NEW HAVEN, Conn. – This fall the Yale heavyweight
crew team returns to the water with new coaches, a new freshman
class, and a renewed sense of hope for a championship season.
Over the summer Steve Gladstone was named the new head coach of the
Bulldogs, bringing with him a wealth of rowing knowledge and
coaching experience that has won him 11 IRA championships.
Joining him is Joel Scrogin, who will step in as the new freshman
coach. Alongside a group of eager oarsmen and one of the
largest senior classes in recent years, Gladstone and Scrogin are
truly ushering in a new era for America's oldest collegiate
team.
Gladstone arrives in New Haven by way of Syracuse, Princeton,
Boston, Providence, and most recently Berkeley, California. A
1964 graduate of Syracuse, Gladstone brings more than 40 years of
coaching experience to Yale from programs like Princeton, Harvard,
Brown, Cal, California Rowing Club and the U.S. National
Team. In 1994 Gladstone co-founded Resolute Racing Shells,
now one of the world's premier boat manufacturers. Also
arriving in New Haven is Joel Scrogin, a 1999 graduate of Brown,
Eastern Sprints champion and Oxford alum. Scrogin will be
working with the Yale Class of 2014 as the freshman coach, while
last year's freshman coach, Billy Boyce, and Ian Duthie return as
assistant coaches to round out the Bulldog coaching staff.
In addition to two new coaches, Yale heavyweight crew is adding
nine recruited freshman rowers and two freshman coxswains to the
roster. Between them the "freesh" possess almost every junior
championship title the rowing world has to offer, from a win at the
Head of the Charles, to a win at Henley, to a gold medal at Junior
Worlds. As has been the case in recent years, the incoming
freshman class features rowers from all over the world, some coming
from as far as Australia and Great Britain. Coaches Scrogin
and Duthie have been integrating several walk-ons during practices
in recent weeks, and hope to have a second freshman boat racing in
the spring. But with only six seniors leaving the team last
year, one thing is for certain: the team is growing in both size
and strength.
Returning from last year's varsity eight are six rowers, only four
of them members of the Class of 2011. Indeed the Yale
heavyweight crew program is full of young, world-class talent. Over
the summer three Yale oarsmen attended selection camp for the Under
23 National Team: Henry Cole '10, junior Thomas
Dethlefs and senior captain Derek
Johnson. All three made the team. Cole rowed three
seat in the quad, while Dethlefs rowed six seat in the eight which
won a silver medal at the U-23 World Rowing Championships in Brest,
Belarus. Due to an injury, Johnson did not race at
Worlds. Leading the team with Johnson this year are fellow
seniors Marcos
Carzolio, Colin
Corcoran, Benjamin
Grant, Daniel
Klassen, Duncan
Logie, Spyridon
Mastroyannis, George
Moran, Carl
Nunziato, Matthew
Ramlow, Nathaniel
Reeve, Patrick
Vergara, Simon
Warren and Francesca
Yi. This year's senior class is more than twice the size of
last year's senior class and is a testament to the increasing
strength of the heavyweight crew program.
The Bulldogs have two regattas lined up for the fall season. The
first, the Head of the Housatonic, is Yale's only home fall regatta
and will be contested on Yale's course in Derby, Conn., on Oct.
9. Next is the Head of the Charles, the world's largest
regatta, taking place on the Charles River in Boston, Mass., the
weekend of Oct. 23. Last year Yale fielded two eight-man boats at
the Head of the Charles in the championship and club eight
categories. The champ eight took 11th in a very
tough field, while the club eight finished first and brought home
gold.
Report filed by Yale Sports Publicity
