If you stand on the balcony of the brand-new Tufts boathouse for long enough, it's easy to forget that it's not quite 7 a.m. It's easy to forget your classes, your homework, everything but the sun glinting off of the water.
Inside the boathouse, though, the eighteen rowers on the men's varsity crew team are all business.
"It's a great group of guys," said Danie Damm, a sophomore and one of the team's coxswains. "Coach [Jay Britt] will say, 'Do a 30-minute piece,' and the guys will say, 'Let's make it 45.' Whenever there's downtime on the water, they want to keep working."
This attitude certainly bodes well for the upcoming season, which begins on Saturday at the Textile River Regatta in Lowell. Many rowers, including senior Jordan Chiu, stressed the importance of focus.
"We need to develop a winning culture, where we're expected to win," Chiu said.
Britt seems to be doing all he can to make sure his rowers maintain that focus. During practice, Britt often berates rowers for being "lackadaisical" in their stroke. In a sport like crew, where uniformity and timing are critical, any variation can quickly unset the entire boat.
Though they may take rowing seriously, chemistry is equally important to this year's squad.
"Most of us have been rowing together for four years," senior co-captain Jeff Vanderkruik said. "If anything, we put too much pressure on ourselves. We care a lot about each other. It could be a great thing for us."
Although all sports lay claim to the title, crew truly is a team sport. No one superstar rower can "take over" a race like a Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzsky. Britt made it clear that everyone on the team carries equal weight and said that the competition pushes the team every day in practice.
"We've got 18 seats [in the two boats], and 20 guys vying for those 18 seats," Britt said.
Leading the 2006-07 men's crew are co-captains Vanderkruik and Tim Pineau. As the stroke-seat rower, Pineau sets the pace for the boat and maintains it over a six-kilometer race. Vanderkruik is the team's vocal leader, often leading stretching and warmups.
"We lost three seniors from last year, but we've got five seniors coming back," Britt said. "That's pretty good."
"My freshman year we had just one senior and just two in my sophomore year. My junior year we had four, and this year we have five," Vanderkruik said. "The program is definitely going great."
Still, for these seniors, the growth of the program will matter little if they fail to live up to expectations this season. Last spring, the first varsity eight finished fourth in the petite finals of the New England Rowing Championship, en route to a tenth place finish for the men at the Championships.
The team loses Mark Roberts, Ben Harburg, and John Papp to graduation, but Damm, Vanderkruik, and Pineau aren't looking to slow down.
"Last year was a good start," said Damm. "But I'd like to place better."
While all of the rowers seem excited for the famous Head of the Charles regatta in late October, they remain focused on the race this Saturday.
"Focus," Chiu said. That is all he needed to say.
And if the team's 7 a.m. routine carries over, focus should be no problem.
