Coaching
Fastest Boathouse
What it takes to build a successful team
Words: Sholto Carnegie
PHOTOGRAPHY JOEL FURTEK
In this article, Sholto remembers his time studying and rowing at Yale University. He was part of the group of young men who helped Yale heavyweight crew win its first-ever national championships title.
In my early years at Yale, and even before I arrived on campus in late August 2013, the phrase most often repeated to the Yale rowers was, “We’re here to build the fastest boathouse in the country”. It was a mantra established by head coach Steve Gladstone. Gladstone is a legendary coach, arguably one of the most experienced and successful collegiate crew coaches of all time.
Last year Gladstone retired after having coached college crews for more than half a century. In total he won 14 IRA national championships, tying him with all-time lead Charles E. Courtney who coached Cornell from 1883 to 1920. Gladstone’s six IRA victories at Cal, where he had two stints as head coach, ties him with Carroll M. “Ky” Ebright for most victories by a Cal coach. When Gladstone took the top job at Yale in 2010, we had not won Eastern Sprints since 1982 and had only three wins against Harvard in the preceding 25 years. The call to become the fastest boathouse in the country was a bold one.
Looking back nearly ten years on, I am interested to examine what drove the success of the Yale heavyweights and what lessons I learnt along the way.
Nose-to-nose, toes-to-toes
One thing I remember clearly is everyone on the team having a slight edge about them. Whether it was in my case a disappointing Under 23 campaign before arriving or other teammates being sidelined or feeling underappreciated, we all had a high level of belief coupled with a strong point to prove. This edge was clearly something the recruiting coaches looked for. The thinking was that to beat the strong West Coast colleges – something many at the time thought impossible – we would need athletes with strong character.
This edge manifested itself as an infectious level of intent. Intent’s an interesting word: it doesn’t just mean looking mean, turning up every day all serious, scowling like John Wayne. It’s about doing each and every task to the best of one’s abilities and doing it with conviction. This spanned across all aspects of our college lives. Intent to enjoy the incredibly privileged experiences that come with being a Yale undergrad and intent to see how fast we could make our boats go.