Young Raiders preparing for encore next year
By: Justin Feil
During the final week of school, Geoff Evans introduced two of his varsity rowers to the eighth-grade boys at the Hun School. They spent about 10 minutes discussing the perks of the crew program and answering a few questions. And just to send next year’s freshmen home with something to remember, they offered sodas and cookies, a sort of bribe, for their attention.
"We need to build up the novice program," said Evans, the Raider head boys’ coach. "The first question was: ‘Can we still have the food if we don’t want to row?’"
It’s that attitude that the Hun crew program is fighting constantly as it tries to up its numbers.
"Crew is definitely a sport that requires a lot, a lot more work goes into it," said Jay Michel, whose mother supplied the refreshments. "One of the drawbacks is you have to be up in the early morning, you have to do ergometer tests), and you have to work out a lot.
"In some sports, you can sort of coast through and just be a part of the team and go along with everyone. Whereas in crew, you know you worked hard to get everything you get. You know you accomplished it. That’s definitely one of the things I like about it. To do crew, you have to really love crew."
So while the Hun boys would like to see their numbers go up, and they were willing to hand out snacks to get it started, it’s understood that they’ll need new rowers who are interested in making the sacrifices that lead to successful racing.
Most teams Hun raced against this season had plenty of seniors to chose from to make up a senior boat. Hun had just two senior boys on its team, and Evans kept them in a double together. There were only four total boats in the whole boys’ program. And in all the season’s races, except the national junior championship, Hun sent out a varsity four boat that consisted of four juniors and a sophomore.
It makes this season’s accomplishments that much more impressive. The Raiders captured the national junior championship, the New Jersey state championship, the Mercer County championship, a silver medal in the Philadelphia City Championship and a bonze in the Stotesbury Regatta.
Junior rowers Brice Blanton, Jay Michel and Brian Scott along with sophomore rower Scott Mardy and junior coxswain Cambridge Peters are all expected to return. And that pushes next season’s goals even higher.
"I think this year actually helped us a lot," said Michel, who was in his first full season in the varsity four boat. "The fact that we won states and came in second in cities, then we raced in the World Cup (Regatta at Mercer Lake) and got to see some great crews. We’re all juniors racing against mostly seniors, and we’re right there with them. It helped show us we can beat them. This year helped motivate us a lot."
The Cranbury resident and his teammates won’t stop just because the season is over. They’re in the midst of making preliminary plans to row over the summer, and they will all attend intense week-long rowing camps in hopes of improving. It was the sort of work they did in the off-season last year that propelled them to a successful 2001 season despite not having a senior in the varsity boat.
"We all worked on getting our erg scores down," said Michel, of the timed tests on a machine that simulates rowing on a 2,000 meter course. "We wanted to get everyone’s score below seven minutes to make sure we were fast. We knew we weren’t going to get a lot of seniors and we knew we’d have to step up."
That they did so well was one of the biggest sources of satisfaction for Evans, who is in his first year of coaching crew at Hun.
"Just with the volume of crews we raced against, I was pleased with how they did each consecutive week," he said. "They didn’t let the last week’s success get to their heads. They never just went out thinking they would win. They were confident in some races, but they knew they’d have to work."
During the season, the Hun boys woke up at 4:45 a.m. three times per week to get to the boathouse at Carnegie Lake by 5:15. They were on the water by 5:30 so they could get in a quality workouts before school began. Time on the lake is limited with the U.S. National team training there as well as the Princeton University crews. As small as the Hun team was, it was necessary to find practice time in the morning and afternoon.
"We have more kids than equipment," Evans explained. "We have to be able to double up on the coaches."
Evans would take two boats out in the morning on some days, while volunteer coach and Carnegie Lake Rowers president Tim Goodbody would also help out in the afternoon by training the Raider novices. They flip-flopped duties on other days, with Goodbody going out early and Evans holding varsity practice in the afternoon.
"It worked out really well," Evans said. "He really helped out. Getting up that early definitely affected me. The kids wanted to do it all the time, but it makes a hard day."
"You get used to it after a while," said Michel, who also ran for the cross country team in the fall and swam for the Raiders in the winter. "It makes for a tougher day, I guess."
On some of the days, Michel and his teammates would work out again in the afternoon on their own. The rewards came in the championship races.
"We were really happy with states," the 17-year-old said. "We were happy with Stotesbury, too, even though we were third. We lost to schools that are powerhouses and we weren’t that far behind them."
Next season, the expectations are that Hun will be crossing the finish line first.
"We’re definitely going to go into next season looking to win some major races," Michel said. "We have a really good coach and I definitely think he’s going to work with us to get us to be at the top. We’re going to build up mentally and physically to that level. We’re almost there."
It might take a little bribery to build up the Hun boys’ program, but as this season’s young varsity boat can attest, the hard work and sacrifices are worth it when there’s gold around their necks. And there’s no stopping now.
"They’re going to have an advantage next year," Evans said. "Being so successful this year will help, but I don’t want them to think they can rest on the laurels of this year. If we get a lot of work in, they should be even better next year."