MADISON, Wis.
Head men's rowing coach Chris Clark addressed the media at the UW's Monday news conference prior to the 34th annual Midwest Rowing Championships this Saturday on Lake Wingra in Madison, Wis. Clark gave an overview of his team so far this season and then fielded questions on the team's prospects come the national championships, the weather this spring, as well as the competition at this week's event, among other topics. A full transcript follows. To view archived video footage of the news conference, click here.
CHRIS CLARK: Appreciate the great turnout. I don't think it really has much to do with the fact that right after me that we have Coach Bielema and the football, but it might just a bit, but thank you for being here today. Yeah, this weekend is the Midwest and it's nice to have a home event. We were just in California, which is always tough from any coach's perspective to travel with a big team and compete multiple times, so a lot of logistics involved.
It's interesting, in a home race, there's almost as much worry about just getting things set up and make sure the officials are here, etc. than it is worrying about your own team. But the only thing that makes that regatta successful is the weather, so I don't have control over that, but I wish I did.
DOHERTY: You want to talk a little bit about the event this weekend?
CLARK: Sure. Normally Michigan used to come all the time to this regatta, but it's during their finals. And they're, just because of the way their schedule worked out, they've decided to come back this year for it. And there's been a few years that the competition hasn't been so stiff, but they're pretty good. So that's our main competition in this race. There's no question it's Michigan.
QUESTION #1: So now how do you have your teams or your participants prepare for this since it, what was it referred to as, a showcase more than a competition? How do you prepare them to compete?
CLARK: The last couple years, simply because Michigan wasn't here, it was more that way, but it's the real deal when it's Michigan. But the, it's always nice to be at home. I think that's the same in any sport. You know, it's just, but on the other hand, I found when you travel, certainly in rowing, it's almost easier to focus a little bit. You're away and you have more control over everything as opposed to them going back to their dorms or their houses.
But I'm a little concerned. You come off a weekend like we just came off when we raced the one-, two-, and fourth-ranked team right away. And then even though Michigan is good, they're probably at this point not considered quite in that, and it's tough. You can't have a letdown, so, and they're pretty tired as well.
So they raced three races in 26 hours, which is a lot to start the season off. In football parlance, it's probably scheduling Michigan and Florida and Notre Dame in the first couple of weeks, which can really work well depending on the way it plays out, but it also wipes you out a little bit.
QUESTION #2: So now with what you did last weekend, I would assume you're pretty pleased.
CLARK: Absolutely. That's, I want to add, you don't usually win championships by losing a lot of races. That's what I've found. You know, you've got to, somehow you have to win at some point. But you do have the built-in reality of here that the water is, there's plenty of people that watch this that are rowing, have an interest in rowing, so I don't want to say the water is unrowable because it's not, but it's difficult here.
And the reality is we're just not usually as good as we will be later in the year. That's a fact. So when you can come out and be competitive right away, that's a good thing. It's a really good thing. But nonetheless, there's only so many times you can spend losing. And granted, no matter how good those teams are, the fact is you want to win. And we had nine races and we won four. That was pretty good.
We have, you know, in rowing, there's the first varsity eight and then you have the second varsity. It's a little different than a lot of sports. And second varsity eight did well. That's something you forget. You're constantly developing these guys. You want them to put out horsepower. You're working with them individually. It's an individual sport sort of caught up in the idea that it's a team sport. It is a team sport, but we spend all our time developing the individual.
So you completely forget as a coach that now and then you just put a boat together and it works perfectly, and it seems like a surprise that, wow, they're rowing like a team. Isn't that what we're supposed to do as coaches? But you forget because you spend so much time working with the individual, and that's what's going on with that 2-V.
They're just clicking, apparently effortlessly, which, you know, effortlessly to the outside world is 12 months of training four years in a row, you know, and now and then a couple of days off, that's about it. There's nothing effortless about it, but the combination is going well. And if we can just get the first eight to do that, that will be good.
QUESTION #3: It seems like we've asked every coach about the weather over the past couple of weeks, and for you it'd be even more relevant. How has that affected . . .
CLARK: You ever see the show Deadliest Catch?
REPORTER: I have not.
CLARK: All right. Well, you know what it is, right? Well, we were, during spring break on the north shore of Mendota, we had our boats, the rowing shells. We left them there. I mean, you can't row across that. But we'd take our power boats across each morning and practice, and literally our hands were frozen to the boats and we carried a sledgehammer to break the ice.
And that's when I really wonder, I'm 47, I'm not that old, but I start wondering, what am I doing? Why am I pounding across this, you know, the wind chill was about five and there was ice all over the place. I think this is crazy. Every day we did it. So the guys are, it's unbelievable these Midwestern guys, they do not complain, at least not to me. They do not complain.
And I don't complain either. I just pretend I'm tough, which is a complete fake job, let me tell you, and I'm freezing the whole time. So spring break was really, really difficult, but it sure helped. California, people were shivering out there on Saturday. It was raining and about 55, and our guys literally had their shirts off, "This is great."
QUESTION #4: Chris, can you talk about the strengths of this year's squad? And does it help you that you have such a glut of upperclassmen, that you have so many seniors and juniors? And I mean, is it one of the strongest squads that you've . . .
CLARK: It is. It's a deep team. There's five sophomores in that second varsity, which is nice. There's seven out of the top 16. One of the, we have, the guy that's stroking the varsity eight, Scott Wallen, is as good a rower here that I've had in a long time, and he's the first guy I've seen since the last Olympic champion that we've had that has the ability to be an Olympic champion, the guy that's stroking the boat. He's a lightweight though.
So that'd be equivalent like a guy on the football team, the best guy being, you know, 185 pounds, 175. That's possible, but it's not, it's kind of unusual. That's the same as on our team. So I fully expect him to be in the 2008 Olympics. He should be. He has an enormous capacity and he's really, really good. And that one thing is sort of giving us a chance, I would say. I mean, rowing is a big person sport.
I mean, our tallest guy is 6-9, and boat size, average is 6-6 or 6-7 about. The teams we were racing were bigger though. Washington I think averaged 6-8, about 215 to 220. These are big guys. But a lightweight can thrive if you're good enough. And we did, our captain is down for the year. He's out, Andrew Kaufman, and he'll be, he should be back next year, but that hurts losing your best guy. But one thing I've found that you do see in the depth, and depth is obviously enormously important.
And also, there is an opportunity when someone goes down like that to allow somebody else younger to step up and maybe be forced into a position to mature a lot faster than you would expect. That's exactly what's happened. So it is nice to have a deep team. But again, deep is great.
You know, in basketball terms, it might get you, you know, 25 a night, but you still want to win the NCAA title. You know, it's the same thing, so we do need the guys to step up at the top. So I'm hoping that will happen, but that's also what depth does too, because there's somebody nipping at your heels at all times.
QUESTION #5: Do you think your club can be a championship contender come the end of May?
CLARK: I think it'd be a contender. I'm always, pessimistic is not the right word, but the, put it this way. When you lose a race, you have to, you give up your shirt in rowing. You literally walk to the other person and give them your shirt. That's an old, old school from 150 years ago, that's been going on. So the people walking around at most regattas without shirts, even though they're strutting around getting a tan, they've lost.
We want to see guys with shirts on. I don't tempt fate. I knew that we would win some races, but I still brought nine sets of shirts. That's 81. One of the other teams only brought one shirt. I know that. And we beat them, and they had to scrounge up some like little t-shirts to wear. I don't do that. So in other words, no, I don't predict anything. I think that it'll be pretty good though. You can tell.
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