Sports
The Berkeley Beacon
October 28, 2021
8
Rowers return to Charles River for Head of the Charles Regatta Cont. from Pg. 1
Tyler Foy
Beacon Staff
nology won the men’s collegiate eights University took the women’s collegiate
The 56th annual Head of the Chalres Regatta made a triumphant return to the Charles River between Oct. 22 and 24, with legions of rowers competing in the annual race after it was held remotely amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The Head of the Charles is an annual rowing competition hosted over two days at the end of October. 2020 was just the second time in its history–since its founding in 1965–that it was cancelled. weather conditions. Although the competition features over 60 different events, there are four events in the collegiate division––men and women’s eights and four person. These events are typically held to a higher standard. The Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
Despite the differences in people, the fours have similar times. Vanderbilt Unisity of Calgary took home the women’s This competition has up to 40 teams facing off against each other. It starts at Boston University’s Boathouse and The Head of the Charles is the second landmark athletic event to return to Massachusetts in recent weeks after the Boston Marathon made its triumphant return on Oct. 11. tyler_foy@emerson.edu
The Head of the Charles Regatta. Hongyu Liu / Beacon Staff
Goalie, forward left isolation Cont. from Pg. 1 On Sept. 8, the team was set to square off against Tufts University, but the game was postponed after Rose tested positive for COVID-19 two days before the game was set to be played. Thecollege’sCOVID-19protocolsmandatethat players on each team are to get tested before each game. At the time of the positive test, Rose had received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, meaning she had to isolate for 10 days following the positive test result. Rose said she was shocked that the test came back positive. “This didn’t really make a lot of sense to me,” Rose said. “Not only was I asymptomatic, but also nobody else had tested positive. I’m around those girls every day. Those are the people I hang out with.” The confusion led Rose to leave her off-campus apartment during her isolation, which Emerson strictly prohibits, to take two rapid tests that both came back negative. Rose contacted the college about these tests while also completing
another PCR test. None of the tests Rose took were administeredbythecollege.WhenRoseaskedtogettested through the college, their stance was a firm no. “I was in contact with Tufts and administration about trying to get them to let me take the test and they were very strict about not allowing that to happen,” she said. When another PCR test came back negative, Rose believed she had gathered enough evidence to show she could be released from isolation and was not infected with the virus. As a result, she contacted the team’s athletic trainer. “After that test came back obviously I was excited,”shesaid.“Icalledmycoach,andhewas like, ‘That’s great, go ahead and call the athletic trainer.’ I called the athletic trainer and there was a lot of concern revolving around how I left my isolation.” “[Instructions] were made pretty clear,” Rose continued. “I was contacted by Tufts nursing the day I tested positive and [they] told me I needed to isolate for 10 days.” Rose said she violated the terms of her isola-
tion knowingly. “Obviously I understood I was supposed to isolate,” she said. “When I left this isolation, I was very cautious about how I was presenting myself outside and in public.” The college then held a hearing to determine discipline for Rose violating the terms of her isolation. Rose’s punishment was handed down three days later—she was not to participate in any extracurricular activities or allowed to use any Emerson facilities such as the Rose is also barred from campus, unless she is attending a class. Rose appealed the punishments, but was denied. She said she doesn’t have bad relationships with players on the team, but David Suvak. When going through the appeal process, Rose asked Suvak to write a letter on her behalf but the coach declined.
Former Emerson Lions goalie Megan Rose. / The Berkeley Beacon Archives
“When I heard that there was an appeal process, I had asked my coach to write a letter on my behalf and he said no,” she said. “That was very telling and it almost made the process a little bit easier because I’m not gonna play for Rose had a long tenure with the women’s soccer team and ended her time with the team with many accolades. She was a three-time captain and
her second year. Rose said she is now convinced the initial test was a false positive. “I just feel as though there’s a lack of humanity within the whole thing,” Rose said. “I don’t think that there was consideration that I tested negative a number of times and at this moment I’m completely convinced it was a false positive.” tyler_foy@emerson.edu
