Rowing LRA newsletter February 2014
LLRALRA
LRA 1st Annual Alumni Reunion April 5 & 6 at the San Diego Crew Classic!
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THANK YOU, LRA!
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Request for Nominations to the LMU Athletics Hall of Fame
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2014 Competition Schedule
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Things you NEVER want to hear your coxswain say!
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Allen Rosenberg [1931-2013] Director’s note
Pg. 10 Letter from the Chairman Pg. 11 Director’s Note
On Saturday April 5th, the LRA is celebrating the Anniversaries of all 10-Year graduate rowing classes (1964, ‘74, ‘84, ‘94, ‘04). Watch your email inboxes for more details, but plan on being at the San Diego Crew Classic on beautiful Mission Bay to have a great time with your teammates, coaches and the rest of the LRA. Come cheer on the current LMU Men’s and Women’s Teams! We have a large tent reserved and our event will begin at 3:30PM with dinner at 4:00PM and the ceremony to honor the '04 classes starting around 4:30. We will send you registration details and more information soon, so please save the date! We are looking for three Event Sponsors at the $500 level and three Dinner Sponsors at the $250 level. At the dinner all sponsors will be recognized for their crucial support. Event sponsors will also receive a gift from the LRA In the meantime, check out www.crewclassic.org for regatta info.
The LMU Men’s and Women’s Crews say
THANK YOU, LRA! for the shells you have recently provided us. As we build into national contenders, your support helps us maintain a fleet of state-of-the-art boats competitive with our opponents.
During the half-century history of Loyola University and Loyola Marymount University Rowing, our sport has seen a revolution in almost every aspect, exponential growth in popularity, the spread to the American Heartland, the addition of women, enhanced athlete identification and athlete training, new race distances . . . AND EQUIPMENT! In 1960, every boathouse in the country, including Loyola’s, was filled with wooden boats and oars made by George Pocock of Seattle, WA. Today boats and oars are made of Space Age composites, and they come all over the country and all over the world.
Thanks to the generosity of the LRA, LMU is keeping up with the times.
Left to Right: Hudson (Canada) Hammerhead Women’s Eight, Pocock (Seattle) Hypercarbon Lay-Down Coxed-Four, Wintech (China) International Coxless-Pair, Pocock Single, Wintech International Coxless-Pair, Pocock Hypercarbon Coxless-Pair, Resolute (Providence, RI) Z8 Midweight Eight “John Lawton”, Resolute Z4 Midweight Lie-Down Coxed-Four “Mariamontis”, Resolute Z4 Midweight Coxed-Four “Loyolae”
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The next LMU Athletics Hall of Fame Induction is scheduled for March 2015, so it is time for LRA to begin brainstorming about our next group of rowing nominees. They could be individuals, athletes or coaches, or specific boats. Current Rowing members of the LMU Athletics Hall of Fame: John R. Lind, Sr., Loyola/LMU Men’s Coach 1962-1975 Karen Hock-Hjelm, ’78, co-founder of LMU Women’s Crew, U.S. Champion, LMU’s first Women’s Coach Merri Lisa Formento ’80, 4-time U.S. Champion, 1984 U.S. Team Member 1981 U.S. Champion Collegiate Women’s Lightweight Coxed-Four 1989 U.S. Champion Collegiate Women’s Lightweight Coxed-Four J 3
2014 LMU Rowing Competition Schedule Women and Men Saturday
2/1/2014
Long Beach Sprints
Long Beach.CA
Saturday
3/1/2014
UCLA
Marina del Rey, CA
Sunday
3/2/2014
USD USD (Scrimmage)
San Diego, CA
UCSB UCSB/USC*
Marina del Rey, CA
UCLA SDSU/UCI**
Marina del Rey, CA
Saturday Saturday
3/08/2014 3/15/2014
Saturday
3/22/2014
Gonzaga/Washington State
Spokane, WA
Sat-Sun
4/5-6/2014
SD Crew Classic SD Crew Classic
San Diego, CA
WIRA Championships WIRA Championships
Sacramento, CA
West Coast Conference
Sacramento, CA
Sat-Sun Saturday
4/26-7/2014 5/17/2014
* George Gordon USC ‘54 Memorial Cup ** Parker Cup
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Things you NEVER want to hear your coxswain say! by JP Rosso
“Last 20! . . . Last 10! . . . Last minute! . . . Last 50! . . . Almost there . . . ” (On the way to the starting line) “Is that our race going by?” “1, 2, 3, 7, 5 . . . ” “Boy, those guys are big!” “Do you think there’s a reason why no one takes this arch?” (As you complete 500m) “Might as well focus on our technique now!” (Coach screaming) “Save the equipment!” “Take a 10! You’re dying!” “I think I’ve got this figured out! Which way do you push this tiller again?” “Keep going! They might catch a crab!” “Uh oh . . . ” To be continued . . .
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During the 1960s, Loyola University Men’s Crew had a close relationship with Vesper Boat Club 3,000 miles away on Boathouse Row in Philadelphia. The recent passing of Vesper’s legendary Coach Allen Rosenberg has encouraged some of our senior alumni to reminisce . . .
Things you NEVER want to hear your coxswain say! by JP Rosso
Allen Rosenberg [1931-2013] by James Campbell, ‘64 On Lake Albano, just outside Rome, during the summer of 1960 at the Games of the XVII Olympiad, the rowing world received a great shock. It came in the form a victory in the premier rowing event, the 2,000 meter sprint for the world's best men’s eights, by a crew other than the United States, which had won every single previous Olympics since 1920. The winning crew was from ATV Ditmarsia Kiel / Ratzeburger Ruderclub on the West German side of the border that divided the two Germanies in the years after World War II. Adding to the shock effect was the fact that the German eight's whole approach to rowing represent a radical departure from what was considered to be proper winning form. Instead of American college athletes of significant height, some might say resembling basketball players, the Ratzeburg team was made up of athletes considerably older and looking like American football or rugby players. They were fairly short and of stocky build. Their Ratzeburg coach, Karl Adam, was a former boxer and relatively new to rowing. His training methods were unorthodox. Their strokes appeared short to the untrained eye, and their 6
racing starts and stroke rate during the body of their races were extremely high by any standard. Other than the fact that they were winning, it seemed to many in the sport that they were doing much that was wrong. There were some in the U.S., however, who were determined to learn from the results of 1960. They were possessed of the notion that American crews could and would not only meet the challenge but best it. Among them was John B. Kelly, Jr., son of the legendary 3-time Olympic Champion. Young “Kell” was a Diamond Sculls winner and Olympic medalist in his own right and president of Vesper Boat Club in Philadelphia. Kell immediately set about preparing Vesper to respond to Ratzeburg at the 1964 Olympics, which eventually included the appointment of Allen Rosenberg as head coach. Allen had been a coxswain at the club since 1954 and had steered Vesper eights to a Gold Medal at the 1955 Pan-Am Games and a Silver Medal at the 1958 European Championships. Kell also convinced one of Ratzeburg’s rowers, Dietrich Rose, to come to the U.S. and work as Allen's assistant coach with a focus on training. With Kelly’s support, the coaching staff also set about recruiting college and club oarsmen from around the country to come to Vesper and participate in what would become a revolution in American rowing. John McHugh, Loyola’s founding coach, had come from Vesper, knew Kell and Allen well, and was keenly aware of the changes which were afoot in Philadelphia. It was through Coach McHugh in the summer of 1962 that I, Jim Campbell, along with Hugh Foley and Bill Fields, were introduced to Vesper and had the honor and privilege rowing under Coach Rosenberg.
1962 Loyola University Men’s Varsity: Stroke Peter Boynton, 7 Jim Campbell, 6 Hugh Foley, 5 Bill Fields, 4 Dick Thobe, 3 Ken Howard, 2 Quentin Cedar, Bow Jack Griffin, Coxswain Tony Casimano (not shown)
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The summers of 1962, ’63 and ‘64 saw us living at Vesper, working for Kell's construction company and competing for seats in the club's small boats and eights. The competition for those seats only grew more intense as the Olympic year approached. Rowing at Vesper then was a two-fold experience: learn a new style and work on building strength. Allen took on the intricacies of the former, while Dietrich handled the latter. Comparisons can be invidious, but one would be hard pressed to find a better coach than Allen Rosenberg when it came to teaching the technical aspects of rowing. He had an innate sense of spotting trouble with one's form before it came to be more of a problem than one could correct. If he called your name during a practice and suggested that you were doing something he did not like, it was incumbent upon you fix it and, given the number of fellows ready to take your place, do so quickly. No matter the usual post-practice chaos on the boat slip, no matter the demands placed upon him at any given time, Allen was always ready to work with you individually to advise: a) what you were starting to do that was wrong and, b) what precisely needed to be done to correct it. He did this quickly, efficiently with great accuracy and sensitivity. Learning his methods and the new way of rowing at Vesper, I often found myself as the object of his attentions, but I came away the better for it – always. The training regimen, the use of weight lifting in a fashion designed to concentrate our power to create a dynamic "catch" followed by a sequential application of the body's muscle groups ad seriatim, was new at the time and considered by some to be antithetical to the goal of achieving fluidity of motion in the boat. The idea of eight of us acting in a smooth flowing manner gave way to an unrelenting attack upon the water at a high pace. I can recall starts which had us at 46-48 strokes per minute, and then settling to 38 for the body of the race. At 198 pounds, I was at times the lightest fellow in the boat. A kind of controlled chaos was the order of the day when the boat was moving at Allen's desired speed. He taught a powerful catch with the legs, then a strong application of the shoulders, back and finally the arms, all brought into play in that order. There was also the adoption of fartspiel or "stroke play," interval training which was far more than just a series of power 10s or 20s, which had been used by Coach Adam to great effect at Ratzeburg. Allen's work led to the 1964 Gold Medal victory by Vesper at the Tokyo Games, with the Ratzeburg Eight coming in second. Vesper had, as it were, beaten the German's at their own game. Rowing at Vesper is a great memory made all the more so by doing it under Coach Rosenberg. Years passed, and one afternoon in 1994, Allen and I bumped into one another quite by accident on a street in Washington, D.C. This reconnection instigated a routine in which we would meet for lunch at least once a quarter, if not more often. At times we would expand the gathering to include other former oarsmen or coaches. Although it had been many years since I was on the water, I had been able to maintain some connection with rowing by having an ergometer at my home. At one point in 2005, at my pleading, Allen agreed to come and see how I was doing. There we were in my basement forty-three years later with him giving me corrections on my form. It was as if I was back on the Schuylkill and he was in the coaching launch. Allen's contributions to our sport were unceasing and his devotion to it infectious. Whether he was introducing young people or senior adults to it for the first time or giving a
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one-day tutorial on how to establish a rowing program at a Catholic college located on the banks of the Shenandoah [whose president, Timothy O'Donnell, is a Loyola alum by the way], it was clear that this was a man who was intently happy with what he was doing. He was always ready to give of his time and impart his knowledge of the sport he loved. Allen's intellectual contributions to the sport of rowing were prodigious. To me he underscored those lessons we have all learned: self-challenge and the personal responsibility which flows to and from each individual in the boat. As time went by, Allen and his wife decided to move from their apartment to an assisted living facility. My wife and I visited them there, last seeing them in May. We were planning another get-together when we learned of his death on the night of 7 December 2013. ------------------------------------------Editor’s historical note: Hugh Foley ended up in the 2-seat of the Vesper 1st Eight that won the 1964 U.S. Olympic Trials and won the Gold Medal in Tokyo by 5 seconds over Ratzeburg.
1964 Olympic Champion Vesper Boat Club Men’s Eight: Coxswain Bob Zimonyi, Stroke Bill Stowe, 7 Bill Knecht, 6 Boyce Budd, 5 Emory Clark, Tom Amlong, 3 Stan Cwiklinski, 2 Hugh Foley of Loyola University, Bow Joe Amlong After the 1964 Olympics, Bill Fields remained in Philadelphia, the city which his father, W.C. Fields, had made so much fun of. James Campbell, author of the above reminiscence, rowed in a Vesper coxed-four at the 1964 U.S. Nationals and in the Vesper 2nd Eight at the 1964 Olympic Trials. Four years later, he rowed 3-seat in the Loyola University Coxed-Four at the 1968 Olympic Trials won by the University of Pennsylvania.
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Lions Rowing Association Letter from the Chairman Greetings to Alums, Parents and Friends of Lions Rowing We have three home races in March, including UCLA, our old nemesis. Watching a race on a sunny Saturday morning in Marina del Rey surrounded by the normal Marina activities, great views, some chatty alums and slowly sipping a venti-size Starbucks coffee is a great way to spend some relaxation time. Our women’s team includes a strong group of student athletes. Our four women from outside the U.S. (Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada and Italy) have competed internationally in Junior and Under-23 World Championships five times with top four finishes. Our Canadian rower has won gold medals in the Royal Canadian Henley and Canadian Youth Nationals. Nine of our U.S. women have won 13+ medals in prestigious events including the Head of the Charles, the Henley Royal Regatta, various Regionals and the USRowing Youth Nationals. Our women should be exciting to watch this year. Last week our men’s team had three scrimmage races in coxed-fours against UCLA which were close and
spirited. Our Cup Race against them in two weeks’ time should be competitive. We now have 19 rowers and 3 coxswains, including 14 freshman, all found in the freshman dorms last fall, and at least two of them will be in the Varsity Eight. Unlike previous years, for the last twelve months the men’s team has been heavily recruiting successful high school rowers and coxswains from around the country and around the world for the incoming LMU freshman class of the fall of 2014. From this process, we have a pool of 28 athletes who appear to be extremely enthusiastic about us. They are in various stages of the application process, and we’re optimistic, but we won’t know how many actually choose LMU until they mail in their tuition deposits. And it will take four consecutive years of recruiting classes before we reach our full potential. Other LRA matters included elsewhere in this newsletter are: 1) The spectacular photo showing all the boats funded by the LRA in the last two years – a picture is worth a thousand words; 2) Our Annual Reunion in San Diego – a great way to spend a weekend with your teammates; 3) Our Hall of Fame nominees – for the 2015 Hall of Fame induction – can be an individual or a team. This is an open process so please provide your suggestions.
Go Lions! John Fleming ‘69
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Director’s note by Dr. Vaclav Kacir
Update from the Jane Browne Bove Boathouse: The LMU rowing program is gaining in strength, and the depth of both programs is growing. In last two years we have tripled the size of the men`s and the women's teams. We are starting to attract more and more talent from around the country and all over the world. This year we have young rowers from Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Mexico, Italy and both coasts of the United States. The rowing culture is improving, and it is exciting to watch our rowers getting better. Our 6 kilometer ergometer stats are a whole minute faster than last year, and we cannot wait to see how much that will transfer to increased pace on the water. My most favorite day of the week is Saturday. That is the day when the coaches have a chance to watch the men and women racing each other. The men’s heavyweight four is taking on women's V8, and the lightweight men are racing the Women’s Jayvee. It is very exciting and very competitive for both of the teams. We are about a month away from the start of our traditional races, and we are looking forward to making another step forward towards becoming a Nationally competitive program on both the men’s and women’s sides. All that we have accomplished so far would not have been possible without the generous support of our committed Alumni base and the LRA, so thank you again. Go Lions! Dr. Vaclav Kacir Director of Rowing Women’s Head Coach 424-207-9598
To learn more about what’s happening with Lions Rowing and with the LRA, please visit:
http://www.lmulions.com/sports/c-crew/ https://www.facebook.com/LMURowing?ref=ts For information on how to donate, please visit:
http://go.lmu.edu/lra
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