2008 Woodie Awards
"Jasper Spirit"
Kieran O'Shea
Issue date: 10/13/04 Section: Sports
Jasper Spirit is the name of a boat that embodies the qualities and values that Manhattan's Crew team stands for. Established in 1932, the crew team has participated competitively for 72 years, and is one of the oldest established sports teams here at Manhattan.
The Manhattan College Crew team's season will open up this upcoming weekend in Middletown Connecticut at the "Head of Connecticut" race. The Crew team has been in training for the past month in preparation for this, their first race of the year. They expect it to be the first of many successful races to come. Both the men and women's teams seem to have shaped out quite nicely. The men's squad, led by Captain Rich Kakol, has a total of 20 rowers that have made the team. The women's squad, led by Captain Emily Guedes, seems a little short handed, but they can tough it out with the dozen or so women they have. Despite not having many rowers, the women's team is still looking strong and looking to go even further this year than they have in the past. Each of them is competing for a chance to row in either the four or eight man boats. Those are the different numbers of seats that can fill each boat, depending on the season and race.
Crew technically has 3 seasons, fall, winter, and spring. Some of you may be thinking, crew can't be a winter sport; they can't race boats in the freezing cold water. It turns out they do compete in the winter, only they do it indoors on rowing machines. The fall season can be categorized as the distance season, since most of the races they compete in during the fall are longer in distance and take more time. It's also known as the Head Season. It is kind of like cross-country in a way, and they usually race 3 miles as well, which is another similarity. The winter season is just a way of keeping up the team's endurance to make sure they don't lose everything they've built up during the Head season. They race on Erg's that simulate everything that a rower does in a boat on water. Then the spring season also known as the Colligate season, has more sprint races that require the rowers to be completely in tune with one another, and no mistakes can be made. Every millisecond counts in a sprint. The sprints are usually 2,000-meter races that are measured out along the river.
The Manhattan College Crew team's season will open up this upcoming weekend in Middletown Connecticut at the "Head of Connecticut" race. The Crew team has been in training for the past month in preparation for this, their first race of the year. They expect it to be the first of many successful races to come. Both the men and women's teams seem to have shaped out quite nicely. The men's squad, led by Captain Rich Kakol, has a total of 20 rowers that have made the team. The women's squad, led by Captain Emily Guedes, seems a little short handed, but they can tough it out with the dozen or so women they have. Despite not having many rowers, the women's team is still looking strong and looking to go even further this year than they have in the past. Each of them is competing for a chance to row in either the four or eight man boats. Those are the different numbers of seats that can fill each boat, depending on the season and race.
Crew technically has 3 seasons, fall, winter, and spring. Some of you may be thinking, crew can't be a winter sport; they can't race boats in the freezing cold water. It turns out they do compete in the winter, only they do it indoors on rowing machines. The fall season can be categorized as the distance season, since most of the races they compete in during the fall are longer in distance and take more time. It's also known as the Head Season. It is kind of like cross-country in a way, and they usually race 3 miles as well, which is another similarity. The winter season is just a way of keeping up the team's endurance to make sure they don't lose everything they've built up during the Head season. They race on Erg's that simulate everything that a rower does in a boat on water. Then the spring season also known as the Colligate season, has more sprint races that require the rowers to be completely in tune with one another, and no mistakes can be made. Every millisecond counts in a sprint. The sprints are usually 2,000-meter races that are measured out along the river.