A NEW STAGE IN HOUSE ROWING

With the institution of the Eliot House Boat Club, the House Plan offers further proof of its value to intra-mural athletics. This new organization, embracing both University and House row-ors, has secured the services of an amateur coach, who is to have complete control over the training of Eliot House crews. Administrative details on house rowing will be managed by the organization.

To all interested in House athletics, the innovation presages a new era in intra-mural rowing. House crew practice has hitherto been characterized by annoying confusion. Coaching has been in the hands of one man and his part time assistant; second and third crews have received little attention; due to indifference and lack of organization seatings have seldom remained intact more than a week. The Eliot House plan will help to remove these discouraging handicaps. If crews are coached by one man and able to maintain a reasonable permanence in their personnel, a valuable esprit de corps will appear. The new plan will not only be conducive to better rowing but will also be an essential factor in the House Plan's task of making athletics more agreeable and more easily accessible for all undergraduates.

Beyond this the plan should not go. Any attempt to inspire House chauvinism by awarding charms, blazers, and similar paraphernalia would now be merely superficial and might in time alter the spirit of inter-House athletics from that of essentially informal competition to a serious struggle between Houses for predominance. Such an attitude must be avoided as incompatible with the enjoyment that should go with non-expert rivalry.