With eight more rowers added to the mix, the women's crew team will kick off its spring campaign Sunday primed to build off of a strong fall season.
The Jumbos are welcoming back an entire boatful of members - seven juniors and one senior - who were abroad during the fall semester.
Tufts will also add two brand-new members to the team in the form of novice coxswains junior Jocelyn Pinkerton and sophomore Ana Chiu, who will lead the boats along with senior coxswain Alison Ungerleider.
While the fall season is essentially a warm-up for the more important spring season for most crew teams, the sense of cohesiveness and camaraderie acquired during that time - as well as the smoothing out of technical issues - can prove to be important in the long run.
So is there any way that this massive change in the roster could disrupt team chemistry? The team doesn't believe so.
"Everyone who was gone has reabsorbed really well into the program," senior co-captain Sara Douglass said. "We spent a lot of time together during spring break, which built team camaraderie. It gives us a lot more depth and helps build competition, which is pushing everyone to do better. It's really making a huge difference for us."
Coach Gary Caldwell attributes the seamless transition to the work of the two captains and to the rowers who came back and immediately started training.
"The eight who were abroad bought into the work the others were doing immediately," he said. "They knew the drill; they knew what they had to do and did it, and I think that speaks well of the dedication and maturity of the group."
Considering that the spring season features shorter races than the fall season, speed will be of the essence, and the added depth will help Caldwell decide which combinations are the fastest. This is an improvement from the fall, when a smaller pool of rowers limited his options.
Pinkerton, who transferred to Tufts from Tulane last year following Hurricane Katrina, and Chiu have never been coxswains before. Only Chiu has had previous crew experience of any kind.
Seeing as the team is comprised mostly of veterans - 13 out of the 16 in the first two boats have had varsity experience - some may be concerned over the prospect of having two novice coxswains. The Jumbos, however, don't anticipate inexperience being an issue this season.
"They have stepped up to the challenge and have been progressively getting better each time they get into the boat," Douglass said. "We feel completely confident in their abilities to push the boat and make us go faster."
Yet this transition could not have gone so favorably were it not for Ungerleider stepping in as a mentor to the novice coxswains. In her fourth year as a coxswain, Ungerleider will share invaluable experience and knowledge with Pinkerton and Chiu. Because of the Jumbos' belief in Ungerleider's own abilities, they feel as if they have no reason to worry about their unusual circumstance.
"This is Alison's fourth year as our varsity coxswain, and her ability has made a huge impact over that time," Caldwell said. "It is highly unusual for someone to be a coxswain for four years, and her impact cannot be defined."
Another significant difference from prior seasons is the amount of time the team has spent in the water prior to this spring. For the first time in a while, Tufts spent its spring break in Medford, and to date, the Jumbos have already accrued about a dozen practices. With the tough schedule that lies ahead, the team is glad to have spent extra time in the water.
"There are no soft spots," Caldwell said. "Wellesley has significantly improved, as well as Mount Holyoke. We will see four or five of the top 10 crews in all of Div. III in one weekend."
That weekend - April 19 and 20 - will take the Jumbos to Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, where they will face off against Ithaca, Holy Cross, Colby, Conn. College, WPI, RIT, Washington College and William Smith. It is only after that weekend that the team will be able to evaluate where it stands.
But the team has worked extremely diligently this winter to prepare for its cutthroat schedule and has extra motivation after its less than satisfactory finish last spring , when the Jumbos missed an invitation to the NCAA Championships.
"We barely missed out on the NCAA bid last year, so we didn't get to race our last race of the year last spring," Douglass said. "I think we're going to make the push for the top five this year though we'll have a better idea in the weeks to come. I'm pretty confident in what we can do this spring."
