very October, when the rowing world descends on Boston, Harvard and Radcliffe rowing alumni make the journey from across the country, and sometimes the world, back to the boathouses. They partake in festivities, relive their college days, and once again compete in the Head of the Charles Regatta — this time in the alumni races.

The alumni see HOCR as an enchanting weekend and the only time that the greater Boston public “actually cares about rowing,” said Zachary “Zach” D. Mecca ’24. Despite graduating from Harvard 11 years apart, both Mecca and former Crimson men’s varsity lightweight crew co-captain Erich S. Schultze ’13 used the same festive comparison for the regatta.

“Yeah, it’s just the best,” Schultze said. “It’s like rower Christmas.”

“This is like Christmas for me. It’s like if Christmas was three days long. That’s what Head of the Charles is for me,” Mecca agreed. “It’s like my favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite day of the year, weekend of the year.”

Across generations, former Harvard and Radcliffe varsity lightweights spoke of the lifelong bonds they formed with their fellow teammates. Much of the deep friendship came from the rigorous training — averaging around 20 hours a week — they experienced while on the team. Calliste A. O. Soukras ’24, whose entire class of lightweights is returning to Weld Boathouse for HOCR weekend this October, said the atmosphere on the team was unparalleled.

“I feel like I found my best friends there,” Soukras said. “It teaches you a certain level of discipline that I think is really hard to find elsewhere, and also camaraderie with people that is hard to find elsewhere.”

On the lightweight men’s team, alumni over the years are united by a uniquely porcine mindset that serves as an unofficial team mascot. Former co-captain Matthew “Matt” P. O’Leary ’13 struggled to articulate the complexity of “the hog.”

“I think being a hog, I don’t know. I don’t know if I actually should define it, or I should leave it undefined,” O’Leary said.

He paused, carefully considering his words.

“The hog understands that he is a hog, and he wants to grow with the other hogs. He wants to wallow in the muck with the other hogs,” O’Leary said.

This inside joke has carried through the years of HVL rowers, with Mecca emphasizing that the only appropriate cheer for his boat would be “Slop it up!” aptly conveying the continuity of the hog lifestyle.

Fellow alumnus and Team USA 2012 Olympian William “Will” C. Newell ’11, MBA ’17 followed up on O’Leary’s comment, explaining the thread between rowers old and new in less agrarian terms.

“There’s a lot of shared experience, shared mindset, shared worldview in terms of what they put into it, and what they got out of it, and what the rowing meant to them, and what the relationships they built in the boathouse mean to them,” Newell said. “And to connect those threads across different generations, there’s something meaningful in that.”

After graduation, it can be difficult to find accessible places to row. In addition to most places not having a river in their backyard, it can also be hard to find a boathouse and boats to practice in. Therefore, most alumni train on the erg — an indoor rowing machine — or take up “less high maintenance” endurance sports like running or biking, Soukras explained. Still, nothing has the same feeling as rowing on the open water. Each year she gets back on the Charles River, Soukras is hit by a wave of nostalgia.

“That was something that I did every single day, sometimes twice a day, for four years, and had such amazing memories from it. So all those memories kind of come flooding back in that moment,” Soukras said.

The men’s alumni keep each other motivated throughout the year to stay in shape in preparation for the HOCR weekend. On their ritual “Tough Guy Tuesdays,” alumni — young and old — text their group chat with their workout routine. The older guard of alumni agreed that their current fitness routine amounts to about 30 percent of what they did while on the team, an impressive percentage considering many of them have since started families and have busy professional lives.

Schultze, for instance, just had his first son, Lucas, who joined him for the virtual interview. Newell said that he works in time to train late at night, after his three kids go to bed. Despite their busy lives, Newell said the men have maintained their pace.

“I think we’re all probably faster than we were freshman year in college, yeah,” Newell said. “Now obviously we’re also heavier, which helps a bit.”

Until Mecca’s class of rowers, the men’s lightweight team had not won the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships since Newell, Schultze, and O’Leary’s time. The current team has now claimed three consecutive IRA titles, breaking a program record.

Mecca said that it was a special experience to meet and compete with an equally dedicated group of athletes that came before him.

“We’re like the new class of the winners, and then there’s like the old class of the winners. And to get to row with them is pretty sweet,” Mecca said. “Experiencing their culture mixed with our culture is a lot of fun, because it’s the same culture.”

O’Leary and his teammates have kept tabs on the current men’s team despite their physical distance from Newell Boathouse. They frequently read The Crimson’s coverage of the team and watch all of the livestreamed races online. O’Leary said that at HOCR alumni weekends, he can connect with the younger guard in person, unknowingly echoing Mecca’s sentiment of commonality across the years.

“I have some idea who these guys are, but I don’t really know them. I just watch them on YouTube, whatever. And so it was really fun to put faces to names. And I’m about 10 years older than these guys, and we’re all the same, right?” he said.

At the Head of the Charles, all alumni boats compete in an open weight class, meaning lightweight and heavyweight rowers from various universities compete against each other. Though this means the lightweight teams often struggle to keep pace with the heavyweight crews, some of whom are Olympians, the Harvard graduates are more than familiar with high expectations and standout results. Mecca said the HVL alumni are hoping to reach the podium, or top five boats, this year.

Soukras said one of the most meaningful parts of competing with her college teammates is getting to don the Radcliffe name once again. Unlike most women’s sports teams after the Harvard-Radcliffe merger in 1974, both the Radcliffe lightweight and heavyweight teams chose to keep their alma mater’s name. Soukras clarified that when spectators cheer for Harvard, they are only cheering for the men’s teams. To catch the attention of the women’s teams, you must shout, “Yeah Rad!”

To Soukras and the women of Weld Boathouse, the Radcliffe name honors the history of women’s sports.

“We have a lot of pride behind that. That Radcliffe name is a reminder of how far women have come in sports over the last handful of decades,” Soukras said. “It’s definitely something that is just, like, always top of mind for us.”

At HOCR reunions, alumni can let go of any problems and stress they may have had while competing on varsity teams in college. O’Leary said rowing at HOCR reminds him of the pure joys of being on a team sport.

“You forget how much fun it is to just get out there and swing the lumber around,” O’Leary said. “Especially at the Head of the Charles, when there’s a huge crowd all the way down.”

Few experiences after college let varsity rowing graduates relive the true friendship and spirit they found on the team. Mecca reiterated that HOCR is an unmatched weekend for crossgenerational connection.

“When you’re an alum, you just get to come back and do it all over again for a day, and really experience the magic of Charles and the electric atmosphere of the regatta, and be with all your friends again and just do something really fun.”

—Staff writer Avani I. Shah-Lipman can be reached at [email protected].