Letter to Recruits and Thank You

First off, I wanted to thank the many recruits, friends, and current rowers who emailed with sympathy for my family...It's much appreciated and really startling to hear how many people have had a similar experience with cancer in their families.

Secondly, I was going through my desk at home in Toronto and came across a lot of the correspondence from my own recruiting experience in 1998 (dating myself exactly!) There were some really fun letters and some very generic ones...The best ones were obviously after I had been accepted and my freshman coach was trying to get the recruits connected with each other before we arrived on campus. So much of it sounds the same as we send to our recruits over the summer but I wanted to share some of it NOW because it's way too long before I'll get a chance to write one of these to our recruits. We'll be having an admissions meeting on Wednesday to support our ED1 recruits and are trying hard to schedule visits for those who we want to support in the ED2 round.

Here is some text from the letter...

To the Class of 2002,

Congratulations on a successful senior year both on and off the water. I know that your summer plans are starting to take shape and I hope that also means you'll stay in shape! I have enclosed a list of phone numbers and addresses for the incoming recruits in the Class of '02 and I wanted to give you a way to contact one another should you feel the urge to get to know each other a little more. I have sent a copy to our Varsity Captain Guillem who is also eager to get to know you before you set foot on Old Campus....It's most important that you arrive on campus fresh and ready to become a Yale oarsman but please don't get me wrong, this does not mean you should see how good a job you can do at becoming a couch potato - You will be spending time rowing with the Varsity during September and October and I don't want you wheezing in Guillem's ear when you row behind him and you've only just finished the warm-up.

I can't tell you how excited I was to receive this letter and reading it again now it's odd to think that facebook didn't exist and email was far less prevalent (so much less so that email addresses weren't included in the mailing!) Most incoming freshmen to competitive college programs do train on specific programs because they want to contribute immediately. The one thing that may not have changed though is that I was pretty darn intimidated by the thought of getting to know the varsity BEFORE I was even on campus and unsure of what to say to the other recruits if I was bold enough to call them. Could I really say "Hi, I'm going to be your teammate next year and I really want to win...I hope you're a good boat mover!"

***Note*** My freshman coach was Mike Irwin who went on to coach the Yale freshman heavyweights and varsity lightweights at U Penn and who is now the Program Director at Essex Rowing Club. By pure coincidence Mike was also a Trinity grad from the Class of 1991 who coached at Trinity after graduation.

Deepest Commitment

Drove back to Toronto early on Saturday morning as I found out that my uncle was facing his last moments in a battle with cancer. He slipped away into peace early this afternoon and I know that he is no longer in pain and can finally rest.

The way families and friends rally together in those moments is something that fully amazes and astounds me...and I'm convinced that true love and the deepest commitment are shown by those who stay with you to the very end - One of the most telling comments amongst his family who had gathered and were trying to make sense of what had just happened was that the loss of a loved one is so much harder when that loved one was so well-liked, respected, and trustworthy...even to the end he was still thinking of my aunt and how she would cope without him. It just means that we'll miss him even more.

So who is going to be with you when you're in your toughest spots? Who is going to be the rock when things are most challenging? Please tell those around you that you care about them now because every moment is precious.

Back on board...

Finally ready to start writing again with lots of updates about how our fall season finished up, alumni rowing updates, recruiting progress, ideas about training, and videos of our team that can help give you an idea about what it's like to be a part of our team. I'll start with a photo from our Head of the Riverfront Alumni 8+

Haven't yet decided if I'm going to put my competitive energy towards personal fitness training or towards playing squash at a higher competitive level. I was called out by a gentlemen who I played squash with last spring so that's kind of spurring me in that direction...