The Drive
HARVARD WOMEN'S HEAVYWEIGHT CAPTAIN
Anne Browning
Harvard Crimson: How do you think your chances are?
ANNE BROWNING: In terms of winning, you're competing against a couple national teams, so you really shouldn't! The United States National Team who's going to Sydney--yeah, they'll be here. But in terms of the collegiate level, I've felt good that we've been getting progressively faster, this year especially. We are trying to approach this fall in the same way we approach the spring which is a more intense racing season. Hopefully it'll pay off and we'll be able to bump some of the people off.
HC: What collegiate boats would you especially want to beat?
AB: We always have the river rivalries--Northeastern and B.U. We were actually able to beat Northeastern pretty badly this past weekend in Rochester, NY, and did really well. We are looking good in terms of river rivalries, but beyond that, Brown was the national championship boat last year and they'll be here so it'll be a good chance to measure off them. I don't even think they graduated that many kids. And also there's a lot of good non-Ivy League schools that have had good recruiting so it'll be interesting to see how we do against them.
--Frances G. Tilney
HARVARD WOMEN'S HEAVYWEIGHT COACH
Liz O'Leary
Harvard Crimson: What are the differences between a Head race and the sprints?
Liz O'Leary: Oh, about 5,000 competitors! No, really, the Head races are three miles in distance, and the spring races are two thousand meters, so depending on how fast your boat is, it's anywhere from a 15 to 17 minute race in the fall as opposed to a seven minute race in the spring. It's also a very different approach--in each event there are 30 or 40 boats, and so you race against the clock, as opposed to being lined up across the way you are in the spring. It's great.
HC: On that note, maybe you can tell me about how you've seen the Head as a race change over the years.
LO: There are very strict rules regarding entries in race categories or categories of events, so it's changed in that way, but I think the heart and soul of the Head of the Charles hasn't changed at all. There's every age racing in this, and it's wonderful to see Ernestine Bayer at age 93, or whatever she is, rowing down the river as she has been for the last 30 years, and then to see the high school crews at the other end of the spectrum. It's pretty cool in that it's an example of the lifetime aspect of the sport.
HC: Are there any particular memorable or poignant moments that you remember from past Heads?
LO: Well, on a personal note, something that means something to me is that every year since 1980 I have raced in this race with the 1980 Olympic team, which was the last Olympic team I was on, and was the one boycotted by Jimmy Carter when the U.S. team didn't go to Moscow because of the boycott. And we feel as strongly today as we did then that it was a mistake, that it used amateur athletics in completely the wrong way, and I think the rowing team of all the teams on that Olympic team was the most vocal and the most adamant in opposing Jimmy Carter's decision.
--CHRISTOPHER J. YIP
HARVARD MEN'S LIGHTWEIGHT CAPTAINS
Angus MacLaurin & Sujit Raman
HARVARD CRIMSON: How many years have you raced in the Head? You're the cox?
SUJIT RAMAN: Yeah, I'm the lightweight cox. This is my third Head. It's funny, some people describe the Head of the Charles as a coxswain's race because the river is so windy that sometimes it comes down to how aggressive you are, how ballsy you are, on the course. And, it's a fun race especially from a coxswain's perspective because you also have to be talking for twenty minutes--
ANGUS MACLAURIN: More like fourteen!
SR: Well, yeah! But, right. But it gives the coxswain a lot more room for inventiveness. It's a lot of fun. It's great to have people cheering you on.
HC: How is [Head Coach] Charlie Butt?
AM: He's phenomenal. I think he's one of the best, if not the best coach.
SR: Yeah, well, he's been on the National Team, he coaches the Olympics, he was on the National Team for 10 years.
AM: Supposedly, they just kind of build the boat around him.
SR: Well, he's incredible. I think a testament to Charlie's success is that he wins with very different groups of guys. I think we won five or six national championships in the 90s and they were obviously all different guys. And the fact that he can sort of create these crews out of raw athletes says a lot about him, because we graduate next year, and he does it again. Incredible.
HC: Is your team excited for the Head?
SR: Yeah, it's not every day that 500,000 people are cheering you on. It's not like the spring where you're racing at six in the morning and it's just people's parents and siblings watching. Especially when you're racing between the Weeks Bridge and the Anderson Bridge. It's basically all of Harvard cheering for you. It's a great feeling. You don't get that anywhere else.
--Frances G. Tilney
HARVARD MEN'S LIGHTWEIGHT COACHES
Charlie Butt
HARVARD CRIMSON: Are there any special challenges going into the Head that you're telling your team about?
CHARLIE BUTT: It's always a coxwain's race, because there are always radical turns involved, as well as other crews to consider--whether other crews will yield, or if you have to yield to another boat. And there are three miles--small, small problems are magnified by the number of strokes taken in the race. You're probably talking 4 to 500 hard strokes, and one inch in a 500 stroke context is a considerable margin. So small problems will generate large margins.
HC: What's it like for the rowers to compete in such a large event, or to coach in such a large event?
CB: Oh, it's exciting to go from a non-spectator sport like rowing 2 to 300,000 people on the shore. That's exciting anywhere. There are very few sports that collect more than 80 or a 100,000 live.
HC: How have you seen the race change over the years?
CB: Oh, it's larger, and there's more corporate sponsorship, you hear about it on the radio more. The organization itself is larger, and a few years ago when there was a cancellation, I assume that's because the conditions weren't that bad, but I think it was underwritten to protect some of the corporate sponsors from accidents, and it was left in the underwriters hands, and I think that's why they said no, because they thought they'd be too vulnerable.
--Christopher J. Yip
HARVARD WOMEN'S LIGHTWEIGHT CO-CAPTAIN
Colleen Griffith
HC: What's your regimen and practice for training for this race?
CG: Well, we practice six times a week and we lift weights three mornings a week. So, it's pretty intense. When we row, it's about three hours in the afternoon.
HC: What collegiate teams are you looking to beat?
CG: Well, our biggest rival is Princeton. The past year or two, their lightweight program has improved drastically and they actually won nationals last year, so they're our biggest competitor. But also Villanova and Wisconsin, George Washington and Brown also have teams.
HC: What are you personally looking forward to in the Head? This will be your last regatta.
CG: Yeah, it's hard to believe. I think just getting out there and being able to race in front of the crowd. I mean, it's our one race that we race right by Harvard, coming by the stretch with the Weeks footbridge and past our boathouse. Most of our other races are down by MIT. And it's so loud and there are so many people watching and yelling and it's just great. My family is coming to watch, so I have a couple brothers coming and my sister.
--Frances G. Tilney
HARVARD WOMEN'S LIGHTWEIGHT COACH
Ed Kloman
Harvard Crimson: What's it like coaching and competing in such a large event, with international, national teams in there?
Ed Kloman: This is the greatest regatta ever. I started rowing this regatta in 1975. I first rowed as a high school kid. And it is the best. There's no crowd like the Head of the Charles crowd. There's no competition like it. We practice out here every day, but to be able to race with these buoys, to compete against other boats, and to see the shore lined with 300,000 people, it's unbelievable. It's beyond anything I've ever experienced.
HC: Do you think the corporate sponsorship and commercialization are positive things?
EK: I think it's a great thing. A great thing. Because that enables the international crews. This year you're going to have the top six men's scullers and the top women's single scullers from the world competing. That's awesome! You're going to have the Germans here, you have the German Youth National Team coming here rowing out of Harvard. It's going to be remarkable, so in that regard, sure, bring it on. And if it gets people's names in the press and people come down and take a look at it, it's a great thing. Rowing's a great sport.
HC: Rowing in general is a low-visibility sport, it's not a spectator sport.
EK: Well, this is the one regatta where it is a spectator sport. I mean the Olympics are a spectator sport, but this is truly a spectator sport in that there's always some crew going by and in that way, it's a gas. So I think corporate sponsorship is fine. But I don't think people are getting paid to row, which is a not a bad thing. Plus, you get to see all the latest technology in boats. And you get to see the national team go by, it definitely inspires the younger kids. I coach high school kids, and high school kids see the national team go by, and that's where they want to be. So it inspires them to train a little harder, work a little more.
--Christopher J. Yip
HARVARD MEN'S HEAVYWEIGHT CAPTAIN
Neil 'Woody' Holzapfel
HC: How do you like working with [Head Coach] Harry Parker?
WH: Harry Parker is probably the best coach in the world. A real man of integrity and really dedicated to our program. He really is the dean of Harvard coaches. He's done a great job in instilling a sense of dedication in the team. To be the best we can be. So, for all the rumors you've heard, he is the man. The man.
HC: Could you tell me a little bit about your team?
WH: I think we have eight returning seniors. The squad is pretty big and at this point, I think we're boating about four eights of guys. So that's good. We're sending two champ eights, one club eight and a four. We're sending aliases though because you're not allowed to have that many Harvard boats in the race.
HC: Do you have any special rivalries?
WH: The big guns, Princeton and Brown. But of course Yale because we have the oldest rivalry in the country--the oldest competition in the United States--and it really means a lot to us to be able to hang with them in the Head.
HC: What do you like about the Head?
WH: It's fun because there's lots of people and it's a different atmosphere because boats start right after each other so you can pass boats or be passed, which isn't quite so nice. It's really exciting to get out there and hop on it a little bit and have fun with your team.
--Frances G. Tilney
HARVARD MEN'S HEAVYWEIGHT COACH
Harry Parker
HC: What's it like for you and the crews to go every year to such a big event?
HP: Well, it's just a lot of fun. A three-mile race is a hard row. It's a pretty challenging row. If it's windy, it's even more challenging, but it's just a lot of fun.
HC: About the race--they started the race back in 1965.
HP: Yeah, actually it was a pretty unpretentious beginning. When they did it, I think those people were a little skeptical about the event, because there had never been such an event here in this country. I thing the idea came from a coach who had coached in England where Head races were pretty well established. And people who came to the boat club decided that it would be a fun thing to have a fall race, and took the trouble to organize it. And it happened, and turns out it was fun. There was fairly limited entry, but enough to encourage them to do it again, which they did and continued to do thereafter. HC: It was started out mainly as a local competition?
HP: Well, they spread the word, it wasn't strictly local. I think Harvard and Northeastern sort of dominated the first couple of years, but shortly thereafter, we had crews from Wisconsin, and a lot of other places here. It got popular in a hurry.
HC: As the organization has increased, the event has become more commercial over the years. Is that something you think affects the racing?
HP: In recent years, for several years now, they've relied on corporate sponsorship of various kinds, but the regatta itself, I don't think I would use the term that it's commercialized at all. The sponsorship part of it is not very intrusive. It's still very much the Head of the Charles, a very amateur event, if you will. But they clearly are much better organized, and they tap into a lot of resources, it's a big job to put on a regatta, it's a huge job.
--CHRISTOPHER J. YIP