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Orange with Oars Making Their Mark
When you think of marque Syracuse Orange seniors from this past season, guys like Delone Carter and Rick Jackson might be the first to come to mind. But Jackson isn't the only hardworking senior from Philadelphia on the SU hill, just ask SU Rowing Head Coach Dave Reischman. Mike Gennaro, Kenny Merfeelius and the Berry brothers may not be household names in Syracuse, but the four seniors from philadelphia are looking to wrap up their senior season in style. And as they travel to Worcester, Massachusetts this weekend for the 2011 Eastern Sprints, they're reflecting back to the reason why they came to Syracuse in the first place. They had other options like Cal and Washington, two of the more successful rowing programs in the country, but they wanted to make their mark in Syracuse.
"They just sort of looked at each other and said you know what this is the place we want to be, recalls Reischman, "and we want to try and have an impact on a National level here."
"We wanted to come to a place that was on the rise," says Vince Berry, "that was on the border of being a really good competitive team, and push it over the top."
And their skills and hardworking mentality have rubbed off on the other rowers.
"I think a lot of the magic of this particular group is it's driven by four guys from Philadelphia," explains Reischman, "very blue collar kids. Kids that come from families that have strong work ethics. And the other seniors that have sort of fit into the group are cut from the same cloth."
A group of guys that don't seem to notice that it's the SU Basketball players and Football players who are getting all of the media coverage and hoopla.
"I just keep telling myself that that's not what I'm here for," explains Gennaro, "I didn't come to Syracuse to row and be the superstar of the city or school."
"If they're looking in the history books," explains Berry, "I want it to be like, a few years from now they're getting medals, consistently getting medals and then a couple years further they're getting gold medals and they're gonna look back a couple years and say those guys started it, those guys started it."
This weekend's races will go along way in helping SU's positioning at this year's Nationals. '
Story courtesy of CNYCentral.com, NBC 3, CBS5, CW6
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