After the addition of a new varsity coach, Jay Britt, and the loss of just one senior, Jon Goulet, the Tufts men's varsity crew team is looking to use the fall season as a training tool in preparation for a strong spring season.
Britt coached for Northeastern for the last several years before returning to Tufts, where he last coached both the men's and women's teams in 1997. Britt is replacing Ben Foster and Chris Mitchell, last year's head coaches in the fall and spring respectively. Head coach and program director Gary Caldwell is in his 12th year on the water with the Tufts crew teams.
This year the team will have two varsity eight boats as well as one varsity four boat. In addition, there will be two novice boats racing this season.
Tufts is rowing at a new location on the Malden River as it continues to compete in the NESCAC.
The Jumbos have been practicing since the first week of school and look forward to their first race this Sunday at the Lowell Textile Regatta that will host 20 to 30 teams. That regatta is the first of four in the fall season.
"We are looking to be strong in the spring and are using the fall races as training tools," Britt said. "In this race we are looking to be competitive and row well."
The team has one new freshman, Sam Goldstein, currently rowing with the varsity teams, but he may row on either the varsity or novice squad come the spring.
"I'm looking for a contribution from everyone this year; this is a fairly new group of guys to me," Britt said. "We have good size and the kids are in good shape with good attitudes."
The team is young with only four seniors and the captain, Ben Harburg, is a junior.
"We are a close team with a lot of heart," sophomore Jeff Vanderkruik added.
With the loss of only Goulet, the team's varsity returnees contribute a great deal of experience to this year's squad.
"We had a difficult time last year, because our head coach [Foster] left in the middle of the season for a job a Hobart," sophomore Benjy Tarshis said. "Chris Mitchell stepped up and filled the role of head coach."
Foster left in mid-February before the start of the spring season.
Despite the loss, last year's squad had a winning fall season in head to head races and performed well at the New England Championships, where the second varsity eight finished third and the third varsity eight finished first.
In the fall, the crew team finished in the middle of the pack with a 25th place finish in a field of over 40 teams at the biggest race, the Head of the Charles regatta. The varsity boats missed the grand finals, but did make it to the petit finals in the spring. Tufts' novice boats, consisting only of freshmen, look to improve on a mediocre showing at their final race of the season, the 2003 Quinsigamond Challenge. The novice 8 A team finishing fourth of seven teams and the novice 8 B team finishing fifth of seven teams.
"[Our weakness] right now is my relationship with the team. I don't know who is who yet, or who to utilize where," Britt said.
The fall will be a building period during which Britt will attempt to get acquainted with the team and assemble a strong, cohesive unit for the spring.
"With a new coach we all need to step up and take a leadership role," Vanderkruik said.
The concept of gelling will be the main theme for the squad this fall as the team attempts to find the right chemistry, among both the rowers and the new coach, in time for the spring season.
