REISCHMAN SUMS UP FALL; LOOKS AHEAD

Men's Head Coach Dave Reischman talked with Orange Oar Editor John Nicholson early in December in a wide-ranging interview about the fall season and the winter and spring ahead plus other crew-related issues. Some of what he had to say appears in the December Issue of The Orange Oar. Here is the complete interview:

Q. What if anything, do you get out and what the team has done overall this fall?

A. I think what's been good overall is last year we were in a situation where we went through these fall races and it was apparent right away that we had pretty good A boat and as we progressed through the fall racing the B boat got closer and closer. But there was still a pretty sizable gap between our A and our B. And…we had some concerns coming into (this) fall that that was still the case and it most definitely is not. Not only that, we have four boats that are within 43-45 seconds of each other.
The difference between A and D at the Foot of the Charles is forty-some seconds and last year it was well over a minute. So what I got out of the fall is that relative to each other we have some young kids stepping up. I was pleasantly surprised that C and D boats in particular are able to be where they are and I think that speaks to everybody on the team doing their job and having the same level of commitment to this thing.

Q Does this indicate more depth on this year’s overall varsity squad?

A. Depth is a tricky thing. I think we have the pieces in place to have good depth. So do a lot of other schools. Last year I thought we didn’t have the depth in the fall but by the time we got around the spring, the JV did quite well and I think it can go the other way too, I guess – you think you have some depth in the fall and get around to spring and have everybody that can stroke a boat ends up in the varsity and not have a combination that works in the JV. I think we have the athletes but it remains to be seen whether we have the right pieces to put together to have really competitive boats in the spring.

Q. Have you lost anybody other than the guys you graduated?

A. No. Typical – some of the people in the frosh program last year didn't come back. That's pretty typical one or two guys there, but I think the biggest surprise of fall has been the sophomores. We have three sophomores that did some great work. Two made the varsity boat for the Head of the Charles based on their pairs racing and it was good to see those guys sort of step up to the challenge.

Q. At the risk of putting words in your mouth. OK, I won’t put words in your mouth but you told me in the past couple of years the key to continuing success and stepping up is to have at least a few guys in every class so that when you lose, like in this case two guys out of the varsity eight and a couple of more guys out of the JV that you have other guys who can step up each year and there’s a continuum. How close are you, or are you there to having the continuum now, as you mentioned these sophomores who are going to contribute it appears to the varsity and the JV?


A. There's a really long answer to that question and the answer is we’re not there. I think our seniors - obviously their record over their four years speaks for itself, and our junior class is developing into a nice class. The sophomore and current freshman classes –it’s still open whether they're going to have the type of athletes in those classes that will step up and sort of take that role. Recruiting is the biggest challenge that we face. You can be the most clever coach in the country and if you don't have talent, nobody's coaching is good enough to make up for a lack of recruiting or a lack of talent. And I think that's the challenge that we face every day here. There’s been a lot of change to the men’s collegiate rowing landscape in the last five years as certain schools are making an investment scholarship-wise and facilities-wise, as coaching positions are changed in schools that previously didn’t recruit aggressively are now recruiting ultra-aggressively. It’s getting harder and harder to attract the level of talent you need and I think that’s the real challenge is can we continue to recruit to the level or a higher level? That's what's going to determine our success moving forward more than anything else.

Q. You’ve had a change in freshman coach. How is the new guy (Shawn Bagnall) working out for you?

A. The new guy is doing a great job. The biggest thing that that Shawn has impressed me with so far is just his work ethic towards the recruiting and his willingness to sort of take a “turn over every stone” approach. We’ll see. You know it's a tough challenge, as I mentioned recruiting out there, and I like where we're at right now and we'll see how things develop. I think Shawn's done a great job with a group of athletes he has in developing them. I think their technical progress is right on target. I think the challenge with this group and the challenge for Sean is to get their fitness to a point that they can be a respectable freshman crew in our league. Technically I think they’re well on their way there. I think they started at a bit of deficit physically and I think the challenge is can we get them there in the six-seven months that we have to do that.

Q. How many frosh do you have?

A. We still have a little over two eights.

Q. Where do we stand in this sport going to NCAA as far as you can tell us?


A. I think opinions on that have changed in the last five years as well. The last time it was put in front of the NCAA it didn't make it past the committee level and never came to vote because of a lack of interest in the rowing community, or I guess a refusal to see that the sport needed to move there for the future I think those attitudes have changed. Some of it’s been some of the older more traditional coaches in our league have moved on. Some of it has been with the economy the way it’s been the last couple of years, I think every athletic department is seeing challenges. And there’s no question in my mind that NCAA is the future of where we need to go to save men’s rowing. Is it going to change the sport to a certain degree? Yes, but I think those changes are inevitable and I think if we don't change what we risk is becoming a bunch of club sports and that works for people out there it's not where I think the long-term future of the sport is healthiest

Q. But no telling how soon. We’re not looking at NCAA in 2012.

A. No. It’s not going to be soon. If a proposal went out today would be three to five years before that happened. I think it's one of those things that if it’s going to happen, it’s going to take more than just men’s rowing coaches getting excited about it. It’s going to take the backing of a lot of athletic administrators that have the time to call their colleagues and call in favors to get votes and stuff like that. It will take a real political push to get it to happen and I don't know that there are people out there that have time and energy for that just yet.

Q Anything else you want to tell our readers?

A. I think people are genuinely excited and the guys in my program are genuinely excited and I think when you get to that stage with this generation where you’ve had some success, the key is to keep having success or to keep making those little improvements and I think the challenge as a coach is to simplify; to sort of shrink your athletes’ world and to get them to focus on the essentials. And the essentials are, are you getting fitter and are you getting better? And I think in today's ESPN generation it is easy to sort of rest and it’s easy to take things for granted and it's easy to the sort of get caught up in press and people telling you you're good. And the way you counteract that as the coach is you keep your guys focused on the simple; are you getting fitter today, are you getting better technically today and I think that's the challenge we face going forward.
We had a good spring last year – the guys have met that challenge so far this fall. I don’t think my guys are too caught up in how we did this fall. If you look at the fall results – if you look at the Princeton Chase there were six crews within seven seconds of each other and if Wisco had been there, if Yale were there, if Brown were there that there would have been nine crews within seven seconds.

Q. Sounds like the Eastern Sprints all over.

A. Sounds like the Sprints all over so who emerges out of that group? Harvard seems to be the one crew that has created a little bit of separation. Who is going to move out of that group of nine and challenge Harvard or come to the forefront of that group is dependent on who can take care of business between now and the middle of May. Early season results aren’t going to matter so much. It’s going to matter the speed that we have coming in the spring that going to determine our season and that’s the whole focus.

The last thing I would add is I think Coach Moore and the women’s staff are doing an incredible job. As most of us are well aware it takes time and I think we got the right person in that position with the right energy – the right positive energy – and it’s just a matter of time. They’re doing the right things.