Coach Parker's Crew Squad: Another Championship Season?

If you are 6'2" and weigh over 170 lbs., you've probably met Harry Parker, coach of the Harvard crew.

For the past few weeks, Parker has been busy enticing oversized oarsmen, past and potential, with an offer that is hard to refuse--the chance to be a champion.

Parker is no foot-in-the-door, fast-talking salesman. He doesn't have to be: the record is convincing enough.

Last spring all three of Parker's boats were undefeated. In May the varsity won the Eastern Sprints in Worcester for the first time in four years and in June, the varsity decisively thrashed Intercolligiate Rowing Association champion Wisconsin and Western Sprints-winner Washington on their home waters.

"There's something about Harry that gives everyone in his boats a sense of confidence, a pride that refuses to entertain the idea of anyone else even being close to us," said number-six-man, senior Dick Cashin.

Perhaps it was that same pride which made five varsity members discontent to be simply intercolligiate rowing champions.

Cashin, stroke Al Shealy and coxswain David Weinberg '74 went on to earn gold medals in last summer's U.S. national heavyweight eights in Switzerland.

Bringing Home the Bacon

JV stroke Rick Grogan stroked the U.S. lightweight eight which also gold-medalled in Switzerland and two-man Ollie Scholle captured the Wyfold Cup at Henley in a straight four representing the Porcellian Club.

Last fall, everyone at Newell Boathouse wondered whether or not Harvard could get back on top. This fall, the question is not whether they can remain on top, but rather just how much better than everyone else Harvard can be.

Only two varsity oarsmen have graduated and four return as international champions. Half of the undefeated JV boat and four promising sophomores are back as well, eager to fill the vacant positions and challenge for the filled ones.

Gold medalist Cashin said, "I can't imagine anyone beating us. You look around and I don't know how good they are but I know how good we are. And I know that nobody could be as good or as well-trained or as superbly coached. There's no doubt in my mind that we'll burn everyone."

Still, Parker is cautious. "There's no way of predicting if we'll be faster," he said. "It's too easy to count up heads and say we'll be fast. People forget how hard they worked. Fast crews don't happen automatically."

Parker's proposed traveling itinerary for this season is extensive. If it is accepted, Harvard will do a lot of traveling in search of competition.

Parker will treat the only fall race, the Head of the Charles, informally. The oarsmen will make up their own boats and train individually for the three mile race.

The Harvard squad may also compete once again in Egypt over Christmas vacation. As before, the selection procedure for this good-will mission will be hardly intense, with seniority the reigning determinant.

However, for Harvard the races become serious business come spring.

The first race on the proposed agenda is the San Diego Crew Classic over spring vacation, a race usually dominated by Washington. "Here, there is a lower probability that we'll go," Parker said. "There's a fair amount of money involved and the sponsors haven't indicated whether they're willing to finance the trip."

Another thing Parker is also considering entering are the national trials to represent the U.S. in the Pan American games held in April. However, Parker said there are serious obstacles against Harvard's participation in the games. "The team would have to take two weeks off from school during our racing season," he said.

The first meeting of the Crimson and other eastern crews will be at the Eastern Sprints held in May at Princeton.

In June, Harvard will probably race Washington at the Red Top site in Connecticut where the Harvard-Yale race was traditionally held.

In July, there is the Henley Regatta in England. However this trip is somehow so sacred to and coveted by Harvard oarsmen, that, for all their confidence and cockiness, no one at Newell wants to talk about it.

Flashing the Gold

A few of the oarsmen at Newell now consider the thought of competing against mere college crews "a joke."

When stroke Sheahy was asked in Switzerland what he would do when he found himself again on the line beside Penn or Brown or Navy, he said, "I'm going to wear my medal up to the line and do this." Shealy then whipped out his gold medal from beneath his shirt and, smiling deviously, waved it twice in front of a bystander's face.

To someone uninvolved in rowing, all this talk about racing more than six months away must seem ridiculously premature. But, to an oarsman, such aspirations get him through long winter hours in the tanks, endless ergometer pieces, and, in the early spring, powering down the Charles frozen to his oar with the coach's launch scouting ahead for still floating ice.

Last spring Harvard powered its way back to the pinnacle of U.S. intercollegiate rowing. This fall everyone is already in shape. Captain Blair Brooks said, "Most guys have been working out all summer. I don't think this has ever happened before."

"If the enthusiasm remains as high as it is now, there's no way we won't do even better this year than last," Cashin said. "Success breeds success. Everyone knows it's possible now--even the World Championships."