At 5:45 a.m. on Messalonskee Lake, even the loons are asleep. The water is brooding and inhospitable. But for the pre-dawn darkness you could see the breath of 16 panting athletes blowing clouds of steam into the frigid air.
The lake traffic at this early hour consists of two eight-person sculls followed by a power boat with an unreliable engine puttering close behind. In the motorboat is crew coach Mark Davis, standing, examining the stroke techniques of the 16 women who will make up Colby's varsity teams next spring when the "season" actually takes place.
Davis accelerates past the sculls and hollers instructions through a megaphone to the shadowy figures a few feet aft. The rowers tug on their oars methodically, trying to replicate the precise movement over and over until it's etched into their subconscious. "About 5,000 repetitions, exactly alike, that's what it takes to build the correct muscle memory," Davis said.
With each stroke, Davis watches for subtle flaws--the arms not fully extended on the "reach," or the torso too slumped in the seat--that degrade the efficiency of the boat in the water. When the rowers get it right, the scull seems barely to be on the water at all but rather gliding on a flimsy membrane of wave-top, flying.
Crew team members are an hour into their practice before most other Colby students are waking up, but there is no place they would rather be than on this patch of water early in the morning. A disciplined regimen is part of the culture of crew, and the row-in-the-dark practices are a source of unity. Whining is noticeably absent.
The seriousness of the athletes in the boats is in marked contrast to the crew members' out-of-water attitude, which, even before breakfast, is chirpy and fun. Mingling in and around the Colby Hume Center boathouse, where the sculls are stored, the women laugh and joke until it's time to move the boats, when they adopt an almost military stoicism, walking in lock step with the craft balanced on their shoulders, making sure not to ram the outriggers on the way out of the building. They carry the boat to the launch area a few hundred feet away, strip off their outer layers of clothing and pile in. When the oars hit the water, they are all business.
Not every student is up to the challenge of crew, says Davis, but those who are relish it. "Students willing to get up
at five a.m. every weekday
morning in the spring and fall don't require much additional motivation," he said.
Sandra DuBarry '99, the team captain and a four-year member of the squad, says that intensity is a natural response to the precision and teamwork necessary to succeed in the sport. "You have to develop a certain amount of trust that everybody on the team is going to work their hardest," she said. "Everybody has a high amount of respect for everybody else."
The esprit de corps continues away from the water, DuBarry says. "Most of my best friends are from crew," she said.
Crew may be the most egalitarian of all Colby varsity sports. Show up and work hard and you're on the team. "We don't cut anybody," said Davis.
Men's and women's teams combined had just 18 members two years ago; this year there are 40, and Davis's tutelage already has produced trophy-winning crews. After a highly successful season last spring, the men's varsity was regarded among the top teams in New England. The women's program had not seen the same success until this fall.
The women's varsity eight, which was seeded 27th, placed fourth out of 70 boats in the Head of the Charles Regatta in October. A few weeks later, the Colby women placed second out of 13 boats at the MIT Invitational, losing to Bates by one second. Then Bates came to Colby for the annual CBB race and Colby defeated the Bobcat boat by 45 seconds. "It was a great way to end the season," said DuBarry.
"The men's team had an amazing season last year and made a name for themselves," she said. "The women's team hasn't necessarily been all that strong. But now I think other teams are starting to get a little worried."
