia heavyweights. Four days later, the heavyweight rowing squad embarks on its season with the Florida Institute of Technology Invitational in Palm Bay, Fla.

Lightweight head coach Marc DeRose is excited by the team's prospects for the year, but he realizes how tough the competition runs in the Ivy League.

"I think the team's in a good position," DeRose said. "They're going to have to work for everything this year, though, as lightweight rowing is extremely competitive. Typically, winners of national and Ivy titles win by tenths of seconds."

DeRose has taken note of how junior Ryan Wood and sophomore Nick LaCava have stepped up as leaders on this year's squad. The nature of rowing, however, poses a unique leadership challenge to any given team that cannot be solved by a couple of standouts.

"In rowing, leadership is different. Everybody's got to be a leader," DeRose said. "It's what you do when nobody's watching-who can do his best every day, and who can inspire everyone else to do their best as well."

The heavyweight crew team's first meet will mark Mike Zimmer's third season as the heavyweight head coach. The heavyweight squad has made significant strides since Zimmer took over, having expanded its roster fourfold.

"This year we still have a pretty young group, as we only have three seniors. However, they've developed pretty well this year so far," Zimmer said. "I think that how we do this year is going to be determined in large part by how quickly the sophomores in particular are able to race at a varsity level and how aggressive our seniors are, the few that we have."

Zimmer shared similar sentiments to those of DeRose regarding the nature of rowing as a team sport. "A team is only a collection of individuals. You still have guys that you rely on, and there are guys that are crucial to your staff as a team," he said.

Zimmer highlighted the contributions of his seniors-Paul Boomgaardt, Brad Caracausa, and Rob Thomson. "All three of those guys have been very diligent about their training, their preparation, and their effort on this team," he said. "Those are guys that you count on."

Both the heavyweight and lightweight squads have tough schedules this season, inside and outside the Ivy League. Columbia crew is slated to end its season with the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) Sprints in May and the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) Regatta in June. The focus for both teams right now, however, is simply in getting back into competition after a long offseason.