Princeton University Athletics
Top-Ranked Heavyweight Crew Opens Season With Unfinished Business On Its Mind
March 30, 2006 | Heavyweight Rowing
March 30, 2006
PRINCETON - There are times for coaches to curtail expectations. Times for leaders to reduce potential high-pressure goals that could interfere with a team's overall development.
This is not one of those times for Princeton heavyweight coach Curtis Jordan.
"I worry about that around sophomores," Jordan said. "Pressure is part of the game. They know what they are here to do."
They are the first varsity boat for the top-ranked 2006 Princeton heavyweight crew. They include eight seniors, most of whom were part of last year's Eastern Sprint and IRA silver medalist boat. They also include many of the rowers who swept through the 2003 novice season, including wins at Sprints, IRAs and the Royal Henley.
They are here to win. A lot.
"They're a pretty confident bunch," Jordan said. "They're very serious about what they're doing. They put together a very fast boat last year, but it was frustrating because there was one boat faster."
That one boat was Harvard, but if you think Princeton is looking ahead to an April 15 showdown with the Crimson, you are missing the bigger picture. This team isn't looking for some sort of revenge race. This class wants the big Eastern Sprint title, and then the national championship.
Following the magical 2003 novice campaign, which came under the guidance of current lightweight head coach Greg Hughes, several members of the Class of 2006 jumped into the varsity eight boat immediately and led Princeton to the grand final at both Sprints and the IRAs. That boat moved up to second last year, and there is only one more spot to go.
Led by national team rower Steve Coppola, who helped the U.S. team to a world championship last September in Gifu, Japan, and captain James Egan, a coxswain that Jordan termed, "a quiet guy, but the leader of the crew," Princeton is loaded for a run at a national title. The boat is building on an amazing fall, when the Tigers became the first collegiate crew to win the Head of the Charles since 1983. Princeton rallied to top Cambridge and set itself as a team, if not the team, to beat in 2006. The experience of the top varsity crew has also allowed Jordan to push the team harder in the preseason and raise the overall level of the program.
"It's definitely an impact class because it isn't just one or two guys," Jordan said. "It's 5 to 7 of them whose collective energy drives us. With them, we didn't have to do much low-level training in the preseason. We can use them to bring up the overall quality while we search for the best combination."
That combination begins what promises to be an exciting 2006 season Saturday, and it's a combination that has worked countless hours over four years to make a potential run at greatness this year.
USRowing Collegiate Poll
Team (1st-Place Votes), Points
1. Princeton University (8), 273
2. University of California at Berkeley (3), 266
3. Harvard University (2), 255
4. Stanford University (1), 232
5. University of Washington, 222
6. Brown University, 198
7. Northeastern University, 191
8. United States Naval Academy, 178
9. Yale University, 143
10. Boston University, 138
11. University of Wisconsin, 135
12. Cornell University, 104
13. University of Pennsylvania, 101
14. Trinity College, 100
15. Oregon State University, 91
16. Syracuse University, 86
17. University of Michigan, 79
18. Rutgers University, 35
19. Dartmouth College, 32
20. Columbia University, 30