The Radcliffe lightweight crew is aiming to pick up right where it left off last season, and the Head of the Charles offers an initiation into one of the sport’s most prestigious regattas. Whether aiding the team through injury, generating enthusiasm among spectators, or rowing in the boats, Radcliffe’s freshmen are eagerly anticipating this weekend’s events.

“Excellence is no longer our goal but our standard,” captain Grace Hollowell writes in an e-mail. “We’re also working to integrate our freshmen into the program smoothly, forming a cohesive team, forming a uniform technique, physical power, and attitude.”

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Most of the time, calling someone two-faced isn’t a compliment. But Radcliffe heavyweight assistant coach Wendy Wilbur exemplifies what it means to be feared as a competitor and beloved as a teacher.

Wilbur joined the staff of the Black and White this season after spending four years as a full-time assistant at Boston College, and has made an immediate impression on everyone in the program.

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To many, the Head of the Charles means international competition and tricky turns around Weld and Eliot Bridges. To the Stones, it means family.

Ever since Gregg Stone ’75 graduated from college, he and his classmates have had reunions at every Head of the Charles, a major holiday for those in the rowing world.

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For many Harvard athletes, their college careers mark the end of the road. Seldom does a Crimson player leave the ivy gates bound for the NFL, the NBA, or the MLB. But for many on Radcliffe crew, their feathering of the Charles River is just one step in an ongoing process to the top of their sport.

Take junior Olivia Coffey, for example. The Watkins Glen, N.Y. native spent this summer training with the United States Under-23 national team, culminating with a silver-medal finish at the World Championships in Racice, Czech Republic.

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When the Harvard men’s heavyweights hit the water at the Head of the Charles Regatta this weekend, they’ll be taking part in a competition that will, quite literally, play host to many of the best crews in the world—including national teams from the United States, Great Britain, and France.

But while the Crimson boats might be representing a college rather than an entire nation, Harvard too will boast a collection of rowers pretty comfortable on the global scene, headlined by varsity eight veterans Richard Anderson and Anthony Locke.

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