Coach Elefant Q&A

COACH ELEFANT Q&A

OO: Seems that this past summer was a busy one for Syracuse representation overseas. Tell us about SU’s trip to Henley.

JE: This past summer was another great example of our guys representing the Orange on the global stage. As many of you know, we decided to take a select group of athletes overseas to the Henley Royal Regatta. All credit goes to Coach Justin Stangel for organizing, training, and executing the trip, Syracuse’s first time back since 2007. This year’s Henley crew – comprised of seven athletes from the 1V and two athletes from the 2V – advanced to the Friday quarterfinals of the Temple Challenge Cup, knocking off Cornell and Trinity College of Dublin before falling by a length to the home favorites, Oxford Brookes. Aside from the fierce racing and unforgettable experience – especially for the five seniors who took part – the Henley trip was a massive boost to Syracuse’s profile overseas. I think we are still seeing benefits of the trip long after we returned to the US. The returning athletes from the Henley trip have all hit the ground running this fall, and from a recruiting standpoint, our stock has risen dramatically both domestically and internationally. Recruits want to know that if they work hard and earn a seat, they will have an opportunity to represent their university at the most famous regatta in the world. That’s a big deal! Trips like Henley certainly aren’t cheap, so if we want to make Henley a more regular fixture on the Syracuse calendar (and attract new talent), we’ll be relying on the continued financial support of SARA as we head into the next decade.

OO: Aside from Henley, tell us about the Orange who represented Syracuse at the World Championships this summer.

JE: We had four more athletes competing for their home countries at both the Under 23 and Junior (Under 19) World Championships, three of whom were incoming freshmen. At the U23 Worlds in Poznan, Poland, Nick Tavares ’19 had the strongest result, placing 5th for Team Canada in the men’s eight. Incoming Italian freshman Jacopo Bertone ’22 won the B final in that same event, good for 7th overall. Nicolay Yngsdal ’22 of Norway placed 15th in the men’s coxless four to round out the Orange at Under 23s. Later in the summer,

FALL 2018

incoming freshman Laurence Joss ’22 represented Great Britain in the men’s double sculls at Junior Worlds in Racice, Czech Republic. The double is one of the most heavily subscribed and competitive events at the junior level, and GB did well to place 14th overall to cap off a long summer’s worth of training.

OO: What have the coaches been working on this fall season in particular?

JE: The emphasis this fall has been developing power per stroke and challenging the athletes to row with good intensity during longer steady state rows. We’ve been utilizing mixed lineups in the eights to create competitive environments in practice, as well as to allow guys to make individual technical changes. Some of the technical concepts we’ve been working on recently are opening the puddle at the catch in time with one other and keeping pressure on the blade all the way to the finish. A typical full squad practice will have Coach Reischman working with the top 16 athletes competing for seats in the 1V / 2V, myself and Coach Hoskins with athletes in the 3V / 4V mix, and Volunteer Assistant Coach (and all-around All-Star) Larry Laszlo with a development group of athletes, including a few novices and walk-ons. The groupings are fairly fluid at this time of year, with athletes on the borders of each group moving back and forth depending on how they perform in practice and on the erg.

OO: Tell our audience about the Men’s Crew Class of 2022?

JE: We have a huge group of freshmen this year and we are really excited to get to work with them. In total, they count 16 rowers and 3 coxswains. The Class of 2022 is very geographically diverse. We have athletes from California, Florida, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, and Oklahoma, as well as our usual recruiting bases of New Jersey, New York, and the Northeast. We have athletes from places as far away as Italy, England, and Norway, but we also have athletes come from as close as Liverpool High School just down the road! Despite the larger than usual number of recruits, this class is what we would consider somewhat typical as far as talent composition. We always strive for 2-3 freshmen who can step in and make an immediate contribution to the “Top 16”, meaning they have the potential to row in the 1V or be in the 3V / 4V mix their first year, which is normal for a freshman making the step up from high school training to college-level training. It isn’t possible to truly qualify how successful a recruiting class is until they’ve had the chance to make contributions over their four years, so I’ll get back to you on that in 2022. Early indications, though, seem positive.

OO: Briefly describe each class year, are there any emerging leaders?

JE: We’re lucky to have a really good group of sophomores and upperclassmen to help support and guide the incoming freshmen. The outgoing seniors of the Class of 2018 did a great job of building leadership among the squad, and so it is up to the current seniors (Class of 2019) to make sure that they emphasize the team culture and hold the team accountable for their success.

As far as on the water, our top group is heavily populated with juniors and seniors, which is where you hope athletes are after a few years of development. Our upperclassmen are a huge testament to the improvements that can be made with a consistent work ethic and careful preparation. Many of these athletes weren’t highly regarded coming out of high school, but they bought in to the training plan and started to see some significant improvements. It’s about this time (end of sophomore year / beginning of junior year) that most athletes are able to take that “next step” and start contributing at an even higher level for the remainder of their rowing career.

OO: How do you feel about the success of last year’s crews and how that bodes for this year’s crews? How many 1st or 2nd boaters returned, for example?

JE: We were really proud of the racing season that our guys put together last year. The team had made it a goal to improve their depth and to place all three eights in the National Top-10 at IRAs. We ultimately achieved that goal, with the 1V, 2V, and 3V finishing 8th, 9th, and 10th, respectively. In 2019, our challenge is figuring out how to turn some of those Petite Finals at Sprints and IRAs into Grand Finals. The team was 9th overall as a unit at IRAs last year. Can we push that to 6th or 7th overall? That will require us making some Grand Finals and challenging the perennial powers this year. Put bluntly, we don’t (yet!) have the top-to-bottom talent to match the very best teams in the country. But we certainly have enough talent and depth to make a run at some of those teams. We are returning all but the 5 senior rowers who graduated last May. The challenge is to have the sort of consistent, purposeful practices all year to make good on our potential.

OO: Where do you see challenges in the 2019 dual race season, in the Sprints or IRAs?

JE: Our dual race season is challenging every year, and that’s by design. Nothing prepares you for the rigors of the IRA National Championship better than racing top teams every weekend during the spring. This year in particular will be a good test for our athletes as we have quite a bit of travel involved. We’ll be out in Chicago in early April to race Wisconsin on the Skokie Canal, then two weeks later head down to Annapolis for the annual Goes Trophy showdown against Navy and Cornell. Then we add another road trip to Leonia, NJ for the Conlan Cup against Boston and Columbia for good measure. Oh, and our one and only home race this year will be that next day on Sunday as we host Dartmouth to defend the Packard Trophy. In short – it will be an exciting racing season like always! Hopefully, being battletested “road warriors” will serve our athletes well as they look towards the IRA Championships, which will be held out in Sacramento, California this year.

OO: Describe any changes in responsibilities for the Men’s Coaches.

JE: This past summer saw the departure of Associate Head Coach Justin Stangel ’07. Coach Stangel’s involvement with Syracuse Rowing goes back to the fall of his freshman year in 2003 all the way up to coaching a crew at Henley in 2018, with only brief interruptions to study at Oxford and train for the US Senior National Team. The man bleeds Orange, through and through, and he poured a tremendous amount of effort into making Syracuse great as an undergraduate oarsmen and then again as a coach. We will miss him dearly (as well as his cooking!).

Following Coach Stangel’s departure this summer, I transitioned into the role of recruiting coordinator to lead the search for the next generation of Orange oarsmen. To fill the remaining coaching vacancy, we brought back another former Syracuse oarsman in Stephen Hoskins ’15. A former walk-on athlete, Coach Hoskins spent the last few years in an assistant coach role at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. We’re thrilled to have him on our staff and he is equally as excited to return to his alma mater in a coaching role.

No coaching announcement would be complete without mentioning Volunteer Assistant Coach Larry Laszlo. Some of you may remember Coach Laszlo from his first stint as a Syracuse coach in the 80s, when he served as Bill Sanford’s Freshman Coach. Nowadays, Coach Laszlo spends his afternoons and Saturday mornings assisting the full-time coaching staff with athlete development, boat maintenance and repair, and oftentimes a much needed injection of levity into any situation. We count ourselves lucky to have him on our staff.

OO: Reflections on the 2018 Evening at Ten Eyck?

JE: The 2018 Evening at Ten Eyck was by far the bestattended and one of the most significant ceremonies since the event’s inception. The celebration of 40 years of women’s rowing was flat-out inspiring. Hearing the stories of the women’s early years really brought into context how many strides we’ve made towards gender equity in sports – and how much work is still left to be done. The rise of women’s rowing at Syracuse – as well as across the nation – has had an undeniably positive impact on men’s rowing. We’re pretty lucky to share The Ten Eyck Boathouse as well as our facilities with some really talented and driven women. I know that our male athletes’ experience is enriched and enhanced by having a competitive women’s team standing shoulder to shoulder with them, wearing Orange.

In the same vein, the opportunity to celebrate the 1978 IRA Champions – and to gather the entire crew and coaching staff in one room – was deeply impactful for our athletes to witness. A really cool part of the evening was watching the TV coverage of the ’78 guys as they prepared for the championships, and seeing that these larger-than-life legends were once just ordinary college guys themselves. That sort of thing really motivates our athletes to realize that they, too, are capable of greatness, and that the daily challenges they face in 2018 (academics, friendships, social lives, etc.) are pretty similar to what the guys dealt with back in 1978. In 40 years, much has changed in the sport of rowing, but at the core, it still requires 9 athletes in a boat working together towards a common goal and supporting each other off the water. It was great to see.

OO: Describe the importance the SARA Community’s support during the racing season.

JE: Alumni, parents, and SARA supporters alike – every single person makes a difference when it comes to showing up at races. We know that rowing is not always the most spectator-friendly sport, but having a big crowd at home races (as well as away contests) is a massive boost for the athletes. Rowing is a sport where the balance of training vs. competition is heavily skewed to the training side. In particular, college-level racing offers fewer opportunities than what kids might be used to from their high school programs. With only a few opportunities each year to line up, our athletes take an exceptional amount of pride in being able to wear the Orange racing tank and put their years’ worth of training on display for a six-minute race. Being present at races to recognize their commitment is one of the best ways to support our guys. The athletes and coaches certainly enjoy the post-race food spreads, as well. OO