Strength, preparation, and experience are key ingredients for starting a crew season, and the men's team will be packing each virtue into its boats this spring. Coming off a solid fall season and successful winter and spring training sessions, the Jumbos are ready to make waves in their new venue on the Malden River.
"I have been told that physically, we are better prepared than previous years," sophomore Jon Goulet said. "From my experience, the fact that we are in top physical condition and that we have also been rowing a lot better means that things are looking up for us this season, and I'm excited about it."
Crew is a yearlong sport whose short fall season is used to assign rowers to boats and gauge the level of a team returning from the summer. The Jumbos got off onto the right foot this fall, beating spring rivals such as Boston College, Wesleyan, and UNH. Few changes were made in the boats from last season. Last year, the team was young and at times plagued with inexperience. This time around, the team is a much more experienced one, including the return of senior Chris Mitchell, who was abroad last year.
"We had a fairly good fall season," Mitchell said. "It was good for the gelling of the team."
However, the fall season cannon necessarily prepare a team for spring competition nor is necessarily a good indicator of where the team will stand after winter break. The months in between make the difference between a springtime success or disappointment.
"The fall is of marginal value as a gauge," Goulet said. "It's different racing [from the spring] because we haven't had any formal training or finalized our boats yet."
The team endured grueling training with vigor and determination, focusing on cardiovascular training and muscle building. Their resolve is especially evident to students with 8:30 a.m. classes, who have become accustomed to seeing the team returning from practice. This work and preparation will bode well for the season to come. According to men's varsity coach Ben Foster, the team made most of the changes on their own.
"The only change I made this year was to do a lot less coaching," Foster said. "The workouts have all been their [the team's] doing."
The team has used this freedom to really prepare themselves for the road ahead. "Our fall season was solid, but it is really the winter training that tells us where we stand," Mitchell said. "Our training put us into a good situation to be prepared and competitive. Coming off the spring training we are now a strong team with a good lineup."
What also seems to be working out for the team is another huge change to their practice routine. It is not so much in what they are doing as it is where they are doing it. The team no longer shares the Charles with other colleges, clubs, and recreational rowers. Effective this year, Tufts now holds its practices as well as most of its races on the Malden River.
"It's a positive opportunity for us," Foster said. "Having our own space makes our training much more efficient and effective."
While the Malden River is only 40 percent as wide as the Charles, the only boats that the team has to worry about running into are their own. The new location is also much closer to Tufts, a change the squad hopes will bring larger crowds to its races.
This Saturday marks the first test for the Brown and Blue and for the new venue. The team will be racing one eight, and hosting WPI, a team that has traditionally proved to be a warm-up for Tufts. However, this time around WPI has stepped up their program and should be fairly competitive.
"We are really going into each race with the mentality of not worrying about the competition," Mitchell said. "Instead, we are looking at our own race since the only way to control how we do is what we can do."
